Turners

pwcsjohn

Super restaurant 8th September 2009

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Been here twice now and on both visits the food and service has been exceptional. Not cheap but worth every penny, particularly the excellent value lunch.

Great ambience and being relatively new to Birmingham I'm no regular but my wife and I were treated like long lost frends frm the moment we stepped inside.

CookieMonster

Modern British Fine-Dining 6th December 2008

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[PS: After I wrote the following review, Turners has got 1 Michelin star in 2009].

Bit of the background first. Once upon a time, there used to be a restaurant called Paris in The Mailbox, in the premises now occupied by an Italian franchise restaurant Strada and by yet another outlet of Nando’s. I did not have chance to visit Paris, but I knew it was highly reputed and was one of the Birmingham hopefuls for Michelin stars. Unfortunately, a few years ago Paris was closed down before obtaining any star.

The head chef of Paris, Richard Turner, however, decided to remain in Birmingham and opened Turners (or Turner’s) in Harborne - wealthy western suburb of Birmingham -, in mid 2007, this time, as chef-patron.

It is a small restaurant with about 30 covers and unpretentious outlook. I don’t think the interior design is one of its attractions. The food, however, is simply superb: well-conceived Modern British dishes (by “Modern British” I mean highly refined version of British cooking with heavy influence from French culinary technique) with high quality ingredients. To be honest with you, I ate only once here, but it was so good that I have already made another reservation and thinking about making another.

It does not come cheap. If you go for a la carte (served evening as well as lunch time), three course meal costs £39.50 (£32 for two courses), and tasting menu is £55. But there are cheaper options as well. 3 course weekday lunch is £17.50 (£9.95 for 1 dish, £13.50 for two), and 3 course Sunday lunch is £20. And on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, there is an option of 3 course meal for £17.50 in the evening. For the detail, check out the website http://turnersofharborne.com/.

The lunch I had consisted in fishcake made of 5 types of sea creatures served with poached egg, lamb Wellington served with parsnip puree, wilted Swiss chard and potato rosti, and Prune and Almagnac tart served with banana ice cream. It was one of the best meals I had in Birmingham.

For tight-budgeters like myself, one caveat is the coffee: it comes with petits fours and costs £4.95! But on positive note they don’t mind serving free tap water.