Chakana
CHAKA… CHAKANA… DO YOU FEEL FOR ME THE WAY I FEEL FOR YOU?
CLICK HERE FOR A MORE RECENT REVIEW OF CHAKANA FROM AUGUST 14 2020
The old Lloyds Bank on Moseley High Street has always been a fairly handsome beast, but inside it was the epitome of drab, corporate soullessness. Even as a Lloyds’ customer I wasn’t at all bothered to see it close. And then the news came that it was being turned into Birmingham’s first Peruvian restaurant. Who in their right mind would do such a crazy thing?
Enter Robert Ortiz, former head chef at Michelin starred Lima in that London. A Michelin star is often a double-edged sword. Sure, you generally get great food but more often than not, it’s all a bit po-faced, with far too much emphasis placed on the food over the diners’ experience. Thankfully, there’s been no mention of such aspirations at Chakana.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never been quite this excited about a restaurant opening before. In fact, the excitement is such that you’d easily be mistaken for thinking I was actually going on holiday to Peru. And Machu Picchu is top of my bucket list.
Over the last week I’ve been on their website almost daily, looking through the menu and counting down the days. And now today has finally arrived, it feels like a first date with the ‘pretty sure this will be the one’. What should I wear? Do I dress to impress or just wear something I’m comfortable in?
We arrive just before 7.30 – me in my favourite shirt - and having been greeted at the door, we’re shown to our table. My head’s turning circles as I try to take the place in. Given its previous incarnation, its transition is like walking into Narnia or some other such magical kingdom. The high ceiling is perfect for the open plan dining room, which makes it seem impossibly bigger than it ever was before.
There’s an elegant cocktail bar area, simmering along one corner, next to the private dining room – a simply gorgeous, original white tiled former vault, complete with the oversized, original safe door. Lock me in!
And they’ve not skimped on the communal gender-neutral toilets either. It’s something that’s often overlooked and whilst they don’t quite fall into the “OMG, the toilets are amazing” category, they certainly outscore many of the city’s fancier restaurants.
Despite having pretty much learned the menu off by heart before arriving, when it comes to decision time, it doesn’t help one bit. Luckily, our waitress is Chilean and is keen to run us through some of the detail behind the dishes. She also explains that the chef encourages diners to share dishes, which is fine by me. But first, the Pisco Sours whilst we consider our choices.
Pisco is a brandy - the Peruvian ‘national drink’ – with the sour made up from bitters, citrus, sugar and egg white. Our waitress explains they do their own spin on it to create it as a sweeter, less sour version. Katrina goes for that one and I go traditional. We’re both happy with our choices; Georgie thinks they’re both disgusting.
Sticking with the booze, being a fan of Barolo I decide on the Notos (£33) - a Uruguayan dry red that’s 90% Nebbiolo and 10% Tannat. It weighed in at 14% yet didn’t come across at all heavy, but actually lightly fruity, although it definitely benefitted from being ordered and opened early.
When the starters arrive, it’s definitely looking like we’re fine dining. Georgie’s artichoke causa - potato, cheese, yellow chilli, cream – was a stunning mouthful of intense earthy vegetableness with some added other worldly flavours. The tuna ceviche - rocoto pepper, passion fruit, tigers milk – with the tuna cured only with citrus, meant the dish tasted like a fabulously sour take on a Thai curry that left me wanting something to mop the plate with. Unfortunately, the pulpo al olivo - botija olives, chimichurri – was over salted enough that it could’ve been sent back. But as it was already half gone by the time it came to me, I soldiered on with it.
As for the mains, the slow cooked lamb rump - pumpkin, seco sauce, braised lettuce – was also on the edge of being over seasoned and it seemed more roast lamb than slow cooked. There was nothing else particularly remarkable about it either. Whereas, the wild mushroom pachamanca – much like the causa – had the same amazing depth of flavour, albeit with the added joy of the crunch of corn.
But the absolute star of the show is the confit suckling pig - yucca root, majadito, charpita chillies. This is quite simply the best plate of food I’ve had for a long, long time. There is crispy-topped layers of sweet, succulent shredded pork combining beautifully with the sweet nuttiness of the yucca with a warming hint of chilli amongst the symphony of flavours. I’d almost eaten the whole dish before remembering we were in a sharing situation.
The waitress returned and asked if we wanted dessert. Again, she ran us through the details of the various options. We’re well and truly hooked but we need a rest.
Unfortunately, having rejected this attempt to serve us desserts, we seemed to lose her attention for the rest of the meal. From this point on, to get her back to take our dessert order, order another drink (because it went on so long) and then to get the bill was a minor challenge, although it did mean I got to sample the house pisco sour too.
But ultimately the wait was well worth it, as we landed three fantastic desserts. The suspiro ala limena came across as a light dulce di leche with more than a hint of butterscotch, under a soft meringue topping. The alfajor de dulce de leche, was like a sophisticated shortcake ‘Jammy Dodger’ with a toffee middle. But the absolute best was the 3 milk cake - algarrobina syrup, pisco and lime merengue which turns out to be an amazing kind of biscuity sponge drenched in what was a holy trinity of three milks – full fat, evaporated and condensed and with strawberries too.
Throw in two large bottles of sparkling water and we’ve got a bill of £154.50
It’s a minor quibble but given I was up for the full experience, there’s no dessert wine, nor coffee although the latter was explained by them having only just opened. I can only trust it’s the same with the former.
As we all know the course of true love never runs smooth and so, despite a few blips of imperfection - that could well be down to it having only been open for a couple of days - I am indeed completely smitten.
When they get the food right, which is most of the time, there seems to be some sort of sorcery at play, especially when it comes to flavour combinations and their use of food textures is impressive too. It’s also a fabulous dining experience in a smart, but very relaxed space with an atmosphere that moves effortlessly through the gears as the night progresses. There’s a great pick and mix of families, large groups, couples and friends.
It’s metropolitan, it’s multi-cultural, it’s the mythical Moseley that we all imagine we’re a part of, but so very rarely see.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
