I have very fond childhood memories of, on occasion, being taken by my Mum into Birmingham city centre to meet my Dad from work. I don't know how often this actually used to happen, but one of the main things I remember is that we would sometimes go out for dinner after meeting Dad and usually end up at a restaurant called the "Berni Inn". This was roughly equivalent of a Toby Carvery-type restaurant that exists now and, as a small child I thought it was absolutely amazing and made the best food ever!
As I grew up and became more aware of food and the food-scene, much to my dismay I learned that the Berni Inn was pretty rubbish and that Birmingham had always had a reputation for being somewhat of a culinary blackspot. As a proud Brummie, this really bothered me and I always hoped that Birmingham would at some point be able to improve its reputation for food.
To my delight, over the past 10 years or so, Birmingham has made such amazing strides forward in the culinary world that it was listed in the top 20 places to visit in 2012 by the New York Times, largely due to its burgeoning gastronomic credentials. At the forefront of this revival has been chef and all round nice-guy Glyn Purnell.
Glyn secured Birmingam's first ever Michelin star at Jessica's in 2005, left in 2007 to set up Purnell's and was able to secure another star here in 2009.
Anyway, in the months leading up to mine and Diana's 3rd wedding anniversary, we were talking about what we would like to do and we thought it would be fantastic to see if we could get a booking at Purnell's on the weekend of our anniversary. I have eaten at Birmingham's other Michelin starred restaurants (Simpson's and Turner's) on other occasions, but neither of us had eaten at Purnell's and we both thought that going together for an anniversary meal would be a lovely way to break the duck. So on Friday 22nd March, we plodded on down to Purnell's to see if the restaurant was worthy of its lofty local reputation.
Our evening started with a lovely snowy (yes snowy!) walk through the back streets of Birmingham, upon arrival, we decided to sit down first and have a drink, so we opted for two strawberry based, non-alcoholic cocktails:
It was fascinating to watch them being made; if you only saw the finished product, it would be impossible to understand the amount of crushing, measuring and mixing that went on to produce it! As we were enjoying our cocktails, we perused the menu and both decided that it would be a travesty if we settled for anything less than the taster menu which is called The Purnell's Tour.
The menu was as follows:
Bread :
It may sound ridiculous to blog about a piece of bread, but this was bread like no other. It was warm and so so soft and was perfect with the freshly churned butter and rock salt. It was really difficult to not fill up on this before our first proper course arrived!
Dish 1 - Warm potato soup - types of onions - crispy barley - creme fraiche:
This was a really velvety potato soup with really lovely pieces of confit potato at the bottom. My favourite thing about the dish was the crispy barley, which packed a real punch in terms of flavour as well as being a lovely texture to counteract the soup.
Dish 2 - Emotions of cheese & pineapple on sticks "Soixante-dix":
This dish consisted of a parmesan-choux pastry ball filled with a cheesy filling and a cheese and pineapple cube. The flavour of the cheese was excellent and the slight hint of pineapple provided a nice counterpoint to the cheesy-ness.
Dish 3 - Haddock and eggs - cornflakes - curry oil:
This is where the gastronomy really kicked in! The egg yolk was very gently poached and was surrounded with a haddock foam. It sat on top of pieces of haddock, crispy pieces, which were apparently cornflakes and had a drizzle of very subtle curry oil. To go along with it was a smoked haddock croquette. The egg yolk was superb and worked really well with the very tender pieces of haddock. The croquette was also really nicely flavoured and was lovely to dip into the egg yolk.
Dish 4 - "Remoulade" 2012
Unfortunately I don't have a picture the all of the elements of this dish, but it came in three parts. Firstly there was a cube of hot, seasoned celeriac, secondly was a liquidised celeriac with a solid ghee "crust" around the outside and then finally a apple and celery "pop". All of these were designed to cleanse the palate in preparation for the main dishes........
Dish 5 - Carpaccio of beef - red wine octopus - home corned beef - salt beef - sour cream - sweet & sour onions
Up to this point, I was really enjoying the menu, but was starting to wonder when the big guns would come out. As soon as I saw this dish, I knew it was a serious one! The three kinds of beef were equisite and had so much beef flavour. My favourite was the carpacio, which was melt in the mouth tender and so tasty. The real surprise of this dish was the octopus; it was a really dense texture, but was intensely flavoured and tender. Another favourite element of ours on the plate was the sweet and sour onions which was accompanied by an onion marmalade of sorts. The most remarkable thing about this dish was the layers of texture and taste; the flavours were still developing in our mouths after we had finished eating it. This was a serious contender for the dish of the night!
Dish 6 - Roast hand dived scallops - Devonshire crab mayonnaise - pickled cucumber and apple - paprika honeycomb
I am a huge seafood fan, so I had been looking forward to this dish all evening. This was another gastronomic heavyweight of the evening. The scallops and crab were immense and again, the contrast against the pickled cucumber set the dish alive. My only complaint is that it could have done with more pickled cucumber.
Dish 7 -
Monkfish Masala - Indian red lentils - pickled carrots - coconut - coriander
This was the dish that Glyn Purnell won with on "Great British Menu" and so we were expecting this to be a real good one. It was also the dish that Jay Rayner (food critic of the Guardian) raved about in his review of Purnell's. Where to start??? The carrots were to die for, as crazy as it sounds, they were amazing, like no carrot you have ever tasted. The lentils were seasoned to perfection and at no point did it feel over spiced. The monkfish was soft, meaty and again seasoned to perfection. The icing on the cake was the coconut, which worked well to pull all of the elements together.
Dish 8 - Roast rump of Wiltshire downlands lamb - emulsion of English greens puree - capers - yoghurt - lettuce
I am a real fan of lamb, but rarely have it, so I was really looking forward to this one. Diana on the other hand, is less of a carnivore and so I was interested to see how she reacted to it. The lamb was beautifully pink and tender and was sat on a combo of capers and mushrooms in a sauce, which was the perfect accompaniment . The seemingly random addition of iceberg lettuce was also a masterstroke and brought an interesting extra texture to the plate.
Dish 9 - Mint Choccy Chip
We were both hotly anticipating this dish throughout the meal and we were not disappointed. This was also the one really spectacular dish in terms of quirky presentation It started with the waiter pouring liquid nitrogen into a bowl filled with mint smelling liquid and mint leaves. This produced liquid nitrogen vapour which crept over the table spreading a minty smell.
The inside of the dish was a was a thick warm chocolate sauce with a cold mint ice cream in the middle. In addition, there were crumbly chocolate pieces on the top and bottom. The combination of flavours, textures and difference between hot and cold was amazing and took the dish to another level. This was a definite favourite of the night.
Dish 10 - Burnt English custard egg surprise – rhubarb and ginger
The final dish of the night was based around an egg shell filled with beautifully rich custard. The other elements of the dish were rhubarb, granola and a ginger sorbet. The egg custard was delicious and was extremely rich. The rhubarb and ginger were light and refreshing and at this point in the meal, a welcome palate cleanser. While it was not our favourite dish of the evening, we certainly appreciated the lightness when we were both getting really full!
As the evening drew to a close, we had no doubt that we had been treated to something really special. While the individual dishes were spectacular, it was the coherence of the entire menu that was amazing. It felt like we had been treated to to very carefully crafted culinary crescendo that had got better and better throughout the night.
Another really pleasing element of the evening was the quality and friendliness of the service. I have eaten in restaurants where the service was as good as Purnell's, but the staff made you feel like an unwelcome presence in the restaurant. I have also eaten in restaurants where the staff were friendly, but the service rubbish. Purnell's managed to combine both elements perfectly. We felt welcome throughout and the staff were falling over themselves to help us.
So, has Birmingham moved forward in culinary terms since the dark days of the 1980s? Having eaten at all three Michelin starred restaurants that the city has to offer, I can now emphatically say a massive yes! Is Purnell's the best of the three? In terms of offering the complete package, I would say that you will struggle to find better in the city than what is on offer here.
