Tasting menus built around the seasons are at the heart of this new 26 cover restaurant from chef Rob Palmer. Formerly in charge of the Michelin-starred kitchen at Hampton Manor, Palmer’s first solo venture is taking shape on Drury Lane in Birmingham’s Solihull with a view to launching in mid- March. Menus at Toffs will range from a £49, four course lunch menu to a seven course dinner at £89. The menu descriptions are gnomic. ‘Potato/ shrimp, xo, coriander’ is typical. As well as the dining room looking onto the open plan kitchen, the restaurant will feature a six-seat kitchen bench for those who want to see the bloodshot whites of the chefs’ eyes. Toffs is a family affair. The name refers to a brand of toffee that was much in favour in the childhood Palmer household while the industrial décor references the forty plus years that Rob Palmer’s father spent working at Solihull’s Land Rover factory.
Toffs by Rob Palmer | Fine-Dining Restaurant | Solihull
Ever since Hannibal Lecter drooled over eating someone’s liver with ‘fava beans and a nice Chianti’, one imagines that the Fava Bean Marketing Board have had their work cut out. Helping to rehabilitate the pulse’s rep is this new Greek restaurant on Edinburgh’s Morrison Street. From baked feta to falafel via spanakopita spinach pies, Fava offers a wide range of mezze and a shorter selection of main courses such as seafood linguini, whole roast bream and a mixed grill which takes in lamb, pork belly, chicken, koftas and sausages. If you are a fan of our old friend fava then he pops up as a purée with grilled octopus, as a dip and as the star of a salad accompanied by cucumber, avocado and pomegranate seeds.
When trying to come up with bar/experience attractions, we often wonder ‘What comes first? The name or the concept?’ We are such suckers for a good pun that we don’t care which came first with Alcotraz – a jail-themed, immersive bar experience in which customers/inmates have to smuggle in their own liquor. If they get the hooch past the warden and guards then the resident barmen/lags turn it into cocktails. London, Brighton and Manchester already have Alcotraz outposts. A Liverpudlian unit will be opening up its cell blocks on Seel Street in March. You can do your own gags about fun-loving criminals who can do the time as long as someone brings the lime.
Alcotraz Liverpool | Themed Cocktail Bars Liverpool | Alcotraz Bar
Mano Mayfair Promising to blend the glamour of late 1950s St Tropez with the Japanese-Brazilian cuisine of São Paulo, Mano is pencilled in to open on Mayfair’s Heddon Street at the beginning of March. Diners can expect an exterior inspired by the Amazon jungle and an interior that boasts the understated sophistication of mirrored walls and a gold ceiling. There will be DJs at the weekend. The words ‘fun dining’ have been mentioned. But wait. Come back! Taking charge of the kitchen is Luciana Berry, the Brazilian chef who may be familiar to readers as a 2014 competitor on Masterchef the Professionals. The semi-finals were as far Berry reached on the BBC show but, more recently, she topped the field and was named Top Chef Brazil 2020 on a South American cooking show. Berry’s dishes include Black Angus beef ribs with a miso glaze, salted cod croquettes with karashi mayo and, her signature, moqueca – a Brazilian seafood stew with coconut milk and grilled sea bass.
Mano Mayfair Restaurant | Facebook
Riwaz Atul Kochhar cemented his culinary reputation when his Mayfair restaurant Benares won him a second Michelin star in 2007. More recently, he has looked beyond the W1 postcode to open new restaurants; the latest of which is Riwaz on Aylesbury End in Beaconsfield. The name means tradition and promises both authentic dishes as cooked by his grandmother plus a selection of British Indian traditions. Taking into account recipes from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, among other states, Riwaz serves dishes such as Punjabi butter chicken, Hyderabadi lamb biryani and tandoor-seared Scottish scallops.
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