It’s all change at Harborne Kitchen. What started as chef patron Jamie exiting the business eighteen months ago, now sees long-term head chef Tom Wells move on to a new role elsewhere, and the appointment of previous sous chef, Patrick White as Head Chef. Moreover it sees a big change in the way the restaurant is operating. Gone is the partition between the bar and restaurant. Gone are the multiple tasting menus, replaced with an a la carte menu and a solitary tasting menu. Choice is now the key part of the business, Choice where to sit in the restaurant. Choice what to eat for dinner. Crucially, choice of how much to spend. We didn’t, but I gather if you want to just sit in the bar and have a main course and a glass of wine that’s perfectly fine. There is something very, very appealing about that, especially when it is Harborne Kitchen.
We sat in the bar at the tables tucked away in the corner. Drank some cocktails, peered around the corner and down to the kitchen. Looked at the menus, decided on three courses for me, and two for Sophie. Ordered some wine. Another cocktail. Sophie had the pasta followed by the monkfish because that is what she wanted. I made my decision based on what under £50 could get me. We order bread (£4), excellent bread as good as the bread has ever been from here. Bread that has purpose to the crust and a deep flavour to the crumb.
Now given it is night two of volume two of HK, I am going to say my only bugbear from the evening. Some of the portions are too big. It’s a wild take to say that anything is too generous right now, but it’s true and I’m only pointing it out because a) it affects my ability to finish dinner, and b) Harborne Kitchens potential spend per head. Whilst my tomato dish (£11) was beautifully fresh and green, underpinned by shards of crispy coppa, Sophie’s agnolotti (£14) could easily have been a main. That’s not to say it isn’t fantastic, because it is; loads of mushroom flavour lifted gently by truffle, excellent pasta, and two sauces; one a mushroom number flecked with tarragon, the other a kind of parmesan foam which adds a subtle nuttiness. Really very good. The rest of the bread is the perfect vehicle to finish off the bowl.
I have chicken (£23) for main with summer veg in broth, finished tableside with a reduced onion sauce lifted by madeira. On the side is a bowl of excellent smoked mash that I don’t think it needs but would probably cause a mutiny if left off. This is proper cooking. Just stuff I want to eat, cooked carefully, with skill. This is my one course and a glass of chilled red. Sophie has monkfish (£26) with jersey royals, fennel, orange and a kind of herby beurre noisette sauce. She loves it. It’s more of that clean cooking with the focus on freshness. It’s a real summer dish. They both are.
An absolute textbook lemon tart (£12) with raspberries rounds off a lovely meal, whilst the kitchen shows a sense of humour by sending out a plate each containing a chocolate and ‘congratulations’ to me and ‘sorry’ to my new wife. It’s these moments that I love Harborne Kitchen and particularly love the new direction. I was guilty of coming to Harborne Kitchen twice, maybe three times a year to eat properly with the old pricing, yet this opens up a new world of possibilities for eating there regularly. I wouldn’t usually individually price items; I’ve done so you can get a sense of how much it has changed, and our food element of the bill came to £96 with a good chunk on top going on Jose Gil’s excellent rioja, a nice riesling, and six of Gina’s excellent new cocktail list. The direction has changed but the quality coming out of the kitchen hasn’t. Harborne Kitchen remains one of the best in the city, albeit a tad less formal.
9/10
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