SHERATTON
On 12 December 2007, I, with 6 friends, went to Sheratton, Bangladeshi restaurant on Bristol Rd., near Edgbaston Campus of the University of Birmingham. It has nothing to do with the international hotel chain Sheraton. Besides, there is no Sheraton Birmingham in UK, while there is one in Birmingham, AL.
There are five or six balti places on Bristol Rd., near Birmingham University, and Sheratton is one of them. I has been closed for some months later this year, so we thought it went bust, but about one or two months ago it reopened with a new outlook. We suspected that the owner changed, but according to one friend who had been here a couple of times before the incarnation said that the waiters were same as before.
With the refurbishment, it is evidently trying to go out from the "balti house" status. Since one year or so in and around Birmingham a new wave of Bangladeshi restaurants has been started; these places emphasises their Bangladeshi origine refusing to be categorised simply as "Indian" or "Balti", and often offer unfamiliar Bangladeshi dishes and fusion cuisine. Sheratton is following this lead.
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On the menu that we were given there was no mention of familiar dishes like Jalfrezi, balti, or karahi, and there were only 25 or so of house specials, biryanis, and rice/nans. I wondered why as the take-away menu that I had collected some weeks ago did include more usual and cheaper dishes. When we asked a waiter, he said that they can prepare other dishes as on the take-away menu. At this point we started to suspect they were trying to sell us expensive things hiding more economical choices. I don't know if it was the case, but it did not give us a good impression either.
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And, as it is unusual in this area, we were not given any popadoms and, not even asked if we wanted any.
I ordered Maacher Salom (Bangladeshi fish curry in Bengal style : £7.50) and boiled rice (£1.95). The fish had a slight mud-like taste as is common in sweet water fish. I found two cinnamon leaves in the sauce, which was new to me. It tasted pretty good, though to a surprising degree. For the price of £9.45, however, it is not particulary of good value. The price in general is higher than in other balti houses in the area. King prawn dishes are especially expensive and you should pay £8.95 at least. For example, if you order king prawn jalfrezi with mushroom pilau rice, it amounts to £12.25, which looks absurd to me. If you order a chicken jalfrezi, you can fare with £5.75, but if you fancy chicken tikka jalfrezi, it is £6.95 (by comparison, at Haweli - one of my local balti house in Bearwood - King Prawn Bhuna is £6.95, chicken bhuna £4.50, chicken tikka masala £5.50). It is hardly justifiable, at least to me. I would rather eat at Beawood, or go to spend more and get better food and better service at somewhere in City centre.
Another problem we noticed is that the service was not up to standard. The waiters were polite, but rather slow and gave us an impression they were not used to the job. For example, a waiter who brought us dishes had to return to the kitchen to bring some more; he was not sure how many he had to bring. There was also one wrong dish in the order. We often go to balti houses in the area in a large-ish group, but it has never happened to us. There might be no reason to avoid Sheratton, but there are certainly better places for me to go.
Sheratton608 Bristol Rd., Selly Oak, Birmingham, B29 6BP
Tel. 0121 471 4696 / 0121 471 4040
Open 7 days a week, from 5:30 to midnight
Licenced; Major credit/debit cards accepted
