Indian Cafe Racer, the Birmingham restaurant founded by Azad Kayes, has taken on a 65-cover site at 88-90 Bristol Street in the B5 postcode, according to a restaurant review by Grace Dent published in the Guardian.
The restaurant spent its early years hidden behind a curtain at the rear of the Duke of Wellington pub, a few doors from its new address. Dent writes that the original site, decorated with a Royal Enfield motorcycle, chequerboard floors and a psychedelic Indian soundtrack, became “culty”, then oversubscribed, and eventually needed larger premises.
The review describes the move as “a good news tale for the Brum food scene”. It notes that south Birmingham’s Balti triangle once supported 30 restaurants along Ladypool Road and Stratford Road, of which only two now remain — something Dent attributes to a mismatch between supply and demand.
Kayes draws on Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, the review states, with a handful of Indo-Chinese small plates such as gobi manchurian, described as fried cauliflower in sweet-and-sour sauce, and chilli chicken. The menu changes regularly; on the review visit it listed shaktiman and salad, named after an Indian comic-book superhero, gol gappa — crisp shells filled with chickpeas and potato — chicken pepper fry, and grilled aubergine and portobello mushrooms served as farzi steak.
The cocktail bar offers what Dent calls cold, potent drinks under names including Angry Young Man, Red Carpet and Tiger Rides Bike, alongside karak chai, a heavily spiced, sweet, milky tea brewed strong with cardamom and condensed milk. The menu invites diners to “jump on our Cafe Racer” for a “mast taste of India”, adding: “No visa required.”
Dent compares the new room to Dishoom, citing paper menus in a faux-antique typeface, wipeable tables and hospitality that is functional rather than fancy. She describes the space as elegant with small dashes of eccentricity, and suggests some of the operation’s earlier silliness has been tidied away during expansion. Large glass windows look out on a dual carriageway, and the room errs on the dark side, though the welcome is warm, the review says.
Among the dishes assessed, the dahi puri — crisp, plump puffed flour shells filled with potato, sweet yoghurt, tamarind and mint chutney — are noted as so large and liquidy that eating them in one mouthful sits on a “fine line between extreme pleasure and being legally waterboarded”.
Chicken 65, named according to one account after its position on a Chennai hotel menu in 1965, is fried with curry leaves and green chillies and carries, in Dent’s view, arguably a little too much mustard seed. A portion of spiced lamb chops — two cutlets, marinated overnight and finished in the tandoor — is called genuinely succulent. Tandoori king prawns in house masala are described as lovable, zinging with crushed ginger and sticky with honey, while the Rajastani lamb, slow-cooked and finished with smoked charcoal and butter, is singled out as a standout.
Dal makani arrives deeply and sweetly rich in its creamy tomato sauce, the review says, though the naans are judged a bit thin and functional. Dent concludes that the cooking is sometimes bang on and sometimes a little slapdash, but that dishes such as gobi manchurian renew the interest. For those who find cocktails too much by that stage, she notes a cold Bombay Bicycle IPA.
The review traces the cafe racer name to riders who raced machines such as the Royal Enfield between roadside cafes in the 1960s; the bike was once built in nearby Redditch and is now manufactured in Chennai. Dent observes that the vehicle travelled from the edge of Birmingham to India and that the restaurant closes the circle, though she suggests some of the foot-to-the-pedal mayhem has been lost with the mature new home.
Indian Cafe Racer opens every day including Monday, the review states, and will make a fuss of large groups. Dent notes enough range to satisfy a desi food devotee ordering Rajastani lamb and mango machli, while diners who avoid spice can have paneer makani. She concludes the restaurant is well worth a ride, and maybe even a return ticket.
Indian Cafe Racer, 88-90 Bristol Street, Birmingham B5, 0121-238-7972. Lunch Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 4.30pm; dinner all week, 5pm to 11pm. From about £30 a head à la carte, plus drinks and service.
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