Azzari too

Saturday night in Birmingham, it's raining and we really can't be bothered to head into the city centre to struggle to find somewhere to eat that we can afford and enjoy without booking well in advance or selling ourselves to the devil! So we asked the parents (they eat out even more then we do!) and they suggested that we head over to Bearwood, which is about a thrty minute walk, and try Azzari Too a Jamaican/European fusion restaurant http://www.azzaritoo.co.uk/. We checked the internet review sites and the opinion was divided about whether it was laid back or lazy; so we thought we would give it a go.

Walking to Bearwood after a sunny afternoon it decided to tip it down half way there so we entered the restaurant a bit wet and very early. We were greeted by the staff and shown to a table right next to a family with a couple of children - although the children weren't excessively noisey we wanted a relaxed grown up evening so asked to be moved the staff were very accommodating and found us another table (at this point we were only the second table in there!). The menu was a simple short affair, as was the wine list, and there was an additional specials list. We choose a lovely sauvignon blanc which was around £13, the first bottle disappeared in minutes, it was very tasty but light, so we ordered another! The starters offer individual portions or sharing platters, we chose to share a jerk chicken platter served with paw paw salsa and fried plantain and also rustic bread with roast garlic and olives; the jerk chicken was tender and tasty and very morish, the plantain was sweet and quickly converted hubby to plantain as he hadn't tried it before, the roasted garlic was great and the only quibble would be that a larger bulb would have been better.

For mains hubby went for lamb rump with roasted herb new potatoes, with minted peas and apple jelly; the waitress took his order and walked away from the table only to return minutes later to aplogise for not asking how he would like it cooked, he asked for pink. When the dish came it was piled high with lamb, it was almost hard to see the rest of the dish for the amount of meat, it came pink all the way through - it may have been a bit too pink for some, but then they shouldn't have ordered it pink if that's the case - and he raved about it, he states it was the nicest restaurant lamb he ever had with a lovely covering of fat which just added to the flavour. I ordered off the specials menu and ordered fillet of tilapia fish with a garlic and chilli crust with papaya salad and roasted sweet potato; although i had never heard of tilapia fish i thought i would give it a go; it came as a plate sized fillet roughly an inch thick and firm white flesh, much better tasting and looking then your standard cod(!); the crust was perfectly balanced so occasionally you got bursts of the flavour but not to over power the delicate flavour of the flesh, the roasted sweet potatoes were lovely and the papaya salad added a nice crunch and sweetness to the dish.

As the portions were very generous we decided to skip pudding and ordered a jamaican coffee each, the coffees came in wine glasses with a generous slurp of rum, they were a great way to finish the unusual jamaican/european fusion meal that had been very satisfy and left us plotting to return very soon.

All together the bill came to about £75, and it was well worth it. The only suggestion i would make would be that they add a side dish of fried plantain to the menu as we would have loved to have more.