The Guardian
Grace Dent warmed to a “weird, bold, silly restaurant”, where high-profile Brummie chef Glyn Purnell has “miraculously” managed to translate Michelin-style cooking for what she called a “semi-rowdier yet still upmarket stage”: “there’s a general feeling of people – gasp! – actually enjoying life.”
The venue is a noisy, “brand new, glass-fronted, multicoloured mock birdcage”, with service that is jolly, prompt, informal and “hugely welcoming”, while the food is “relentlessly spot on, as well as indulgent, imaginative and bizarrely generous in portion size”.
Highlights included ‘beef carpaccio with Oxo cube’; a “voluptuous beast” of an ‘XXL gougère’, filled with Montgomery cheddar and topped with inch-thick gruyère garnish and a dusting of paprika; and a chunk of perfectly cooked Cornish skate with butter beans and a rich espelette sauce “that I’ve since thought about many, many times”.
Grace Dent - 2026-03-08
