Just last week another venue, The Pickled Piglet, quietly opened its doors to the Brummy public for the first time. Much to our horror we hadn’t known it was opening, but some of our foody friends (thanks Mr. & Mrs. Pope) told us that we must give it a go. We popped along for a drink on Wednesday night then back for a boozy dinner with friends on Saturday.

Chef Mark and his pâtissière wife Chrissy have opened the restaurant, bar, and coffee shop
on Gas Street, a side road off Broad Street just a couple of minutes walk from the food centric Brindley Place and Oozells Square.  It’s a place to eat and drink with a group of friends, or to go to for a work meeting over a coffee and a sharing board (meat, cheese, fish, prawn and sausage, all around £11). Sitting upstairs on a late 

Spring evening there was a fantastic view out towards the canal basin and the Hyatt hotel, and it was a comfortable place to sit and while away an hour or so with a bottle and a chat.

Mark and Chrissy have both been in the business for over a decade with experience in large banqueting set ups and smallergastro pubs like the one they’ve just left to set up The Pickled Piglet.

The menu is split between tapas style small plates (around £5), and larger offerings (around £11). The wine list is very reasonable with a good selection by the glass and the bottle (most around £15 to £20).

When we returned on Saturday evening we sat downstairs and decided that we’d go for the small plates. Chef had just taken fresh focaccia out of the oven which was delicious. We ordered lots of small plates including: paprika spiced sausage; saffron and honey pork belly; crispy shredded pork and cucumber; spiced lamb and olive meatballs (nicely spiced but maybe a bit light on olive); hot smoked salmon; crab with celeriac and apple pancakes; battered fish pieces; Scallops; crispy potatoes; tempura veg; and more breads. I think that’s almost all the dishes on the small plate menu! My favourites were the pork belly and the hot smoked salmon. And the potatoes with a smoky mayonnaise dressing. And the crispy tempura veg. You get the picture, I liked it all. We also had a large sharer plate of desserts. Yum.

If you’re not a fan of tapas then there are main dishes on the menu too. They include fish pie, spinach and blue cheese cannelloni, hot smoked salmon, steak and chips and others.

The staff, including the charming Chef Mark, were friendly and really keen to explain the
food and the concept. We ended up drinking there for quite a while after we’d finished dinner and getting quite tipsy, hic! That was helped by the comfy seating – none of those bare wood things that make your back ache as soon as you’ve had the starters.

It has a strong chance of becoming very popular very quickly, let’s just hope they will still be able to find a table for some of their first fans.

http://www.thepickledpiglet.co.uk/