Simpsons Restaurant with Rooms

Located on the Calthorpe Estate, just one mile from the city centre, and in a conservation area, Simpsons's owners, Andreas and Alison Antona have adapted a handsome Grade II-listed house in which to set up their enterprise, one of the focal points of which is the dining room, with seventy covers. There is also an extremely elegant private dining room which comfortably seats up to twenty.

From the kitchen, presided over by Chef Patron Andreas Antona, French-based dishes emerge with heart-warming precision, works of art created with skill and panache. A five star table - and the fact that they won a Michelin star in 2006 and were also best restaurant at Taste of Birmingham 2006/2007 - demands only the best ingredients and with the best beef from Scotland, the freshest of fish and fine produce from Paris via the Rungis market, standards are kept high.

There are two set lunch menus and one for dinner, with a la carte also available. Set lunch dishes could include crab orzo with red chilli, rocket and pimento, roast breast of Gressingham duck with aromatic couscous, figs, lemon confit, almond purée and duck jus, followed by roast banana, cheesecake ice cream and chocolate sauce.

La Carte offers starters of pressed smoked ham hock and foie gras terrine, with pea, broad bean and asparagus salad and a truffle vinaigrette, or hand dived scallops with orzo and squid, almond and garlic purée, and chorizo foam, from a list of around six.

Fish and shellfish feature strongly with grilled tronçonnettes of native lobster, Parma ham and melon with white port foam, or a fillet of halibut, asparagus risotto and sevruga caviar cream.

However, possibly the most stirring section of the menu is kept for meat, game and poultry, starting with a fillet of that fine Aberdeenshire beef cooked on the bone. With morels à la crème, a truffled baked potato and Madeira sauce. Following a dish of such elegance is not the easiest of tasks, but the loin of Oisin venison, pomme dauphine, caramelized turnip and spring cabbage, with pommery mustard sauce makes a pretty good pass at it.

Bemused by this time into a rosy glow of good living it may be a trifle difficult to concentrate on the desserts, all seven of them with two cheese dishes in support, but these little problems have to be addressed and where better to start than with the pain d'epice soufflé, with prune and Armagnac ice cream, or a simple chocolate tart with chestnut ripple ice cream.

Vegetarians are well looked after, and it is more than possible that even hardened carnivores could be tempted by the Indian spiced lentils, smoked aubergine, cauliflower fritters and coconut foam.

Simpsons has a carefully chosen wine list. Prior reference on line will enable you to have some advance intelligence with which to make the final selection on the day.

Within the workmanlike attractions of the Cookery School there is a boutique where a tasteful range of gifts is always on display. And remember that if the whole experience proves pleasantly exhausting there is a choice of four bedrooms, each with its own character, names of which are a good guide, with French, Venetian, Oriental or Colonial to suit the mood.

For further information about this delightful spot so close to the centre of Birmingham, and yet seemingly so far removed, visit their Website.