Fumo, Waterloo Street

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Thanks to a diary mix-up and a tight deadline, we found ourselves lunching at Fumo after a period of abstinence.

And we have to say that it felt pretty good stepping back in. We’d forgotten how buzzy and boujie the bar is and just how much we love a decent cocktail.

Foodwise, the cicchetti style menu has always been right up our strada. DIshes arrive in a procession as and when they’re ready which feels civilised and, crucially, they are hot and fresh from the kitchen. There’s no hanging about.

BIG FLAVOUR

Prawns with leccino olives, tomato and Pernod was a punchy little dish with a big aniseed flavour. We like aniseed. If you don’t, this isn’t the dish for you. A selection of bread was strong served with a tasty tangy tapenade. Sicilian arancini with a beef ragu middle could have been better, though – the ragu was a bit thin on the ground which meant the balls were dry.
Gnocchi gorgonzola on the other hand was cheesy, salty, oozy, rich as you like and we could have devoured a second plate. There were almost fisticuffs over the last mouthful. Mafaldine con ragu di manzo – wavy pasta with a slow cooked beef ragu – was rich, unctuous, packed with flavour and felt like top notch comfort food.

RIGHT GIGGLE

With no room for dessert, we strolled out into the sunshine feeling sated and a bit daft we hadn’t been back for so long. We had a right giggle. It’s a fun, glamorous place full of people having a great time. When visit again though, in Joey Tribbiani-style, we’re not sharing our gnocchi gorgonzola. It’s all ours.

Fumo, Waterloo Street

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We’ve inadvertently visited two restaurants specialising in sharing plates this month, albeit very different. While Plates by Purnell’s is rustic and relaxed, Fumo is more fancy with lots of marble, gold accents and statement lighting.

Part of the San Carlo group of restaurants, Fumo isn’t new on the scene, but it’s been a while since we visited. Also, our options were limited as finding a restaurant open on a Monday in Brum is like trying to bag tickets for the Eras tour. If you’re celebrating any occasion on a Monday, godspeed. A sign of the tough times hospitality and indeed diners find themselves in.
Cicchetti – Italian medium plates rather than small – is the name of the game at Fumo and the menu is massive. We quaffed Champagne while we got to grips with it which helped immeasurably. One thing to note is the dishes aren’t much smaller than your average main course. The restaurant suggests five or six dishes between two people which turned out to be a lot of food.

SLOW COOKED

Also worth noting, we chose a handful of the heavier dishes on the menu such as magnificent gnocchi with gorgonzola, rich tasty lasagne and a melt in mouth slow cooked short rib of beef. They were great, but there are plenty of lighter plates too. The beetroot carpaccio was superb, served with goat’s cheese and topped with herby crunchy breadcrumbs. Nicely cooked halibut with samphire, tomato and chilli was knock out and the pollo Milanese was perfect with a squeeze of lemon.
The staff were fantastic and without prompting, clocked it was a celebration and brought out a plate of desserts with a candle and a birthday message penned in white chocolate. A nice touch. Having ended up at Fumo partly by default, it turned into one of those memorable lunches that drifts into late afternoon limoncello territory leaving us with happy hearts and full stomachs. What else do you need?

Adam’s, Waterloo Street

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A joint birthday celebration called for the Adam’s treatment – our first trip since head chef James Goodyear joined the band.

If you don’t like fancy, it’s probably not for you. If you do like fancy, stick around. From start to finish – and we finished so late we probably outstayed our welcome – we were charmed. Credit to the staff who were still happy (on the outside at least) as we quaffed another Calvados. On the inside they were no doubt planning dinner service and hoping this was the last.

We hate the term fine dining – it sounds pompous, and Adam’s is not pompous. It’s classy, inventive, warm, special. Once inside and beyond the bar area, it doesn’t feel like Brum. You could be anywhere. To be clear, we obviously love Birmingham but there’s something a bit magical about Adam’s décor that’s transformative. That sounds knobby, but we’re not sorry.

We’ve sampled enough tasting menus to know that we prefer ordering our own food, so one of us ate from the set lunch menu and one from a la carte. We criticised one of the nibbles last time we visited, but not this time. The preamble to lunch was a hit. The signature beetroot and goat’s cheese macarons are a regular for a reason. They hit you with flavour then dissolve on your tongue like magic. There was a wondrous ox tongue nibble that was too good to start analysing plus a mussel with a punchy pickled cucumber sauce that was truly delicious.

From here on in with a slug of Burgundy in our brains, we probably should have been making notes, but we were having too much fun, so we’re picking our stand-out dishes among a collection of gorgeousness. Number one and it doesn’t sound stand out, but trust us, was lightly salted cod with mushroom, artichoke ad dashi broth. This was packed with flavour and we could have slurped the dashi broth on its own – sharp, salty, sweet all at the same time, I guess that’s balance, something you can’t put your finger on. Just sheer enjoyment.

Next was goosnargh duck breast and liver with granola, beetroot and blackberry. Again, this was about balance, rich tender meat, sweet granola, sharp blackberries. Really clever. There was an incredible chicken dish plus a leek parcel with black truffle, hazelnut and custard that blew our socks off. The cheese board was immense and pudd was a triumph. Our only gripe and we’ve said it before, we urge restaurants to pick a new name for whipped pork fat. Can’t touch the stuff. It’s like calling butter churned bovine breast milk or similar.

The wine list is quite punchy price-wise, but we found a very good Rully premier cru at the more sensible end of the list and we can wholeheartedly recommend the Calvados. Go.

Sabai Sabai, Waterloo Street

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The fourth restaurant from the gorgeous Sabai Sabai pairing Torquil and Juree opened just before Christmas.

Until then, their Harborne eatery had been our go-to for a frequent fix of Thai food. The city centre restaurant is even more convenient which is both brilliant and bad. We’re thinking waistline people.

While Harborne is sprawling and open, Waterloo Street is more intimate with cosy corners to get settled in. There’s a cracking bar area too, which despite it being early days is already buzzing on a weekend.

The lunch menu which has been cleverly created is a tapas or Thai-pas (sorry!) inspired affair with five menu options each priced at £13.95 – the idea being you can try multiple dishes all served at the same time fitting neatly into your lunch hour. It works too. We were easily in and out in under 60 minutes feeling like we’d enjoyed a proper break from the office.

The Chiang Mai menu consisted of punchy, peppery chicken wings, a refreshing crispy duck salad and a lip-smackingly fiery green chicken curry. A Fever Tree elderflower tonic was an ideal match. A dedicated gin menu appealed, but midday was too early even for us.

The Krabi menu included our beloved favourite beef massaman which didn’t disappoint along with sweet sticky spare ribs and crisp, flavour-packed vegetable spring rolls. An Eastern Breeze mocktail with basil looked a treat and tasted great.

It sounds like a lot of food, but we found the portions just right and for two people who are always banging on about a loathing of oversized platefuls that’s saying something. The vegetarian menu, Lopburi looked great too although we didn’t sample it.

By 12.30pm the restaurant was pretty busy with corporate types shunning a soggy sandwich in favour of delicious, quick, warming food. The manager from Harborne has moved to Waterloo Street so he’s on board with the Sabai Sabai ethos and the whole team was enthusiastic and knowledgeable. We wanted to love it and we did.