Lunch in The Cube

We had to dash off early this morning as a couple of weeks ago we'd booked to have lunch at Marco Pierre White's steakhouse at The Cube.

The restaurant is on the 25th floor of The Cube and the 360' views of Birmingham are quite spectacular.

It's the glass bit on the top floor.

It's a long way down.

We started off with drinks and nibbles in the bar and then went into the main restaurant. It's quite spartan in decor and the accoustics aren't brilliant. We might have been married 34 years but we do still speak to each other and at times we struggled to hear what we were saying as the live jazz duet was quite loud.

Our starters were excellent. I had potted duck with prunes and Roger had calamari. My main course was described by the waiter as "belly pork cooked for 8 hours, meltingly soft with a crisp crackling and served with butter beans". Unfortunately it didn't live up to it's description and was chewy with a layer of flabby fat on top rather than crisp crackling.

I mentioned it to the waiter who offered me something else but by then Roger had almost finished his excellent lamb and dauphinoise potatoes and I'd finished the butter beans which were really tasty so I'd eaten enough. The Maitre'd came over and offered me a free dessert which I accepted. It wasn't my day as the Cambridge Burnt Cream (creme caramel) that I'd ordered was tasty enough but had the texture of scrambled egg, basically it had been cooked at too high a temperature. The cheese board and glass of port that we shared were really nice so it wasn't a total disaster.

I don't think we'd go back again, but I certainly can't complain about the service or the bill. Not only did they give me a free dessert but they also knocked the cheeseboard, port and pre-lunch drinks off the bill.  Maybe they thought I was a professional critic as I took photos of the meal?

After lunch we went outside onto the smoking terrace to take in the view of Gas Street Basin and take some more photos.

We had a quick look in the Champagne Bar which was only open for viewing today as it was being used for rehearsals by a musical trio. They were very good and sounded familiar but I have no idea who they were.