London food critic tries a posh Birmingham restaurant - but leaves fishy review

Birmingham has won heaps of praise in recent years for its exciting, dynamic food scene - winning awards right, left and centre.

Five of the city’s fine dining restaurants have got Michelin stars - with a host of other venues being featured in the Michelin Guide. But one dining spot which is run by one of our esteemed Michelin chefs left a London food critic less than impressed when she visited town recently.

Grace Dent, who writes for The Guardian, was inspired by the lively nightlife in the city centre when she arrived on a Saturday evening, remarking: “The area around Birmingham New Street on Saturday night gave me a taste of how weekend nightlife in Britain used to be, before the heart fell out of so many of our towns and cities.”

She even gave a special mention to The Botanist and Revolucion de Cuba. But the award-winning author of Diary of a Chav and Diary of a Snob wasn’t in town to try out the latest cocktails.

Instead she was here to review The Oyster Club - the stylish seafood spot a bit further up on Temple Street (round the corner from The Ivy). The bijou venue is featured in the Michelin Guide - it is run by renowned chef Adam Stokes whose other Birmingham food spot, Adam’s on Waterloo street has a Michelin star.

The Michelin Guide recommends The Oyster Club for offering “a good variety of top quality fish and shellfish” along with praising: “The room is bright and elegant, with marble-topped tables, counter seating and a plush feel.” It’s been praised on Tripadvisor too, winning a 4.5 rating, with reviewers admiring the “exquisite oyster selections” and “fish and chips with vinegar powder”.

But Ms Dent wasn’t so impressed with the “special-occasion place”. Noise from a set of “considerably richer than yous” who were dining at the same time didn’t help - apparently their bragging about their financial success was so loud she wrote it “blew the sorrel off my rhubarb-dressed oysters”.

But the noisy atmosphere had nothing to do with her disappointment at her fritto misto dish - which was too small for her liking. She wrote: “... fritto misto should in theory be the ultimate guilty treat – a chance to pile into a heaving plate of glorious fresh fish, calamari, courgette and so on in a delicate batter and served with dipping mayo.

“This fritto misto, however, came on a small side plate that held one king prawn, one piece of unidentified white fish, a cremated langoustine and something CSI Snow Hill might have identified as whitebait; the largest thing on the plate was the chunk of lemon.”

Small portion sizes continued to disappoint with a second dish. While praise was given to other dishes including an omelette Arnold Bennett and the dish of the day, which was “a hulking great brill”, and a lemon tart dessert, described as “wonderful”.

But the service was also criticised, with Ms Dent remarking: “We sat for ages without drinks – not even water – because the bartenders seemed far too busy making banana old fashioneds and espresso martinis to notice us poor old diners.”

However it may not just be The Oyster Club in particular that Ms Dent is not so keen on - but inland fish restaurants in general, as she says the best fish is best eaten next to water, which appears to be a fair point.

Although landlocked Birmingham is home to one of the UK’s largest fish markets down at the Bull Ring - and there are some of the most delicious, fresh catches to try down there.