I first went to a Blacklock in 2015. I wrote about it in 2022 for the first time. By my estimates I’ve been about a dozen times to varying sites in the last ten years, including the opening of Canary Wharf and, more recently, an ill-fated afternoon in Soho that left me a lovely scar on my forehead and a £300 Uber back to Birmingham. I like Blacklock. Must do given the amount of times I’ve been. And yet I’m struggling to reach the same fever pitch of excitement over the opening in Birmingham. I have already eaten everything on the menu several times over. When it comes to Blacklock I’ve been there and I’ve bloodied the tote bag.
It looks like other Blacklocks; undeniably handsome, it doesn’t intimidate, with tables close enough to eavesdrop under the light that goes from dim to dark as dinner progresses. It’s old London in new Birmingham, on the street with all the other meat places from other cities. The team wear what they want, and the bar buzzes with the chink of glass on glass. It’s smaller than I thought it would be. Perhaps they are playing it safe.
We don’t go too mad on the food. I know that in the effort of doing this properly I should be doing the ‘all in’ on the chops, or getting one of the massive chalkboard cuts, but numbnuts here has done back-to-back tasting menus on the prior evenings, and last nights ended up being way too big for a Wednesday with the kind of mistakes that happen after four bottles of wine. I suppose, if you really care about those, you could just Google my old review. Instead I order two of the bites, Sophie gets a starter, and we kind of share a burger and a chunk of lamb along with some chips and salad. I wanted the pie. They have no pie. It is, perhaps, a reason to go back.
The chop bites are as I remember; a hunk of cheese under crunchy pickled vegetables, and another with whipped egg that I ask for anchovy-less. Sophie has the crayfish cocktail, which they advise to tip out on to the plate and I advise not to. The sauce is well made with a good whack of tabasco and cayenne, and those invasive species are plentiful for the moderate price of £11. The burger is a decent burger, properly sloppy and beefy, the vermouth in the onions comes through nicely. It is not as good as the majestic one at Pasture, which is probably the best burger in the city right now, and an obvious comparison given it is a minute’s walk away. The lamb rump is excellent, really excellent. It takes skill to cook a bit of animal this well, particularly lamb, properly rested and full of flavour. They nailed it. Chips are excellent, as is the gravy, and the chilli hollandaise, and the green sauce. I also really liked the chopped salad with candied walnut, pear, and blue cheese. We share the cheesecake to finish. It would benefit from the base being crushed up more to improve the eating.
The real reason why Blacklock is going to succeed is not because of the food, but some of the most welcoming front of house I can recall anywhere, ever, in Birmingham. We have an issue with one dish and it is rectified quickly and efficiently, with this meal in its entirety comp’d as a result. The food, wine, excellent cocktails, and fun ‘cellos. That’s the level of service that will see me coming back time again. We are mostly served by the incredibly likeable Tiffany, but there is a chap I recognise from Fazenda, the woman from Blacklock in Canary Wharf, and the manager I know from her tenure in Harborne. Everyone knows what they are doing and they do it with total charm. That’s their USP, not another place to eat meat on a street full of places to eat meat, but to make that two or so hours blur by with a bit of fun. I’ll be back when the pie comes in.
8/10
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