Address: 20 Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 3DU.

Telephone: Tel: 0121 454 3434

Website: http://www.simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk/

Date of visit: 7 December 2011

Costs: £50plus per head for a la carte. Tasting menu £85, paired with wine, another £50. Another 12.5% service on top.

Wines and beer: Serious wine list, some pretty decent wines at a reasonable mark up. There are a few wines under £100, mainly whites. Best value red wine was a 2005 Pommard at £75.

Likes and dislikes: Good cooking. Excellent service. Very pricy when compared with peers in the same city e.g. Turners of Harbourne and Edmunds. Limited parking – beware of people abandoning their cars in the car park. I had to do a 20 point turn to get out of the car park.

Cuisine: Haut Cuisine

Summary:

I went with my daughter J for our Xmas extravaganza – she lives in Mousley. We have been to Turners (15 Dec 2010) and Edmunds (14 July 2011) in the previous outings.

Simpsons is housed in a large white “colonial building”. On the day we went, there was a function there and it was noisy and busy. Whilst I was parking, one couple just drove up to the front door and abandoned their BMW in a non space. This place obviously attracts the Birmingham (I am important) crowd. This is also probably the most upmarket restaurant in Birmingham. Most customers were either businessmen/women, old man with young woman or over weight couples.

The place was awash with servers and they  refold your napkin when you disappear to the washroom. My sister’s two requirements of high end restaurants – besides the food – are that they refold the napkin every time you leave the table and the food comes covered in a dome which they lift at the table. They don’t do domes at Simpsons.

The inside was bigger than I thought. There were 3 dining rooms and a function room. When full, they would probably serve over 100 covers. The place was nearly full on the night we went and although officially it is last orders at 9pm, at least 20 diners turn up after 9.30 and a couple turned up at 10.30 just as we were calling for the bill.

We were given a table in the L shaped sun lounge that ran round the building. It was narrow and housed 3 tables for 2 on each leg of the L.

We went for the tasting menu paired with wines (7 glasses). As each course and wine came to the table, it was explained. However the French Sommelier spoke limited English. Whilst he explained every wine, he could not understand some of my questions.

A wonerful basket of warm bread soon arrived with several types but when this was emptied, they did not offer more bread. Like all Haute Cuisine, there was very little carbohydrates served with the meal except desserts.

Over all, there were some great dishes but also some hits and misses. Here is a summary:

1. Amuse broche – game soup with pearl barley. Very intense like a heavily reduced sauce.
2. Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Parfait – this came with a sweet and sour beetroot salad – golden and purple – and sour dough toasts. J remarked that it was like foir gras butter as it was very buttery. This was paired with a gewürztraminer and worked extremely well.
3. Crispy dick egg with globe artichoke and kale. This was sensational and was easily the best dish of the evening. The richness of the liquid egg yolk mingled well with the heavily reduced sauce. This was offset by the crisp external bread crumbs and kale. A master piece of taste, texture and technique. This was served with a New Zealand Pinot Gris.
4. Scallop Raviolli with boc choi – another great dish. The lemon grass and ginger gave it an exortic oriental taste like a Vietnamese soup. This was paired with an Italian verrdicchio.
5. Seabass in a cep cream. This was an disappointment. The sebass was over cooked and was a solid piece of flesh. The wine that was paired with it was a dry Riesling from Nahr – very sharp.
6. Venison loin with broccoli, blue berries in a juniper sauce. This was cooked sous vide and finished on the grill. They had very cleverly put some crisp bread crumbs on the outside to give it a different texture. The green sauce was mashed broccoli infused with juniper. This was another top dish. Unfortunately this was paired with a 2009 St Joseph which was still tannic. One should not be drinking Rhone Reds young.
7. A slice of very rich cheese. This was a sort of camembert with a layer of truffles. When it first came, I thought that it was morbier. This was paired with a small salad. Truffles are wasted on me. After my $300 plate at Del Postal (15 October 2010) and this, I am still not sure what truffles taste like. I can smell it!
8. A pre dessert of banana fool served in a glass with shortbread crumbs. This was served with a slightly sparkling wine that taste of apples. I couldn’t work out what the wine was.
9. The dessert was a carrot cake with ice cream. This was served with a South Afican Vin de Constance. The carrot cake was wonderful and tatsed of tarte tatin.
10. Petit Fours of various chocolates

I was full to the brim near the end.

Although the wine list was expensive with most wine available at several hundreds of pounds. This was actually decent value as when I was wandering around Selfridges in the Bullring, I noticed that they have a bottle of 2004 Lafite Rothschild for sale at £1200. 2004 was a rubbish year.

Overall, when compared with Turners and Edmunds, this was expensive – only one  freebie amuse broche and no sorbet to clean the palate in between courses. With water, the bill for 2 came in at £300 plus for 2. I haven’t paid a bill like this sine The Fat Duck.

 

E

 

 

 

Address: 6 Brindley Place, Birmingham B1 2JB

 

Telephone number: 0121 633 4944

 

Website: http://www.edmundsrestaurant.co.uk/

 

Date of visit: 13 July 2011

 

Approximate cost per head: Set lunch and pre-theatre £18 for 2 courses or £20 for 3 courses; a la caret £30.50  for 2 courses or £42.50 for 3 courses; Tasting menu £63.95, another £25 for pairing wines – 4 glasses.

 

Comments on wine list/beer: Simple but decent wine list at around  400% mark-up.

 

Cuisine: haut cuisine – French technique using British seasonal ingredients

 

Likes and dislikes: pretty good food. However as they are strong on plate décor, some of the meat dishes can be a bit dry through a lack of “enough” sauces

 

Summary:

 

Last week I received an email from Edmunds saying that their chef de partie has recently won the young chef of the year award at a local competition.

 

http://edmundsrestaurant.cmail2.com/t/ViewEmail/r/032AE2EE8BE80C2B/BB6F17E0BCAA064B2018F019E6F15D33

 

As my daughter lives in Birmingham, I thought that we could have dinner there.

 

Edmunds is one of those restaurants that doesn’t answer phones so if you want any last minute changes, you have had it.

 

We left a message for a booking and they rang us back to confirm that everything is in order.

 

Edmunds is based in Bindley Square – off Broad Street. Bindley Sq is full of modern buildings and restaurants – no retail shops.

 

The restaurant is modern, plenty of light and has cover for about 40.

 

When we got there at 7, we were the first to arrive. However, the place was fully booked – Wednesday night! – and by 9pm, every table was taken.

 

We went  for the a la carte and ordered, tian of crab and crayfish , rabbit ravioli and salad of quail. The tian of crab and rabbit ravioli were both described at really good.

 

My quail salad was a bit strange as the plate had on it a small dollop of celeriac puree, breast and leg of quail, poached quail egg and two stocks of parsley – not a single other vegetable or salad leaf in sight. When I queries about the salad, I was informed that the dish was dressed like a salad and it wasn’t a real salad. Blow me, increasingly, restaurants uses terms just to improve the description of the dish e.g triple cooked (chips) when it is not, Carpaccio, when the ingredients wasn’t raw etc. Well, the quail was fine – on its own.

 

Before the starter, we were served perfectly round wholemeal rolls (warm) and a freebie soup of potato leek soup with truffle oil.

 

For main courses, we had the pork and the pan fried cod. The pork was pork served 4 ways, loin wrapped in prosciutto, cheek encrusted in a ball of thin fries, the belly roast etc. It all went down like a treat. The cod – substantial piece- was served in a soup bowl with a purple pink liquid – some form of fish stock enriched with red wine and cream. On top of the fish were prawns and slices of squid. All main courses were served with a decent portion of vegetables – beans, potato and carrot – on the side. All perfectly cooked.

 

For afters, I had the cheese whilst A settled for passion fruit cheese cake. J had the cappuccino and petit fours.

 

The cheese (£3.50 supplement) was about 7 small bits of mainly British cheese with French and Italian also being represented. They were all artisan cheeses.

 

The bill including a bottle of arbarino (£39) came to just over £180 for 3 including service.

 

Overall, I was impressed – service, food decor; the place is on the verge of a Michelin star. The set lunch and pre-theatre at £18 is really good value.

 

E

 

 

 

Location: Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire, RG4 6TN

Web site: www.thefrenchhorn.co.uk

Telephone number: 01189692204

Date of visit: 14 October 2009

Approx. cost per head: £50

Comments on wine list/beer: Very extensive and expensive wine list. Expect to pay around £100 for a decent bottle.
Review:

This is one of the great restaurants in the UK. Thats my view (and also Michael Winner’s). It has everything, decent food, great views, excellent service and a top wine list.

What’s the downside? Its on the expensive side and they can’t do “crispy” chips. However, there is no extras in gratuity and side orders

 The cooking can only be described as “old school” grill room style haute cuisine. Most guides describe this place as English or French. Its a bit of both.

I have been coming here for over 20 years and amazingly, the menu stays about the same – except the price.

The top two dishes on the a la carte menu for many “old timers” are grilled (or pan fried) dover sole and roast duck – done over a spit in the bar and finished off in the oven. By the way, they serve vegetables as part of the course so there is no side orders. The duck is considered by many foreign visitors (my guests) as the best they have ever eaten. Everything is on the generous side so starve yourself before you go.

For starters, you can have foie gras, smoke salmon, asparagus, crab salad, soup de jour etc.

My usual starter is asparagus followed by the grilled dover sole but for a change, I tried the seafood ravioli (starter) on the winter menu – it was more like a lasagne, very cheesy and rich.
They also have an evening menu (£25+) and a lunch menu (£15+).On Sundays and bank holidays, its a set lunch (3 courses) at £45.

The place is frequented by regulars with a few visiting business men/women. Service is included in the price  so, you can go for that bottle of wine and not pay another 12.5% handling charge.

Car park is across the road from the hotel. However, take a taxi, get a non drinker to drive or stay overnight in the hotel.

Eddie@bottlesandcooks.com