Basils, Kinver

Basils

116 High Street, Kinver, DY7 6HL

Phone: 01384 878888

BASIIIILLL! It takes a brave man to call a restaurant Basils. First, there are all the Fawlty Towers connotations, the inevitable jokes about rats in the kitchen or staff being rude to foreigners.

But it is the lack of punctuation in the name that really seems to be the talking point in the village of Kinver, just outside Stourbridge.

"Basil's has an apostrophe," points out the administrator of the Kinver Online website. "I might just go down in the middle of the night and glue one to the sign." Fellow contributor "Daisy" agrees, and suggests the owners reads Eats, Shoots & Leaves. "There are examples of apostrophe abuse everywhere and don't even start me on spelling!"

I hate to think what the Apostrophe Protection Society - yes there is such a body - makes of the name.

On the whole, I feel inclined to agree, with local councils being some of the biggest culprits. There is something that seems just a little arrogant about town hall bureaucrats taking it upon themselves to decide that St John's Road is really St Johns Road, in the same way that they rename the tip as the Civic Amenities Site or the Recycling Facility, invariably with the grammatically-incorrect capital letters.

Then there is the chairman of the planning committee who becomes Chairman of the Planning Committee, which presumably means that the dustman is known as The Dustman. Sorry, The Refuse Disposal Operative.

Anyway, letting the red mist dissipate for a few moments, I think on this occasion the critics might be mistaken. After all, who is to say the apostrophe in Basils is possessive? Maybe it is simply a declaration that there are two men in the village by the name of Basil. Let's give Basils the benefit of the doubt. Both of them.

Anyway, I digress. Apostrophe controversy aside, Basils comes highly recommended. Bob Clarke, who lives in Kinver, says the food is so good he has not found any need to venture outside of the village to eat since the restaurant opened two years ago.

"Make sure you are hungry before you arrive, otherwise you could struggle to cope with a pudding after an enormous starter and main course. I wonder if Insider could cope with one of Basil's three-course whoppers?"

Carol and John also dropped me a line, saying they couldn't wait to go back for their next meal. "Everything was perfect." About time I made my way down there, then.

Basils is quite a quaint old building in the village's picturesque High Street, although compared to the nearby Heritage House, dating from 1563, it is positively avant garde. There is a public car park behind, although it is a bit of a walk; luckily I managed to find a space in the street just across the road.

Basils is not a huge restaurant, but it is quite cleverly laid out, meaning that it can comfortably accommodate around 50 people without being crowded. At weekends it can be quite difficult to get a table (I speak from experience), so Basil - or the Basils - should be congratulated for resisting the temptation to cram more tables in.

It was certainly well patronised during the night of our visit. The majority of the customers were mature, in groups of four or six, although there was a young-ish couple on the table next to us, as well as a group of five young ladies, one with quite an eye-catching shoulder tattoo.

The decor is simple and traditional, although the venetian blinds at the windows do give it a modern twist. The wall lights are almost works of modern art, made up of slender, twig-like pieces of metal, with small LED-type bulbs at the end of them. Talking of art, many of the paintings and sculptures on the walls are for sale at quite reasonable prices.

While the Insider can safely report that any Fawlty Towers jokes are way off beam, there was a larger-than-life member of staff who made sure there was plenty of entertainment. "No problemo, Mario is here," he announced as he went from table to table greeting the customers, whipping serviettes out of the wine glasses and dropping them into diners' laps with the flamboyance of a matador. Some people have suggested that he hams up the Italian thing a bit too much, with one Kinver Online poster even claiming he is actually from Tipton, but I thought he was good fun and livened up the evening.

As well as Carling and Worthingtons on draught, plus a selection of bottled beers, there was a good list of reasonably-priced wines, and I would recommend the Chardonnay.

I'm afraid I bottled out of Bob's three-course whopper challenge, but we both found our two courses more than generous. I went for the fillet steak, which with pepper sauce came to £17.70. Not cheap, but it was very nicely cooked and the sauce was of a high standard. Onion rings and mushrooms are not really my thing, so Mario invited me to choose something different, and my meal came with generous helpings of carrots. There were also plenty of golden crispy chips, which were very tasty, although perhaps a little thin for my taste. My dining partner was very impressed with her scampi, which she described as "cooked to perfection", but could not manage all of her chips. Gentleman that I am, I agreed to help out.

For desserts, we both had a rather pleasant vanilla cheesecake which came with some seasonal berries, and I quite liked the way they put the fruit at the side of the plate rather than dolloping it on top of the cake, as it allows you to eat as much or little as you wish.

The total bill came to £49.45 for two courses each, three glasses of wine and a coffee, which I thought was pretty reasonable for an enjoyable night of good food in stylish and intimate surroundings.

And there wasn't a Waldorf salad in sight.

Starters

Deep fried calamari with garlic mayonnaise and a crisp salad £5.45

Crusted New Zealand mussels with garlic, herbs and crumbs £5.95

Pate of chicken livers, mushroom and brandy, served with warm toast and redcurrant jelly £4.95

Seafood spaghetti in a rich Napoli sauce £5.75

Main courses

Kinver Pie - steak, kidney and mushrooms cooked in a rich sauce of local ale, served in a light puff pastry "hat and coat" £9.45

Baked field mushroom stuffed with roasted cherry tomatoes and caramelised red onion and topped with goat's cheese £9.75

Camembert Fondue served with crudites vegetables and cajun spiced potato wedges £8.95

Desserts

Profiteroles

Bread and butter; pudding; Ice cream