I haven’t written a food review on here for quite some time, that may be due to feeling a bit too comfortable writing short and snappy reviews on Instagram, dealing with exhaustion since last year and just not feeling excited to write about something. However, a trip to a restaurant in the Jewellery Quarter sparked the excitement inside of me and suddenly I remembered why I loved writing on this blog. There’s something about places like this. Quiet, not much of a social media presence, sitting on a busy street on a Saturday lunchtime with no diners inside, even though they’re serving one of the most impressive value lunch menus in Birmingham. And honestly…kind of pissed me off.
Because it should be full on a Saturday lunch. It should be full every day it’s open from Thursday to Saturday. So I guess it sparked that fire in me again, to shout about incredible independent businesses like this, the ones quietly getting on with serving brilliant food while everyone chases the latest opening. And that’s exactly why I’m back writing food reviews on this blog.
Folium has been sitting on Caroline Street in the Jewellery Quarter since 2017, run by Chef Ben Tash and his partner Lucy Hanlon. And embarrassingly, I’ve pushed it down my “must visit” list more times than I’d like to admit. New openings kept taking priority. Hype, press nights, noise… you know how it goes.
But finally, I made it.
We arrived at 12:50pm on a Saturday lunchtime and the restaurant was quiet. In fact, we were the only ones dining there for lunch, which after the meal we’d go on to have, felt absolutely baffling. We were greeted by Lucy, who was lovely from the moment we walked through the door. Josie threw out an “I think I know you from the MySpace era” and within minutes they were chatting away like old friends. That’s Birmingham for you! As we settled into our seats, the first thing I noticed was the soundtrack. HAIM. The 1975. Sam Fender. Basically my emotional support playlist in restaurant form. At that point, even if the food had been average (spoiler: it absolutely wasn’t) – I was already halfway won over.
We went for the short tasting menu — six courses for £45pp, which genuinely made me raise my eyebrows so high I thought I might need Botox to bring them back down. “That’s ridiculous,” I said to Josie. And it is. But in the best possible way.
First up – chicken liver parfait with burnt onion. A delicate, crispy tuile made from caramelised onion purée, deepened with burnt onion skins, wrapped around a silky chicken liver parfait and finished with pickled thyme ketchup and a fresh thyme leaf. It’s rich but not heavy. Sharp but not overpowering. Apparently it’s been on the menu since day one, and I fully understand why. In fact, I feel like Folium need to cram these little beauties into some sort of Christmas selection box, Forget chocolates, give me 24 of these behind little advent calendar doors and I’d absolutely lose my mind!
Just saying. But honestly… can we make this happen?
Then came the sourdough with cultured butter. Warm bread, a crisp crust, that slight tangy depth from fermentation, and butter that melts instantly when spread on. Simple, but absolutely beautiful.
Next up were the biodynamic grain noodles with shiitake mushroom – earthy, savoury and comforting in a way that feels almost medicinal. Like if you were feeling a bit run down and someone handed you a bowl of this, it’d probably cure your cold on the spot!
And then came the Staffordshire lamb with chicory. Perfectly cooked lamb so tender, deeply flavoured, with a beautiful sweetness running through it. This was the highlight of the menu and one of the best lamb dishes I’ve ever had. And that’s saying something, because lamb is my favourite meat. I’ve eaten a lot of it over the years, but this is genuinely the best I’ve ever had. It was so good I nearly had a moment when Lucy came to take the plate away. Not that there was much left on it anyway (it was all gone to be honest) Just a thin line of sauce, which In fact, I very briefly and quite embarrassingly used my finger to mop up the last bit of sauce – Zero regrets!
Then onto dessert — Yorkshire curd tart with birch syrup. Light, gently sweet and properly comforting. Slight caramelisation on top, almost Basque-style in feel, served with ice cream and raisins. Beautiful.
And finally, the perfect petit fours to end our meal: a Bee Pollen Financier with Chamomile and a Manjari Chocolate Financier with Woodruff. Perfect with a cup of tea and the ideal way to gently finish off what had been a wonderful dining experience at Folium.
Lucy deserves her own paragraph, honestly. Service wasn’t service in the transactional sense, it felt like hospitality in its truest form. We ended up talking about Birmingham, the food scene, life, all of it. It didn’t feel like staff and customer. It felt like people sharing space, sharing stories, and I think that’s quite rare. There’s something really grounding about a place where people genuinely care – not performatively, not for show, but because they truly believe in what they’re doing. It was lovely to speak to Lucy. Within minutes it felt like we’d known her for years.
I genuinely don’t understand why Folium isn’t constantly spoken about in the same breath as some of the louder, more hyped restaurants in the city. Because this, for me, is right up there. In fact, I’m slightly confused it hasn’t been picked up a Michelin star. In my opinion, it matches — and in some cases surpasses — a lot of restaurants currently holding one across Birmingham and the West Midlands. Maybe that’s exactly why this review brought me back to writing.Because restaurants like Folium deserve people shouting about them.
A special restaurant. One I’ll absolutely be returning to. And one I really hope gets the recognition it deserves, not just in Birmingham, but far beyond it.
