Cylla, Birmingham: ‘Possibly the very best potato aspect dish being served within the UK right this moment’ – restaurant evaluate | Meals

Cylla, an aesthetic Greek restaurant on Newhall Road, Birmingham, attracts inspiration, it says, from Scylla, the legendary Greek man-eating sea monster that lives near the whirlpools of Charybdis. She’s an exquisite lady, however has six canine heads, all grumpy and snarling, in addition to a serpent’s tail.

If Scylla herself had been ever to show up at Cylla, canines’ heads barking and tail flapping, they’d should seat her in one of many beautiful personal cubicles on the entrance as you enter the room. These are the spots to seize if you need a bit of privateness, which is why we eschewed the lengthy, prettily lit cocktail bar and headed straight to this cosy hidey-hole for a spherical of Poseidon’s Wrath. “It’s a bit like a unclean martini,” defined our server, who was a kind of heat, shiny, commanding, knowledgable souls who, in a hospitality setting, is value her weight in drachma. This invigorating, mega-bitter tipple of vodka and vermouth laced with piney, herbaceous mastiha, seaweed and kalamata olive brine is the cocktail equal of being rescued by the RNLI: salty, breathtaking and head-spinning. Fret not, sweetness seekers, as a result of additionally they supply a dozen different honey-, peach- and even meringue-based cocktails, if these are your factor, and all with equally dramatic, Greek myth-related names. Aphrodite’s Bloom, anybody? It’s a sensuous ode to the golden hour, the menu says.

Brilliantly, Cylla, which is a not too long ago revamped All Bar One, manages to tug off all this excessive drama with out tipping into Del Boy from Solely Fools and Horses territory. As a substitute, there’s merely one thing somewhat reassuring in regards to the place’s dedication to delivering an expertise that’s severely, elegantly Greek, however in a playful manner. We went on a moist Wednesday in mid-January, when eating places throughout the land are usually abandoned, unheated or simply plain shut. Not Cylla, although: it was properly heaving with loads of tables of two, in addition to a number of bigger consumer teams – that is, in any case, the businessy finish of city. Convivial midweek, mid-winter eating may be arduous to search out, however I’m happy to report it’s taking place right here.

The menu is roaringly trad Greek with the occasional Mediterranean and Brit leaning. A smoked aubergine meze was excellent: easy, wealthy and with a vastly spectacular depth of smokiness that would come solely from really cared-for veg, all laced with parsley, garlic and vinegar. Prawn saganaki was additionally superb certainly, with a beneficiant quantity of agency, grilled king prawns in a well-balanced garlic and ouzo tomato sauce. The basket of heat selfmade bread is important.

Lamb baklava, nevertheless, was much less thrilling, and just about simply conventional candy bakalava however full of cumin and thyme-flavoured lamb. In hindsight, we must always have gone for the grilled octopus with pearl onions and fava puree. A Greek-tinged beef tartare was laced with loads of chopped gherkins, capers, truffle and Tabasco, and got here with a properly pungent chive mayo and a smoked egg yolk on prime, in addition to some roditiki pitta, a crisper, flatter model that’s genuine to Rhodes; these little touches make Cylla’s menu really feel fairly private.

Central Birmingham has an array of eating choices, however a lot of them are chains, albeit good-quality, if dear ones. At Cylla, nevertheless, you get an actual feeling that it is a restaurant that’s ploughing its personal furrow, which these days is more and more uncommon.

A principal course of crimson snapper supplied up a beneficiant, properly cooked piece of flaking fish on a refined, bouillabaisse-style sauce that would have performed with a bit extra basil, fennel and star anise, though by this stage my full consideration was taken by the meat fats potatoes, that are mesmerising. Sure, they sit there coyly on the edges menu, talking nothing of their greatness, however they’re fairly presumably the very best fondant potatoes I’ve ever eaten, and perhaps even the very best potato aspect dish served within the UK right this moment. To the bare eye, they resemble that each one too acquainted rectangular gastropub-style confit potato stack, as made well-known by the High quality Chop Home, amongst others, and copied in all places, however these are a lot greater than that. The centre of those spuds is extra like fluffy mash, whereas the outside has a crisp whack of beef fats on all 4 surfaces.

The karidopita walnut dessert, in the meantime, was a diversion into fancy-schmancy plating, with its smears, foams and puddles of pecan cremeux, chocolate namelaka, vanilla and chocolate pâte à cigarette. Nevertheless it was pleasant, all the identical.

Cylla is winner. The truth is, I’ve already beneficial it 3 times, which is the restaurant critic’s equal of claiming I’d promote this Ford Mondeo to my nan. Cylla is each a reliable place to take teams and a somewhat pretty spot for a romantic tête à tête, particularly if you happen to can bag a kind of cubicles and calm down within the dwelling of a glamorous sea monster. Put on a life jacket, as a result of some issues are value getting moist for.

• Cylla 43 Newhall Road, Birmingham B3, 0121-714 9443. Open all week, noon-11pm. From about £60 a head à la carte; set lunch Mon-Fri (noon-4.30pm), £29.95 for 2 programs, £34.95 for 3, all plus drinks & service