670 Grams
PROMISES, PROMISES
It’s been eighteen months since my last visit and I’ve been looking forward to coming back ever since, having reviewed it as ‘invention, sorcery, playfulness, artistry and deliciousness in abundance.’
Back then, it was £60 for 10 courses… and despite inflation going through the roof, whilst it’s now £70 midweek and £80 at the weekend, it gets you 15 courses. All the more impressive given chef/owner Kray Treadwell has since won the Michelin Young Chef of the Year Award 2021 and 670 Grams various other accolades.
Booking a table at 8.45 on a Friday isn’t the best decision I’ve ever made, but I wasn’t to know it was going to be the week from hell. So, whilst I’ve resisted the usual early doors TFI Friday drinks, by 6.30 I can’t hold off any longer and we head out for some pre-meal ‘sharpeners’ whilst promising myself to go easy. It does mean I’m ‘loose enough’ to not see past the drinks flight and first up is a splendid Californian Albarino.
First up on the food side of things is a couple of slurps of Thai style hot and sour broth. It’s good, but it’s playing wallflower to the full on party flavours offered by a piece of pineapple marinated in fermented and sweetened soy then caramelised on the BBQ, brushed with char sui with the tingle of five spice and topped with freeze dried, crunchy pineapple.
Hot & Sour
I’m still nodding my approval when we get a delicate dish of langoustine tartare and thin slices of scallop given a quick blast with a blowtorch, topped with caviar with aloe vera, chilli oil, fresh mint and coriander in the mix. Halfway through I’ve fallen head over heels in love with it, but then soy sauce comes in to dominate my palate and it quickly turns from a potential marriage to a one night stand.
Mackerel
Before I’ve even realised I’m already out of wine, the sommelier / manager Zac is topping me up, just before the next dish arrives. It’s mackerel with tartness from green apple contrasting the impeccable sweetness of 38 year old aged soy sauce with quiet heat from fresh grated wasabi and in two joyous mouthfuls I’m completely back in love with the food. Next is a curry spiced-sushi rice bhaji with KFC Zinger-style heat coming through by the end, but mellowed by coriander mayo and mango jelly.
Bhaji
Next with the wine flight is Ayala brut majeur champagne and I have to make a promise to myself to stop guzzling, although I fear it may hold out for only as long as my promise not to drink too much before we arrived.
Turbot
Fuelled by the bubbles, I’m now fully giddy in love with the food; a perfectly cooked firm piece of turbot, topped with the delicate saltiness of caviar, in a silky bisque that’s prawn cranked to the max, but with wild garlic oil keeping it in check.
Cabbage
The next course promises cabbage, but keeps me paddling in the sea with a mussel sauce and crispy seaweed, although it’s a dish that satisfies more with bolder textures than its softer flavours… although, that’s not a complaint.
Remarkable as it may seem I have to knock back the last mouthful of champagne as Zac arrives with a glorious berry-heavy old vine Garnacha Rioja and whilst it’s true most red wines would currently suffice, this one is right up my calle. Muy bien.
Celeriac
Next up is another veggie dish that has me momentarily confused by such a euphoric blast of flavours coming from confit celeriac cooked in beef fat and wearing it so well. There’s a decent lick of smoke off the BBQ, umami from a truffle puree, with pickled red cabbage and finished with fresh earthiness from grated truffle.
New York Deli
What looks like a blackened mini-pork pie—the kind I eat in supermarket car parks whilst loading the car—is announced as New York Deli, promising raw wagyu and gherkin. As it happens it’s a very delicate pastry but my mind is confused, like eating with a blindfold on and I’m struggling to identify the flavours, nor enjoy the textures. Although I know it most definitely isn’t a pork pie.
A quick visit to the loo, has me grinning when I return to the table. I’d rather taken the décor for granted on arrival—been there, seen it, done it—but whilst last time it seemed ‘Berlin brash’ now it just feels right. I love its boldness as much as I love my new glass of red… although, other than it being Chilean, the finer details of it are now joyously fuddled.
Lamb
Back to the food and it’s fall apart lamb neck braised in curry with a liquor reduction that’s a pure flavour bomb, finished with a Jamaican style dumpling and topped with pickled carrots.
Foie Gras
And then, quite possibly the best course of the night—OK, maybe equal 5th or 6th—is a mini butter pastry croissant topped with white chocolate and cayenne ganache, blackberry compote and finished with a grating of cured foie gras. It’s a dish that’s seductively sweet, yet perfectly savoury, which surprisingly wins out on the palate.
Next on the drinks flight is a Promosso spumante rosso dolce that’s a stunning berry red sparkler that’s as playful and delicious as the food.
‘Poppadom’ transports me to the curry house pre-starter… It’s a dish that is full on sorcery with masala chutney, mango yoghurt ice cream and a cucumber rice cracker again playing with that sweet savoury balance, but happily flinging it one way and then the other, sparkling with freshness and spice, but this time it’s laid back sweetness that wins out on the palate.
It’s Not Terry’s, It’s Ours
With the last two dishes having merely teased my sweetness receptors, this next one goes straight in, on full seduction mode, yet it’s the salty, fatty crunch of pork scratchings that’s putting honey sweetness in the spotlight from a chocolate ‘mousse’ and a velvety orange curd. It is as delicious, as it is inventive.
At some point we’ve also gained a glass of Pomme Pomme naturally sweetened cider with a tartness that’s working a treat with these desserts that refuse to denounce anything savoury.
‘Pumpkin Spice Latte’ carries that on with pumpkin ice cream in a hoisin and coffee reduction, with crunch from roasted pumpkin seeds and spiciness from nutmeg cream, topped with a white chocolate tuile. In homage to the Starbucks drink it demonstrates a final flourish of playfulness and artistry… and a “bloody hell, that’s good!”
Treats conclude our 15 courses and with the drinks flight that’s impressed with every glass (and a couple of top ups), it’s £145 a head and I’m also three quarters—OK, maybe even four fifths—sloshed.
Eighteen months on, there’s still invention, sorcery, playfulness, artistry and deliciousness in abundance, and it's staggeringly good value for food of this quality.
And I make the final promise of the night to myself… not to leave it so long before the next visit.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 9/10
4 Gibb Street, The Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham, B9 4AU
