Saturday

Breakfast was bagels with cream cheese and strawberry jam - compensation for the completion of the weekly food shopping.

In the evening, off to the White Swan, Harborne a pub with quite decent food (though restaurant prices [and service]).

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What we ate:

Bob

Scallops with peanut sauce & an aubergine crisp (which was a waste of effort)

Calves liver, with broad bean & peas and a bacon & tomato dauphinoise

Apple & blackcurrant crumble

A big glass of  Collina De Estate, a Sicilian Shiraz

Ali

Soft shelled crab with calamari

Rib eye steak with watercress & frites

Sticky toffee pudding

A glass of Moet & Chandon

The good bits were the starters, especially Ali's which was perfectly cooked. As noted above, an Aubergine (egg plant, for my American readers) crisp was a bit pointless, and not very crisp. The mains were good too - the calves liver was perfectly cooked but it could have been better trimmed, I don't really need to know the physiology of a young cow's hepatic vein.

Desserts weren't so good. The toffee pudding was OK, but the crumble had obviously been nuked in a microwave and was fearsomely hot. I question the value of sprinkling the whole plate (including the custard) with icing sugar and I suspect that the filling was from a can - not that the menue suggested anything else.

Service was pretty good, though the server told us that they'd just started a new menu ...