Award: One Michelin star and three AA rosettes
Visit: 2 March 2025, lunch for two
Price: **
Website: www.simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk
Led by chef director, Luke Tipping, Simpsons has held a Michelin star since 1999. Please see my previous reviews here.
This suburban Georgian Grade II Listed building houses a modern, spacious dining room, with a lovely garden where you can sit and enjoy your pre-dinner drinks when it is warm enough.
The Review:
On this visit we pre-ordered the Beef Wellington for Sunday lunch. There is a non-refundable deposit of £20 per person which you pay in advance for the Beef Wellington option. Alternatively on a Sunday, there is a 3-Course menu for £75.00 per person and a Classic Menu at £105.00 per person. The Wellington option is £95 for three courses. The wine list is very reasonably priced for a Michelin starred restaurant and there are some very good wines by the glass served by Coravin.
We started with three very nice canapes. There was a sweet and sour cod beignet, a hash brown with an egg emulsion and pancetta on top, and a delicate tart with beef tartare with a mustard emulsion and pickled onion. All three were very good, but the cod beignet was outstanding.
The bread was a very good sourdough and the superbly laminated olive tapenade rolls that we have enjoyed here before. These were served with wild garlic butter, and a taramasalata with olive oil on top. These are simple, but exceptionally good.
For starters there was a choice between sea bream and heritage beetroot. We both chose the sea bream that was served with mushrooms, caramelised Jerusalem artichoke and miso puree, a mushroom and katsuobushi dashi, wild garlic, and lemon thyme oil. The sea bream was perfectly cooked and the mushrooms and broth had great flavour.
The Beef Wellington main course was served with pomme puree, carrot, cauliflower cheese, cabbage and a red wine sauce. The Wellington was presented to us at the table, and then carved into two slices in the kitchen. It would have been nice if the pastry ends were served on a separate plate, as they do at The Ritz. The pastry was nicely judged, and the beef fillet perfectly medium rare with great flavour.
Next was an optional cheese course (a £10 supplement) that featured Windrush Valley goat’s cheese from the Cotswolds; a Swiss Wildblumenkase which is a cow’s milk cheese with an edible rind flavoured with lavender, hay and herbs; a creamy Baron Bigod from Suffolk that is reminiscent of Brie de Meaux; and a soft Blue Clouds cheese from Balcombe Estate in Sussex that is reminiscent of Gorgonzola. The cheeses were in excellent condition, and were served with pumpkin and cranberry bread, rosemary crackers and quince jelly. This was a £10 supplement or £22.50 as an additional course.
There were three dessert courses we could choose from. We selected the caramelised miso tart with a blood orange sorbet, and the passion fruit soufflé served with a passion fruit and mango sauce, and Chantilly cream (which was a £10 supplement). The soufflé had a whole carved out and the sauce poured in at the table. It was light, fluffy and perfectly executed.
Service throughout was friendly and informative. This was another very impressive meal that we both enjoyed.
Andreas is taking a well-earned retirement and has put Simpsons on the market. He has been at the forefront of Birmingham cuisine for many years, and we have been very lucky to have had a restaurant of Simpsons calibre serving such superb cuisine for so long. I hope whoever takes on the restaurant will be able to continue its success and maybe take it to even greater heights.
The Sunday Wellington Menu:
The Food:
The People:
Chef-patron Andreas Antona was classically trained spending six years working in hotels in Germany and Switzerland, before working under Anton Mosimann at The Dorchester and at the Ritz Hotel. From 1987 he spent three years as Head Chef at Birmingham’s Plough and Harrow Hotel, at a time when it was among the finest in the Midlands.
In 1993, he opened his first restaurant Simpsons in Kenilworth and was among the first restaurants in the area to win a Michelin star. In 2013 he opened The Cross at Kenilworth, which itself now holds a Michelin star since 2014. He is also part of the team that launched Pure Craft Bar & Kitchen in Birmingham. Antona was a mentor to several other successful Birmingham chefs early in their careers, including Glynn Purnell, Luke Tipping, and Andy Waters. Andreas has played a central role in the UK’s participation and success in the international cookery competition the Bocuse d’Or. Andreas has recently announced his retirement and has put Simpsons restaurant on the market.
Andrea’s right-hand man at Simpsons, Luke Tipping, entered the chef profession when his father found him a job at the Plough and Harrow, Birmingham. He met Andreas and, after five years at the Plough, Luke moved on to set up Simpsons in Kenilworth. Ten years later, the team moved to the larger premises in Edgbaston. Luke was awarded the first ever Midlands Chef of the Year Award and received a Professorship of Culinary Arts by University College Birmingham in October 2010 in recognition of his efforts in promoting the next generation of kitchen stars.