Food review: Harvey Nichols Restaurant, The Mailbox, Birmingham

Oh, to be ladies what lunch.

My friend and I lived our improbable dream with a lunch date at the swanky Harvey Nichols Restaurant in The Mailbox.

Just to give you a bit of background, I met said friend at a pregnancy yoga class. I felt an immediate connection with her when she laughed at one of my childish jokes while the rest of the women remained po-faced.

In our pre-child naivety, we thought our maternity year would be littered with lunches together; elegant affairs in which we’d sip Prosecco and nibble chiccetti-style plates while spooning Ella’s Kitchen mush into the mouths of our contended babes, who absolutely weren’t demanding Peppa Pig on YouTube. And we’d be dressed head-to-toe in Cos with immaculate hair and make-up.

How wrong we were.

I seem to remember our only ‘lunch date’ was a rather fraught hour spent with our little ones in Nando’s, ending in us both exhausted and splattered in Peri Peri sauce, frozen yoghurt and orange squash, apologising to waiting staff for the amount of debris under the table. Hardly what we’d envisaged.

Oh, and then there was the time we braved The Balcony in Selfridges and my friend got reprimanded by a waitress for taking my toddler for a joyride round the restaurant floor in her highchair. Ooops.

So on a child-free, work-free Thursday we ventured into town for a day of shopping and lunching, with the possibility of a swim afterwards. We felt just like the happy-go-lucky teenagers we once were, but with more than a bus pass, a cute boy’s phone number (home landline, obvs) and a fiver in our pockets. After a morning mooching round the shops we headed to Harvey Nicks for a spot of lunch. It’s a sophisticated venue which feels very grown-up, ideal for boozy brunches, lunches, afternoon teas and cocktail-soaked dinners with friends. An Art Deco-inspired space, it has a beautiful buffed parquet floor, and on-trend use of gold, leather and pastel pink and green.

On this occasion the restaurant was quiet and we had the pick of the tables even though I’d made a booking on the website.

We perused the menu and ordered a bottle of sparkling mineral water to start proceedings. And on to the wine. The ‘possibility’ of going swimming afterwards was becoming probably impossible. Oh well.

She ordered a glass of decent Sauvignon Blanc while I pushed the boat out somewhere into the mid-Atlantic with a £10 glass of Sancerre. It was delicious, golden nectar and went straight to my head.

When Harvey Nicks relaunched in the Mailbox a few years ago, the restaurant menu was curated by Yummy Brummie Michelin star chef Glynn Purnell. However, recently Stewart Mackie has taken over as head chef and – similarly to before – the menu is packed with temptation; choices include salads, risottos, and burgers. There are a couple of steaks on offer for hungry carnivores, and a reasonably-priced special menu offers three courses for £22.

We decided to plump for a main course each with the possibility of pud, entirely dependent on how likely we were to hit the pool later.

My friend chose the risotto topped with halloumi and aubergine, while I chose the sweet potato and chickpea tagine with grilled courgette – both options our pleasant and attentive waitress remarked were ‘lovely lunch dishes’. Bowls of crisp fries, and green beans with shallots completed our order.

While we waited we talked about the books we were reading, our holiday plans . . . all very congenial and a far cry from our recent life of endless CBeebies, Pampers and Peppa bl**dy Pig.

Our food arrived and looked delish. Light-headed from the wine, I eagerly tucked into my tagine. The veg were well cooked, not overly soft however, the dish as a whole was a bit bland and lacked the warmth I’d associate with Moroccan food. It was a nod to Morocco instead of a full-on Hokey Cokey around the souks of Marrakech. The grilled ribbons courgette didn’t really add much to the dish. It was a pleasant lunch but not especially memorable.

My friend said her comforting bowl of risotto was lovely and creamy with just the right amount of bite. The little pillows of seared golden halloumi looked tempting, and ripe for the end of my fork, had I been quick enough. Darn!

The skinny chips were excellent; perfectly crisp and salty while the green beans with diced shallots were equally moreish. OK, that’s a fib, there’s nothing more moreish than a perfect chip, is there?

Although we were satisfied, we ploughed on with dessert anyway, promising to do extra laps of the pool as penance.

I chose the sticky toffee pud and vanilla ice cream for which I’m sure I’d need to swim an entire ocean to burn off its calorie content. The giant wedge of airy sponge was as wicked as I expected, bathed in a puddle of decadent caramel sauce. The smooth, soft ice cream was an ideal accompaniment, melting unctuously into the glossy sauce.

Meanwhile, my friend opted for the peanut butter cheesecake with popcorn and blackberries. She polished off the lot and didn’t offer me any so it must have been good. We finished the meal with a couple of decent cups of coffee while debating our next move – if we could move, we were royally stuffed. To swim or not to swim, that was the question. I warned my friend I’d need to do a loop of the Bullring while my food digested, or it could be a case of the Titanic part two. Any excuse for more shopping.

The bill, including service, came to just over £70 which seemed reasonable for such an agreeable lunch; it was a delight to finish a meal without a/ heartburn b/ covered in someone else’s food c/ feeling the necessity to write a letter of apology to all the other diners d/ all of the above. We agreed to make it a quarterly event.

Incidentally, if you do decide to take your little darlings there is a kids menu featuring dishes such as fish fingers and fries and cheesy pasta.

However, I’d highly recommend ditching the kids, or at least leaving them with another responsible adult, and enjoying some grown-up time in this beautiful restaurant.

An adult day out, just in the Nick of time!