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Last night I went along to The Stable, John Bright Street, in Birmingham as I’d been invited to try their spring/summer menu.  The Stable, the pizza, pie and cider group, now has 17 locations across the UK and the Birmingham one is in a great location in the heart of the city. There’s plenty of seating (bench style so you may have to share your table), both inside and out and on a summer’s evening there’s a lovely relaxed vibe.

We started out with a cider tasting board with 5 ciders. The Birmingham cider master came over to talk us through the selections and it was great to learn more about what we were tasting from someone who was clearly an expert and an enthusiast. I found the Lilley’s Mango and the Green Valley Strawby a bit sweet and fruity for my taste.  My preference was for the drier, still Andsome Bay, followed by the Sheppy’s.  Thankfully,  my drinking (and eating) companion had a sweeter tooth than me, so it all worked well.

We took the edge off our hunger with some Stix & Dips.  The bread was very yummy and moreish. I was very taken with the butternut blitz dip and made short work of that – it was smoothy and had a lovely squashy flavour.  My friend seemed to prefer the mushroom & olive tapenade, but the beetroot hummus was tasty too.  All in all a big hit and I’ll certainly be ordering Stix & Dips again.

For starters we had The Dorset Spread and Sladesdown Duck.  The Dorset Spread wasn’t our favourite dish of the night as the pickled cucumber seemed just too harsh and vinegary.  I really loved the Sladesdown Duck and regretted not ordering the main course version instead of a pizza because it was so very good.  The blood orange and the pomegranate were the perfect combination with the duck and this dish was the star of the evening’s food for me.

I’ve been continuing my quest to try out more small, independent restaurants and cafes around Birmingham (or anywhere else I happen to be visiting).  The other week I went to the Old Dresser in Bearwood after reading lots of rave reviews.  The Old Dresser is a blend of a restaurant and a cafe I would say as its opening hours are usually 12 noon-10pm (but check to be sure) and it starts the day by serving breakfasts, drinks, etc.  and then later in the day it is more of a restaurant serving full meals.

The Old Dresser has a slightly off the beaten track location a fair way down the Bearwood Road.  From the outside it has a traditional terraced frontage and looks very traditional.  As you can see inside it has a more electic look, but I love the traditional tea ware which is a collection of different pieces and styles.  I arrived as it opened and waited a little while for a friend.  I was made to feel very welcome and was comfortable waiting in there on my own.  Before too long though quite a few other customers joined us, most of whom seemed to have come along for lunch.

That’s exactly what we did too.  I opted for the Big Bear’s Breakfast without the baked beans and with the soda bread.  The sausage wasn’t what I was used to – I think because it was pork and chicken, rather than just pork – they were very tasty though. The Scottish Black Pudding was more like haggis than the English Black Pudding that I am used to, but I do enjoy haggis so that was good for me.  As you can see the food is beautifully presented and the ingredients are of a good quality.  I’d certainly be tempted by the breakfast on a return visit, but there are a lot of other dishes I’d like to explore.

My companion had the ODC hash (ODC stands for Old Dresser Cafe).  She loved it and it was perfect in size for her as she was planning another meal out that evening and didn’t want to overdo things. The hash is a mixture of hash browns, tomatoes, onion, mushrooms and sausage with an egg cooked to her specification and the homemade soda bread that I had too.

The owners are friendly and helpful, so ask for recommendations like we did.  We also had some gardening advice thrown in when we asked about the herbs they grow on the window sill.

I’m keen to try out the evening menu which seems to have an Eastern European theme and has a number of dishes that I haven’t tried before.

Rola Wala is new to the Selfridges Food Hall in Birmingham.  Like the other concessions in the Food Hall, it’s a place to grab some food while you take the weight off your feet before getting back to some more shopping. It’s not the sort of place you’d go for a romantic meal or a leisurely meal with friends as the decor and furniture are a touch industrial in style. This is the fourth Rola Wala location to open, as there are already venues in Oxford, Leeds and Spitalfields in London. Rola Wala’s prides itself on its ‘Twisted Indian Street Food’, and Indian street food is just the thing when you are having a busy day shopping.  I was invited along to try out the menu last week as Rola Wala’s guest.

So to begin with you have to decide between a naan roll or a spice bowl.  The spice bowl was an easy choice for me as I would always choose rice over naan anyway, but I also thought it would look better in my pictures (ever the blogger). The Spice bowls are based on a red rice imported from Sri Lanka, which is apparently even better for you than brown rice. The alternative is the soft sourdough naan roll  which I thought looked very nice too. Now you need to choose from six toppings: three vegetarian and three non-vegetarian plus there’s an optional range of sides available if you pay a bit more. You can pay extra to double up on the toppings too, but to be honest I don’t think you need to as I found a bowl and two sides was very filling. Then you get to pick from five different chutneys, which run the whole spice range from a mild spice to too hot for me.  The mildest is pear & tamarind, with the scorpion being too hot for me, but I can’t cope with very spicy food.  I was torn between the mango, lime & ginger and the mint, lime & pineapple which were medium spicy.

There’s quite a range of drinks available with both alcoholic and non-alcoholic options available.  Lager is a natural match for a curry and there were some beers available, but I opted for the soft option in the Karma Soda which tasted quite like the diet version of a well-known cola brand and I really liked it. 

You order at the counter and your meal is brought to your table.  The service was very fast as you’d expect with street food I think. For my spice bowl I chose the Bengali Beef, which is a very tender shredded beef brisket. There’s plenty of flavour and it’s mildly spicy, but the meat doesn’t overpower the dish, in fact there isn’t a huge amount of it.  I don’t like a meal to be too heavy on the meat, so that suited me nicely. The other meat based options are charred Chicken Tikka and Nagaland Lamb which has been slow-cooked.  I enjoyed the red rice that came with the spice bowl.  It has a flavour that is different to brown rice, not so nutty, but it certainly has more flavour than the average bowl of white rice.

For my sides I picked the String Fries (I can never resist fries) and the Avo Chaat Salad.  The fries were nice and had a slightly spicy seasoning, but they didn’t stand out for me.  The Avo Chaat Salad was truly delicious though and I’d be ordering that every time. It’s a mango salad with avocado and pomegranate too: very fresh, slightly fruity and very tasty.  Sally, a fellow blogger, who ate with me, had some different options that I got to try too like the Kashmiri Cauliflower Popcorn – not a fan, a bit beige tasting for me. Like me though she picked out and loved the Avo Chaat Salad, which was so nice I would happily have ordered that as a main course.  I did enjoy the food at Rola Wala and I think I could be making a return visit before too long.

February’s Degustabox had a bit of an indulgent theme going on for me, although there were some healthy treats too.  I love a good muesli in the morning, so I was really pleased to see a Primrose’s Kitchen muesli.  I’ve found Primrose’s Kitchen to be a quality brand in the past and their Raw Beetroot & Ginger Muesli lives up to their reputation.  Whilst we are in healthy mode it’s worth talking about Emily Crisps which are fruity (or vegetably – is that a word?) and great for a snack. I liked the Crunchy Red Apple flavour that we were sent. Another way to stave off hunger between meals is The Protein Ball Co.’s Cherry and Almond flavour balls.  They are great if you are a fan of cherry bakewells.

Slightly more indulgently pretzel fans will like these Indie Bay Snacks Pretzel Bites.  They are very moreish. If you like American candy, these Tootsie Roll Midgees will be a great treat – they are a good retro choice too as they have been around since 1896. KitKat’s Chunky New York Cheesecake is a welcome variation on the KitKat theme.

I was intrigued to try this True Nepal Cactus Water.  It has a crisp, refreshing taste and would be great in your breakfast smoothie. HARIBO Fruitilicious are a new and existing addition to the range.  They have loads of fruity flavour, but contain 30% less sugar than regular fruit gum sweets. Great with houmous are these Dr.Karg’s Organic Emmental Cheese & Pumpkin Seed Crispbreads.

I’ve returned to Cafe Reem in Harborne many times over the last couple of years and it really is one of my favourite places to eat at lunchtime.  It’s also a great choice for a coffee and a cake, but for me if I’m popping in to meet up with a friend I usually opt for one of their magnificent Mint Teas rather than coffee.  There’s so much emphasis on coffee in cafes these days that tea often gets forgotten or alternatively some good quality teabags are used, but a premium price (similar to the more pampered coffee) requested for the privilege. Cafe Reem is different because tea there is fresh and really an art form in its own right. Not only that but you get plenty of hot water provided, so your tea lasts for the duration of your catch up, which is just the way it should be.

Cafe Reem isn’t just about the tea though.  There’s a lot more to sample and enjoy. With its focus on Middle Eastern cuisine it’s perhaps no surprise that falafel is a speciality and well worth sampling.  It’s prepared with care with a well judged combination of spices to create aromatic and flavoursome falafel.  My personal favourite is the Falafel Burger which is good size for a filling lunch.  It comes with a centre of goat cheese, sumac, and caramelized onions plus it’s served with hummus, imhamara and salad. There are a range of sandwich options available with falafel fillings and they are just as good, but a little smaller on the portion side if you want a lighter lunch.

For my next visit I’m eyeing up the brunch menu which looks perfect for a leisurely weekend breakfast when you don’t have any particular plans for the day.  There are a number of dishes with eggs that have caught my eye including O’jah, a Palestinian omelette, and Shakshuka, a one pot egg dish made with peppers.

Update: I went to Cafe Reem a few weeks ago (writing this in October 2018) with two friends and was disappointed.  I’d raved about the cafe to them and felt very embarrassed by the customer service: an order forgotten; an order got slightly wrong; a lot of grief about a slightly torn bank note; and a disappointing reaction to a hair in a dish (not sure where the hair had come from, but I didn’t like the way the issue was handled).  I do expect to go again with other friends, so I’ll know better if it was a once off then.