I wonder to what extent labelling a dish “Winning dish on Great British Menu” skews the punters to order it? I’m willing to bet that a lot more of them fly out of the kitchen than the other mains or starters they’re sharing the menu with. And chef Aktar Islaam has two “winner on GBM” …
I think perhaps the most satisfying thing a food blogger can do is review a restaurant “before it was famous”. It is for me, anyway. My list of great finds includes: Casamia, Ynyshir and The Black Swan. Particularly Ynyshir, which I got to before any of the major newspaper critics or any other bloggers. In …
I love the arrival of Indian streetfood in the UK. It’s such a breath of fresh air after the decades of meat-in-sauce curry house cooking that was all you could find anywhere unless you went for the handful of fine dining Indians that started to appear in the late 90’s. That said, I found Mowgli …
The Wilderness is an edgy little restaurant occupying a space in Birmingham Open Media, itself an odd little art & media space down a grungy back street behind New Street Station. So: location convenient but not very pretty. It’s a tiny space and you dine on small round cafe tables, which is a bit squashy …
There’s a lot going on in Birmingham. It’s gradually London-ising. Started with a couple of decent coffee shops. Then some better casual dining options and some street food. Next thing you know, they’ll even get some interesting independent shops. Of course it’s not going to match London – 8 million people are always going to …