Having lived in Birmingham for most of my life, I’ve made it my mission to investigate the city’s top notch grub. It’s a hard job… but someone has to do it! My most recent culinary expeditions took me to pastures new…
The Gastro Card
Being a glorified bunch of foodies here at Whisk, when we’re in need of an outing, we like to dine out in Birmingham. It is in the name of our professional duty (it really isn’t)… which is why an epic discount card is absolutely essential to us.
The Gastro card is exclusive to the West Midlands so we’ve got plenty of these wonder-cards in our office. It comes packed with discounts and benefits, like 25% off your food bill, free glasses of champagne, 50% off wine etc. Whether you have to dine clients and need to keep company expenses low, or just love eating out with your friends…a must for any Birmingham eater-outer. The offers you receive are always exclusive to Gastro Card holders and it covers a huge selection of wonderful restaurants across the Midlands.
At only £30, this could be likened to a high yield, risk free investment. If you like to eat out, you need this in your wallet much like Donald Trump needs prenuptial agreements; it has saved us an absolute fortune!
Gastro Card works with schools to develop cooking lessons, as a matter of health awareness and career awareness. This is another wonderful reason to grab a Gastro Card.
Order yours at:
The Digbeth Dining Club
‘Street Food’ is still a relatively new concept in the UK; cities all over the world including Hong Kong and New York are well known for their amazing street food. Back in August, The Digbeth Dining Club and Spot*light brought the concept to Birmingham! The Digbeth Dining Club describe their aim to ‘introduce the best locally sourced ‘street food’ to Birmingham’s trendy artistic hub, by creating a platform for the West Midlands’ finest street artisans to produce incredible food in front of their customers – by providing honest food that you can trust, at affordable prices’. I took very little convincing.
Last Friday, my growling stomach, some friends and I decided to check out The Digbeth Dining club. We were not disappointed. There is something mouth-wateringly appealing about hot food being made in front of you. Rather than ordering from a menu, you can see and smell what you might like to eat. After effectively inhaling the pheasant and fig wrap (you should have seen the look the guy I bought it from gave me, he thought I was something off Doctor Who), I perused the pizza stand where they were just making up fresh dough; I could taste it in the air. I saw lavishly topped fresh dough thrown into a pizza oven and cooked until it was a gorgeous mess of cheese and loveliness, with the little hiss of steam that comes off a properly fresh, thin pizza crust when you bite into it. Half crunchy, half soft. All perfect. I demolished the entire pizza, more appreciative of its hot savory tastiness, whilst standing in the crisp evening air. This was not on the same level as any pizza you defrost, but pizza made lovingly from scratch, by a large Italian man, called Giuseppe … ok maybe he wasn’t, but you get the idea.
My friends and I did NOT share, mainly because the food was so reasonably priced, the whole pizza was £5, yes £5… amazing. I absolutely recommend you take a wander (or eventually a waddle – in my case) around the Digbeth Dining club.