How much: £40 a head, three courses and a substantial amount of wine
Come here: if you're shopping in Birmingham, with kids on a Saturday? I don't know what to say here, massively out of my comfort zone.
Now don't get me wrong, I believe that this to be an isolated incident. In the same way that if you play Russian Roulette, every now and then you won't get shot. It doesn't mean that if you survive you should take it up as a regular hobby. I'm not planning on reprising my views on La Tasca, and I'm certainly not stopping my campaign to close Aberdeen Angus Steak Houses. Jamie's is easy to spot. It's a monstrous carbuncle on the side of the monstrous carbuncle that is Birmingham's Bullring shopping 'quarter'. We were there for a good friend's birthday and wouldn't have missed it, but certainly hadn't picked the spot. I was pre-emptively planning the slating as we walked through Saturday chain store hell towards the two floor pukka palais. The menu is short, sweet and filled with pasta and hyperbole. The pasta list is long and relatively standard, though I'm pleased to see rabbit, non pasta mains bring only a few interesting choices (along with an 'Italian' burger and two steaks) but the overall feeling is a positive one. There are certainly some good flavours here.
Sharing starters brought me three fat arancini, risotto balls stuffed with mozzarella and mushroom, served with a spicy tomato dip. Dense, simple and on the money. Often used in Italy as a way of using up leftover rice, these were plump and joyous justifications of their constituent parts. The Vole went for two starter sized pasta dishes; Monachelle Puttanesca, with tomato, anchovies and olives, and a mushroom Panzerotti. The former was well cooked, and prepared fresh in the glass sided demonstration pasta room to the front of the store, with a thick flavoursome sauce, slightly (like my main) heavy on the salt, but fundamentally sound. The later, a meaty mushroom ravioli, I can barely recall as it vanished within minutes, my usual right to graze was revoked. I went for the Fritto Misto and a side of Funky Chips (I bet AA Gill never had to ask for that). It'll be a challenging plate for some. Assorted sealife, heads and skin included (Auntie Pat would struggle with such a vivid recollection of her dinners recent history), dusted with flour and fried fresh. Served in a brown paper bag, piled with baked noodles and a couple of erroneous slices of dried fruit. It was a trencherman's portion almost enough without the parsley and garlic soused Funky Chips, themselves relatively forgettable if perfectly acceptable.
The gurning mug of the owner is unavoidable. Walls not covered in the stripped back mock industrial aesthetic, 'it's just a working kitchen mate, no airs or graces fella', were stacked high with shelves covered in his bestselling volumes, as if the 10 foot high name on the side of the building hadn't given away the founder's identity. Like a loll-tongued messiah, he was unavoidable. The specials board spoke the word of St Jamie, an 'amazing' soup vied with the 'wicked' skate, even the bar staff in the too small reception cum bar were resolutely on brand, forcing me through their small but 'wicked' wine selection. But despite this, I could find little to complain about here. They were enthusiastic, efficient, knowledgeable and (with the exception of the Mockney barman) resolutely free of any corporate line. The staff seem happy and committed, and it's a good thing they do, as it's rammed solid when we arrive at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, by 6.30, the queue is out of the door and by the time we leave at 7.30 the small bar is packed with a Saturday night crowd. The money men behind this, and the benevolent leader, must be beaming with joy. Regardless of his stated desire (laudable if overplayed) to get 'ordinary' folk eating better, with the locations in the some of the most affluent shopping areas of the country, he's also proving that he's not entirely disinterested in getting the middle classes to give him their money.
I was surprised the first time I visited a Jamie's Italian how much I enjoyed the food. I recently did a post of the Covent Garden branch which has an identical menu.
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