SHIRAZ
Verdict: 7/10 (good food, but the service left to be desired)
A friend and I went to the Persian restaurant Shiraz on Hagley Road on a weekday evening in June 2008.
It was my second visit. The first was more than two years ago. We had a very good meal then, but it is not a most convenient location to us and we have not returned until now.
In recent couple of years we have seen quite a few Persian and Middle Eastern restaurants opening in Birmingham, but Shiraz is not one of them. I don't know when it opened, but it was already there when I arrived at Birmingham 4 years ago.
Although it was Thursday evening, the restaurant was 80% full and we were crammed into a small table just besides the door to the kitchen and toilets. It is not good enough, considering we had reserved a table a couple of days before. In fact, our table was too small to accommodate all the food we ordered and we needed to move to a 4 seater table which was free when we were seated.
This is one of the starters we ordered: charcoal grilled aubergine dip (£4). Making smoky aubergine at is easy but time and energy consuming, so it isn't a bad idea to eat at restaurants. This was good not being too salty or too oily, but £4 is slightly too pricey for a mezze.
This is another starter: yoghurt and cucumber mixture, and two pieces of Persian bread.
Shiraz's Persian bread is pretty famous. It is lighter and fluffier than Indian naan, and absolutely delicious when it is fresh. It is best to order this with starters, as most of the main dishes come automatically with rice.
I was slightly disappointed in the yogurt and cucumber mixture. I expected something like Greek tzatziki, but it was missing garlic and salt. Of course, it is not fair to say 'missing' as it was my expectation which was misplaced. The yoghurt was very creamy (fatty) and very little acidity, so it was like crème fraiche with chopped (not sliced here) cucumber. It wasn't bad in its own right, but I was rather dismayed not knowing how to eat it: it was too under-seasoned to eat with bread, and too rich to eat with meat.
Now the main dish arrives. This is lamb and chicken kebabs. We expected to have one skewer of lamb kebab and another of chicken kebab, but we were wrong! They were very beautiful visually and tasty as well. But my dining companion judged the meat was cooked better in another Persian restaurant in Balti Triangle. I need to go to try it!
Accompaniments are Persian rice and herb salad. They don't use Persian rice, but Tilda basmati rice. I don't know how the Persian rice is, but Tilda basmati is considered to be the best in the category. The salad was rather disappointing as I am sure we had more herbs when we came here last time. They were not particularly fresh either.
This is another main course: lamb shank cooked in onion and tomato soup. It comes with the rice below.
The meat was meltingly tender and the knife was barely necessary. Soup was also very nice with sweetness of onion and tanginess of tomato. I really like Persian stews.
One fault was that it was not hot enough. Again, I remember it came boiling hot when we had meal here last time. It was a shame, as I like my soup very very hot.
This is rice cooked with dill and broad beans (Baghali polo).
I had the same rice when I came here a few years ago. Back then I had a larger mound of rice. But it was actually too much to finish in one go, so it is probably a right move to diminish the quantity, especially now that the rice price is getting higher and higher.
Another difference I noticed was the beans. Last time it was small dried beans of which I did not know the name, and this time they were small and fresh broad beans. The consistency of rice also was different. I think they were using a different type of rice before and that one I liked better.
In the end we could not finish all the rice and asked the waiter to pack it up. It is fairly common practice in Middle Eastern and Chinese restaurants. It is a good practice. We can order as many dishes as we want without caring about how much we can possibly eat.
This is Persian tea after dinner (£ 2.50). There are cardamom pods as well as tea leaves in the tea pot. We were given two small pieces of baklava as well (these weren't so good). When I came here for the first time, this tea was offered for free, but not any more.
The total bill came to £29 before adding service. Good value for two courses for two people (no drinks: it is not licensed and not BYO). To be totally honest with you, I was slightly disappointed in the food, as I was very impressed at the first visit. That said, however, it is still decent enough. If they don't push us into that small table, we will return.
Shiraz, taste of Persia
167-169 Hagley Rd
Birmingham, B16 8UQ iMapj
+44 121 454 9911
