Results tagged “Radisson” from Birmingham Mail - Restaurant Spy

It's not often that my plates are anything other than empty when they return to a restaurant kitchen, but last night was an exception.

I was among a group of journalists invited to sample the new autumn/winter menu at Filini, the Italian restaurant at the eye-catching Radisson SAS Hotel in the city centre.

There was an enormous amount of food - a selection of superb cheeses and cured meats, bruschetta, a fabulous seafood and red wine risotto made with black rice, a lemon sorbet, wonderful tender beef stewed in Barola and served with polenta pungent with truffle, a selection of desserts.

Gluttony is not an attractive quality, but it is sometimes understandable.

Yesterday I spent the morning in the office and, as usual, snacked and lunched at my desk prior to what I thought would be a straightforward interview with Chris Duffy, head chef at Filini, the very good restaurant at the Radisson hotel.

We chatted away for half-hour then, enthused by the ingredients he gets to use, Chris disappeared into the kitchen to bring a few examples.

Don't bombard me with messages of sympathy. I'm old enough to know better. But all day I've been nursing the sort of hangover that used to be commonplace in newsrooms in the days before we all reformerd our wayward lives.

Last night I attended a dinner at Filini - the restaurant at the Radissson SAS Hotel - showing off the wines of the Italian company Antinori, owned by the same family for 26 generations.

Knowing that,as usual, I'd be in the office before 6.30am, I went with the intention of showing restraint. Trouble is, the wines were simply too good.

Those who do not have the capacity to switch off when I'm having a rant will have heard me bemoan the shortage of decent modern Italian restaurants in Birmingham. So many seem stuck in the sort of timewarp in which the Life on Mars coopper Gene Hunt would feel at home, I've been heard to complain.

A (very long) business lunch a Fellini at the Radisson hotel at Holloway Head has caused me to reconsider this view.

Really good bread was followed by excellent ante-pasta which was followed by some great rissoto and pasta and gnocci dishes. This wasn't fancy cuisine, but it was tasty and well crafted. Top marks to the kitchen!