nickloman

Birmingham will be within 30 minutes of London by 2021! Or if you drive really fast now you can do it in an hour And we have 3 1* restaurants and the balti triangle plus on the doorstep of some great countryside counties - Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire etc.

Depends what's on the menu ... Seriously, most of it changes quite a bit depending on availability and the season. Eccles cake with lancashire cheese always a good bet. Just order what looks nice!

A slightly pointed article from Harden's on the lack of information here: http://www.hardens.com/restaurant-news/uk-...losure-website/ They seem quite upset and I'm not sure why. Having said that, the Fat Duck website is pretty poor and could do with being a bit more informative and less artsy.

It's still a Jamie restaurant though, innit? And it certainly trades that way, you hear people say "I went to Jamie's restaurant" not "I went to Jamie's trainees restaurant". But that to me is an example where the branding/concept/owner talks much more loudly than the food and service on offer, so I steer clear.

Keller's got two branches of Bouchon as well as French Laundry and Per Se which are also "Keller restaurants". I can see where you are coming from, being irritated by celebrity chefs who don't cook. But if I know that the chef is very unlikely to be in the kitchen, and I still have a good time at the restaurant and eat well, my feeling is it doesn't really matter. Anyone that truly believes that Ramsay (or anyone else) who has an empire of restaurants can be running the show in each of them all the time hasn't really thought it through. It seems a bit foolish to reject a restaurant simply because the celeb-chef isn't there if the restaurant is performing. Similarly, it seems foolish to go to a restaurant "because its a Ramsay" if they are turning out crap food. I'm sure there are plenty who just go for the name recognition and don't care that much how good the food is, but I don't think that is a sustainable way of running a restaurant empire over a period of time, and so quality standards must be maintained. Perhaps the flipside to that is Jamie Oliver - he has ample brand recognition, but there's nothing much special about "15", especially for the prices. Will it last?

I feel it doesn't really matter whether Ramsay (or Robuchon or Keller etc.) is there or not, but whether the food and experience is good or not. For example, Royal Hospital Road is still turning out great food without Ramsay being there most of the time. The problem comes when people expect the food to be good _just because_ it has a celebrity chef behind it. Each restaurant should be appraised individually and you should not expect that because it is Ramsay that a) he will be there and b) everything will be great. We had a really lousy meal at "Ramsay's" Connaught when it was under Angela Hartnett. Clearly blaming Hartnett is more reasonable than blaming Ramsay in that case, and we didn't go back.

Thomasina Myers apparently has her own restaurant. Although presumably she has major backers and is a minority stakeholder. It is called Wahaca and was featured during one of this years heats. From what I saw on the telly, there didn't seem to be any compelling reason to go there - looked like pretty standard Tex-Mex to me (I realise the intention is that it should be rustic/authentic Mexican food).

What's with the plural, terroirS - that just sounds wrong.

I've been meaning to try this place for ages, have heard good things.

You mean like Piccolino's or Cielo's in Brindleyplace? I prefer the former, although I had a very tasty dish of crab linguine at the latter recently. It is a bit of a haunt for the Gucci-wearing plastic-face footballers wives set though and I didn't really like the ambience.

I went at Christmas time and it was dismal, utterly woeful.

I would second Opus for quality (just opposite Purnell's) although you will pay more than £15 a head. Turners which just got its star has a very reasonably priced lunch menu (http://www.turnersofharborne.com/lunch%20menu.htm) but you will want to book in advance. I recommend visiting the museum of the Jewellery Quarter and going on one of their tours. It is free and highly recommended.

They do a 7 course tasting menu at Purnells: http://www.purnellsrestaurant.com/menus.php - I've not had it, ordered A la Carte the last few times I went. For me the standout dishes are the poached egg yolk and smoked haddock milk foam with cornflakes, and the brill cooked in coconut milk. I do really like and respect what Glyn is doing, but I have to say I don't have huge urges to go to Purnells when considering dining options. My interest is more academic than gustatory. Would like to try Allium soon.

Or in the words of Telly Savalas, "multi-carriage way motorways"

Haha, yeah, Birmingham - it's not shit

Bumping this thread as we have the distinct privilege of _THREE_ Michelin star restaurants in Birmingham now: Simpsons, Purnells and Turners. And as I am no more than 10 minutes drive from them all, I couldn't be happier. If you add Opus and Lasan to the mix, my feeling is that Birmingham is a great place for foodies to live right now! Of course its nothing on London, but probably a good deal better than Manchester, Liverpool or Bristol. With the advantage that getting tables is like falling off a log. I've got a big birthday coming up, so have booked into Simpsons for a second go at their tasting menu. The twist here is that they are offering a Chefs' Table in their Cooking School - with all of the dishes prepared in front of you! So that should be quite interesting.

Don't know this area very well, but no trip to Yorkshire is complete without a trip to Betty's tea rooms for afternoon tea: http://www.bettys.co.uk/ - I usually go to the Harrogate one, but there is one in York.

Yeah, that's what I thought.. Bromsgrove doesn't seem like an obvious culinary mecca - the place that gets a good write-up in the 2008 michelin is "Epic Brasserie" - but I cannot find an official website for it, perhaps it has closed?

High-end suggestions: Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham (nr. Tewksbury) - 2* needs booking in advance but well worth it. http://www.lechampignonsauvage.co.uk/ Once up into Bromsgrove area, you could access central Birmingham by canal in which case: Purnell's (City Centre) - 1* also needs booking, experience Glyn's "brummy fusion" cooking. http://www.purnellsrestaurant.com/ Simpsons (Edgbaston) - 1* great high-end food http://www.simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk/ For the more middle-range stuff I have to say I've not had a lot of success with restaurants or pubs for eating around that area. In Birmingham I would highly recommend Lasans for a more refined curry experience (www.lasan.co.uk) than you will get at our famous Balti Triangle! This is located in the Jewellery Quarter so you can also check out the world-famous museum of the jewellery quarter at the same time! The best gastropub I've found is probably the Talbot Pub in Knightwick, which is down the road from Worcester towards Leominster. Leominster is great if you like antiques. http://www.the-talbot.co.uk/ Also recomended is the Fleece Inn near Evesham, a lovely historic pub, centre of the asaparagus festival celebrations (I think you will be a little early for this). http://thefleeceinn.co.uk/index.html There are a couple of entries in the Michelin guide for Bromsgrove but have not had the pleasure. Slightly out of left field, but for my money the best fish and chips in the Black Country are found at the Black Country Living Museum, served between 12 and 2.30 - cooked authentic way in dripping, with the added bonus that you have the museum to walk around at the same time, which is a really great day out. http://www.bclm.co.uk/ Hope that helps. Would be interested to hear what gems other eGulleteers have found?

I didn't think Fergus Henderson (of St. John fame) was into the whole celeb-chef thing, but he's presenting a programme which looks to be about extreme eating this Wednesday on C4, co-presented with Jeremy Lee. Some more details here: http://www.channel4.com/food/on-tv/could-y...-01-12_p_1.html http://www.orange.co.uk/entertainment/tele...v2ndrow2ndstory Should be worth a go!

I'm sure it won't bother Tom Aikens at all but I will be boycotting all his restaurants as a result of this kind of behaviour. I would hope suppliers also boycott him as a result of this kind of practice.

Glyn Purnell from Purnell's in Birmingham will be looking to get a star, I would think. He previously held one at Jessica's...

With the discussion of Vatel in the other thread, I thought it might be fun to try and devise a list of food-based films to get on DVD to watch this Christmas. I'll kick off with my favourite - Big Night, a story of an Italian restaurant run by Primo and Secondo (Tony Shalhoub and Stanley Tucci) who fight over issues of love and life when getting ready for a celebrity night at their restaurant. There is Vatel - which I haven't seen yet. La Grand Bouffe, about a group of friends to eat themselves to death must be worth watching. What else? There's a long list here. Anyone of the food ones worth seeing - I don't really count Goodfellas even though it has a great pasta sauce stirring scene! Nick.

Really enjoyed this show, some great peeks into French kitchens. It alerted me to the existence of Vatel but that doesn't seem to be scheduled for a repeat on BBC4 in the near future... and Amazon want £20 for it.

Hmm, well I'm glad you enjoyed your visits there, and as I said in my review, perhaps I went on the wrong day. However, I'd be wary of equating how busy a restaurant is with how good it is - otherwise we'd all be down Oxford Circus McDonalds right now, wouldn't we?