I haven’t heard a bad thing about this restaurant and since visiting, I can understand why. Folium is a beautiful, minimal and modern venue in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter.
There are plenty of places I could have chosen when looking for a gorgeous restaurant to take my boyfriend to on his 30th birthday. With so many new openings in Birmingham City Centre, it can sometimes feel a little overwhelming when looking for something simplistic with tasteful menus. Truth is, when arriving at midday on April 18th, I couldn’t have been happier with my choice. Restaurant Folium is one of the newest multi-course dining experiences with great wine, fantastic service, amazing prices, and even greater food. I’m already looking forward to returning.
With some of the menu dishes changing seasonally, I’m very grateful we experienced Folium in the Spring. The lamb has got to be one of the most talked about highly-rated dishes. Understandably since our recent visit, I’ve been thinking about it a lot over the Easter holidays. At Folium, lunch time serves either two courses (£27.50) or three courses £32.50 – with dinner between five courses (£55) and seven (£70). Not forgetting, the large tasting menus are also available during lunch time hours.
We arrived at 12:30 noon and surprisingly we were the only people there. It was a week day so I didn’t expect it to be heaving. The staff are welcoming and took our coats from us as we sat down on some comfy seats at the back of the room. To start we ordered some red wine (Malbec for me, of course) and along with the drinks, a melt-in-the-mouth canape arrived at the table. Crab meat tart filled with fish hollandaise and grated duck liver made for a tasty starter. Next arrived some warm sourdough bread with hand whipped butter and a pot of salt to sprinkle on top. A gorgeous and ever-winning combination.
The first course is a refreshing combination of cured mackerel, pickled cucumber and horseradish. You can understand why these ingredients work so well together and aside from the pop of colour, the first bite is something of a mouth party. The fish arrives refrigerator cold and the tang from the cucumber is a winning fusion. I could eat this starter again, multiple times. It looks simplistic but no doubt took hours of preparation. The presentation looks faultless and is both minimalist but exquisite.
To coincide perfectly with the Easter break, main course was two tender chunks of pink lamb, covered in a savoury seaweed sauce with a perfectly succulent layer of fat on top. What I love about Folium is that the foo isn’t pretentious; and showcases talent in both texture, flavour and execution. Every time I eat a lamb dish in Birmingham I always consider it to be the best, but by far this is a Brum showstopper.
Sadly coming to an end, the third course was delivered in a timely manner and consists of chocolate, cobnut and burnt cream. What this in fact was is a delicate mousse with a strong flavour of cobnut scatterings and perfectly positioned shards. Elegant dining with flavour at its finest.
The entire meal including wine and coffee set me back around £80 but I sincerely think it was worth a lot more! It’s honestly one of the nicest meals we’ve eaten as a couple in the city and I know that Josh really appreciated the effort they went to on his birthday. The team kindly left a card for him and a glass of bubbly at the table – it’s the little things like this that truly make a dining experience so wonderful. I can’t wait to go back and try the 5/7 courses, I know there is more magic to be witnessed.
Lunch hours from Wednesday – Sunday: 12:00 – 2:30PM.
Dinner – Wednesday – Saturday: 6:30 – 9:00PM.
8 Caroline St, Birmingham B3 1TS
Please note: I paid for our meal in full. As always, words and opinions are completely my own.