CUUBO
SUCCESSION
It’s the week Birmingham’s lost two of its best restaurants—Poli in Kings Heath and Michelin starred Purnell’s in the city centre. There’s no doubt hospitality is under the cosh, although this year has also seen significant new openings in the shape of Rabbit in Stirchley, Pasture in the city centre and CUUBO in Harborne.
First signs are excellent, with a succinct, Italian leaning menu featuring 4 starters, 4 mains and 3 desserts that reads like a long list of my favourite ingredients. With three courses at £50—the same for lunch is just £38!—I’m struggling to work why it’s taken me seven months to be here.
Cuubo menu Oct 2024
The wine list is similarly succinct and Italian leaning and we’re up and running with Franciacorta AKA ‘Italian champagne’, a fruitier and fuller version of the alleged ‘king of sparkling wine’. Next up is a bottle of the lesser spotted Etna Bianco that I’m compelled to choose whenever I see it. This one is 100% Carricante with strong minerality; it’s flinty and complex on the palate with citrus and honeydew melon notes checked by salinity. It’s like a great Burgundy at half the price.
Alta Mora / Etna Bianco
Bread, butter and nutritional yeast
Backing up the wine list, on the early indicators of what’s to come, is excellent bread—baked in house every day—with butter and crispy nutritional yeast that not only adds texture, but amplifies the cheesy undertones in the butter.
Portland crab risotto, cauliflower
My starter is fried soft-shelled crab with sprigs of samphire on a cauliflower-powered, loose white risotto. I can’t help thinking my expectations have got in the way of fully enjoying it, with it too subtle for what I’m expecting. Although, if it was presented as Portland crab (comma) cauliflower risotto my quibble would be redundant and I’m sure I’d be enthusing about its subtlety and textures.
Beetroot salad, buttermilk cucumber sauce
Crispy belly pork, bacon cream, nduja oil and fennel salad
Across the table there’s a happy owner purring over her vibrant beetroot salad and buttermilk cucumber sauce, but my empty fork is pestering the two belly pork plates, having negotiated a tasting swap with both. I’m immediately overcome with dish envy from the crispy belly pork that does exactly what it says on the tin; initially braised, then roasted to lock in the juices before a blast to provide crunch, ably supported by a subtle smokiness from bacon cream, a citrussy fennel salad that dances on the palate and softly sweet heat from ‘nduja oil.
Braised beef, Chantenay carrot, creamed potato, bacon, beef sauce
But then, just the look of my main gets me excited… arguably more so than food should; crispy onions top tender, braised beef that offers no resistance to the fork, falling apart faster than a toddler at bedtime. It’s cloaked by a silky gravy, with boldness and softness perfectly balanced; its pleasures run so deep, it could convert vegetarians back into the fold. Then, there’s sweetness from carrot purée the earthy-crunch of fried beetroot crisps, smokiness from bacon and the comfort of creamed potato to make it a culinary paean to autumn.
Smoked Packington chicken, sweetcorn puree, creamed potato, jerk sauce
Everyone else has gone for the smoked chicken and jerk gravy with a sweetcorn puree, and creamed potato and it’s obvious by the silence that’s descended, I’m not alone in my adoration of the mains.
Frozen Mexican vanilla, peanut, banana, chocolate sorbet
I’ve negotiated a half and half experience with desserts, starting with a frozen vanilla speckled block of whipped cream with a blast of lime, topped with banana puree and peanut caramel brittle, swerved with a chocolate sorbet. It brings to mind all my favourite ice lollies as a kid.
Chilled lemon custard, salted ricotta ice cream, lemon curd, pistachio, biscuit
The other is at least its equal; featuring a lightly tart, chilled and loose lemon custard with a salted ricotta ice cream float and pistachio and biscuit crumbs for sweetness and crunch. It’s a genuine treat for the palate. These are both contenders to be my favourite dessert of the year.
Cuubo dining room
It’s a small room of 20 covers with open kitchen and minimalist-Scandi styling (the politest way I can say stark), but what it lacks in cosiness, it makes up with immaculate service that’s entirely in that sweet spot between charming, friendly and professional.
Our total bill between 4 comes in at £354 (£207 food / £147 drinks) plus tip and it’s a very welcome addition to Brum’s dining scene occupying a genuinely unique space of affordable fine dining. It’s outstanding value for the technical quality of the cooking and presentation of the food, with flavours both delicate and bold in the mix, always perfectly balanced and with textures on point.
Given ongoing pressures on household spending are now seemingly entrenched, CUUBO may well have hit the bull’s eye. The king is dead, long live the king!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 9/10
49 High St, Harborne, Birmingham B17 9NT
