Restaurants given honour place on top 100 list

Tropea in Harborne and Chapter in Edgbaston have been listed in The Good Food Guide’s Best 100 Local Restaurants 2024 after 60,000 nominations for bistros, brasseries, pubs and cafes were made across the UK.

The two restaurants have been commended by inspectors and reviewers, who made secret visits to every restaurant nominated to check for uniqueness, deliciousness, warmth and strength of recommendation.

Elizabeth Carter & Chloë Hamilton, co-editors of The Good Food Guide, said the inspectors and reviewers were looking for places that were the best of their kind.

They said: "The nominations have been collated and the inspection visits are complete, so we are proud to announce The Good Food Guide’s 100 Best Local Restaurants of 2024.

You came out in force this year, casting an astonishing 60,000 nominations for your beloved bistros, brasseries, pubs and cafés.

"We, and our undercover inspectors, have been touring the country to ensure the list is made up of the best of their kind.

"Places that are home to extraordinary local creativity and talent, personal hospitality and genuine community spirit, and that are wonderfully affordable too."

Tropea, which can be found on Lordswood Road in Harborne, was praised by the reviewers for the inspired menu and design and was rated as very good, with deliciousness, warmth and strength of recommendation scored as very good and uniqueness as good.

The Good Food review said the restaurant was a love letter to Italian regional cooking and spoke about the quality of the food.

It read: "Opened in 2021, it's a love letter to Italian regional cooking, set within a clean-lined space that has the feel of a modern refettorio, now with tables outside too.

"Reporters praise the exceptional staff, and the sharing ethos of the menus, which encourages much happy mixing and matching.

"The bidding opens with inspired antipasti selections such as charred green friggitelli (finger chillies) dressed in garlic and Maldon sea salt, or wafer slices of raw scallop with pink grapefruit and pickled radish.

"Pasta is a sure-fire hit, perhaps for pappardelle with rich rabbit ragù simmered in white wine and finished with 24-month parmigiano, while the robust approach to principal dishes might embrace monkfish grilled on the bone and served with Jersey Royals and peperonata in fragrant salmoriglio dressing.

"Pink-cooked barbecued lamb in salsa verde comes with a crisply fresh salad of those Tropea onions and ricotta.

"Anybody leaving without having bitten into one of the bombolone filled doughnuts has missed a trick as they are a textural sensation.

"Not surprisingly, Italy is the reference point for an approachable wine list with plenty by the glass or carafe."

Meanwhile, Chapter on Greenfield Crescent was praised for providing a stylish, streamlined package and modern brasserie dishes and was rated as good, with all four categories scored as good.

The Good Food review said Chaper covered a lot of bases within the Artisan Market in Edgbaston and said it was a smart and open place.

It read: "Weekend breakfasts should start the day as you mean it to go on, a smart bar with glitzy cocktails opens out to a terrace for drinking in the Birmingham sun, and dining takes place in a smartly attired room with op-art banquettes and an open kitchen.

"It all looks great and the whole show is run by a team of impressively knowledgeable staff.

"Menus (fixed-price or carte) deal in the kind of modern brasserie dishes that city-dwellers love to eat: Caesar salad made with smoked mackerel; ham hock rarebit; chicken ballotine with couscous and chimichurri; market fish in, say, curried cream or lemon and caper butter.

"Simple bistro desserts won't lack for takers when it comes to strawberry pavlova or a chocolate and pistachio mousse topped with raspberries and a brandy snap.

"Sunday roasts are an invaluable local amenity, especially for locals who are partial to crackled pork rack or dry-aged beef rump with Yorkshire pud, perhaps served with a side of cauliflower cheese.

"Drappier Champagnes head up a by-the-glass wine list that isn't pedantic enough to give vintage dates, even for the reds."

To read the full list, go to thegoodfoodguide.co.uk/best-local-restaurant/best-local-restaurant-award-winners-2024