Tattu Birmingham

Tattu is part of a mini chain, with branches in Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and London (in Denmark Street). This restaurant is in a basement, pretty much opposite the Grand Hotel. It is quite upmarket in its decor, with a Cantonese menu. It is a large affair, seating up to 145 covers. At one end of the dining room was an open kitchen, and there was a wine display cabinet as you enter the room. There was a £124 tasting menu as well as a full a la carte menu, with a three-course set menu at £74. There was a three-course menu at lunch only for £32.50. Loud throbbing dance music played at a volume that was rather too loud, given all the hard surfaces of the room.

There were no vintages at all shown on the wine list, not even for a Dom Perignon at £525  (which retails at £240 at least). Sample wines included Lethbridge Riesling £62 (which retails at about £30), Antinori Chianti Badia a Passignano at £115 (which retails at about £44) and Antinori Tignanello at £250 (which retails at maybe £168).  

Lobster and prawns with sesame balls were fried, but did not have much flavour other than the sesame seeds. These came with a soy dip and also a ginger foam (12/20). A salad of sesame was mostly slices of kohlrabi, with a few fried onion strings as a garnish and a little sesame. However, the kohlrabi at least had reasonable texture (12/20). Shui mai beef and prawns had fairly thin dumplings, and the filling of beef had a pleasing kick of chilli, while the prawn on top of each dumpling was tender (13/20).

A dish imaginatively named “angry bird” was just pieces of chicken with chilli, cooked with green and yellow bell peppers and a few changes nuts. There was a decent kick of chilli, and the peppers were cooked accurately. For me, this was the best dish of the meal (13/20). Salmon miso came with pickled ginger that may possibly have come from a jar. Farmed salmon had little flavour, but it was cooked well enough, and the miso glaze helped (12/20). Noodles had reasonable texture, though they were rather bland (12/20). A side dish of green beans was undercooked, verging on raw. I would certainly prefer beans to be under rather than overcooked, but these were definitely not heated for long enough. They were also quite salty (barely 11/20).

The bill came to £104 each, with just beer and a cocktail to drink. Service was friendly, with our waiter (Joshua) being friendly and helpful. The overall Tattu experience was pleasant, if rather expensive for what was delivered. However, the place was actually very busy indeed early on a Tuesday night, so it has clearly found its audience.