When Two Cats chef Niki Astley revealed he was taking a week long residency in a Jewellery Quarter pub for a pop up venture, Brum’s foodies were more than a little intrigued.

His 'New Baltic Cuisine' restaurant Two Cats started life as a roaming pop up before finding a permanent home in Warstone Lane where it swiftly gained national recognition from the illustrious likes of food critic Marina O’Loughlin.

On her visit to the restaurant last year, Marina described Niki as “moving Brum from balti to Baltic, brilliantly.”

Now the acclaimed chef who previously ran the kitchen cooking soul food at JQ’s The Church pub, is introducing a new type of cuisine to the city in the form of ‘Nikkei cuisine’ a kind of mash up of Japanese and Peruvian cuisine – “food that’s never been seen in Birmingham before”.

Details of Salt and Earth’s next pop up are sure to crop up soon, but before then, here’s what you can expect.

The Setting

Salt and Earth interior
1000 Trades interior

Two Cats picked a charming place to showcase their new experiment in fine dining. By day 1000 Trades is a very acceptable boozer but by night it takes on a very relaxed bistro feel.

While our small rickety table was groaning with elegant foodie fare, the group sitting at the table next to us, were huddled over their beers and sharing a bag of crisps.

With its mismatched furniture, exposed brickwork and laidback feel, 1000 Trades is the perfect restaurant setting to offset any pretensions in the kitchen.

The Service

Salt and Earth pop up kitchen at 1000 Trades
Salt and Earth pop up kitchen at 1000 Trades

We ordered and paid for our carafe of boxed wine at the bar and once we had ticked our food choices on the paper menu, given to us we went to the front of the kitchen to pay.

On the paper menu it states that the food, “will come out in the order in which it is ready” but all the dishes were served a little too swiftly as everything pretty much came together at the same time.

This meant it felt more like a tapas sharing plate experience than we expected and so we could have done with some side plates.

The Food

Plantain at Salt and Earth Plantain at Salt and Earth
Plantain at Salt and Earth

The menu was broken down into a choice of three vegetable dishes, meat dishes and fish dishes with two - three dishes recommended per person.

My eyes light up whenever I see burrata on a menu, so that was a pretty easy choice (£6). For meat I ordered the beef noisette (cooked medium rare) purple potato, prawn butter, coriander oil and charred onion (£9). For fish I had the soft shell crab, chilli butter mooli, guacomole and apple ( £9).

Burrata at Salt and Earth
Burrata at Salt and Earth

My friend ordered the plantain, feta, black olive, agave syrup (£6) and the grits, catfish, peppercorn and bacon crumb (£8)

For dessert we ordered the coconut and black sesame mochi, strawberry, shisho and kiwi to share.

The burrata (rich buttery liquid mozzarella and cream encased in a hard mozzarella shell) tasted fresher and lighter than I’ve ever experienced. The onion flavours infused the cheese beautifully and the basil in the oil undertones also came though. The subtle sweetness of the tomatoes complemented the dish. Simple yet lavish.

soft shell crab at Salt and Earth
soft shell crab with mooli at Salt and Earth

Plaintain served in the Caribbean is usually sliced but here came out looking like a banana. I expected it to have the same mush like texture but instead it was quite hard. I’m not a plaintain fan but the salty feta and black olive complemented it nicely.

The soft shell crab looked the most disappointing of dishes but was actually the best.

I know mooli as Punjabi for radish so I was confused as to what Nikkei Cuisine actually covers.

But who cares when this dish was so fantastic.

The crab batter complemented the sweetness of apple and avocado. And the crab meat was succulent and juicy.

Salt and Earth menu
Salt and Earth menu

The raw mooli was a great palate cleanser as we went back and forth into the different dishes.

The catfish was also a highlight thanks to the delicious crumb - I immediately got the maple like sweetness of the bacon and then the strong hit of the peppercorn, which enhanced the flavour of the fish.

Catfish-and-grits at Salt and Earth
Catfish-and-grits at Salt and Earth

Grits don’t really have a taste (they’re made with grains of corn) but they were a fine accompaniment to ensure the fish wasn’t too dry.

The beef noisette was expertly cooked to perfection - so ridiculously pinky and melt in the mouth, you’d expect bloody juices oozing out.

Dishes came all together at Salt and Earth
Dishes at Salt and Earth pretty much came out all together

But I just didn’t see the point of everything else on the plate and didn't think it lived up to the ‘exciting fusion’ tag.

Compared to the flavour combinations in the other dishes, it seemed boring. The prawn butter tasted of nothing. I asked the waitress what exactly it was made of and she went to the kitchen to find out. She returned to inform us it was “ béchamel with prawn heads.”

This information was a bit too ‘Masterchef’ for me.

dessert pancakes at Salt and Earth
dessert pancakes at Salt and Earth

The dessert however was a masterclass in Masterchefdom – the most interesting dessert to look at and eat – the contrasting textures of the rubber like pancake with the kiwi and strawberry fruit and the overriding strong fresh zesty sweet flavours of the fruit.

Drinks

Boxed wines in new bar 1000 Trades
Boxed wines in new bar 1000 Trades

We ordered a carafe of Gamay Noir boxed wine – a light bodied easy drinking wine similar to Pinot Noir that was in no danger of overpowering any of our dishes.

Verdict

Total cost of our meal including five dishes, one dessert was £41. The carafe of red wine paid at 1000 Trades bar: £13.00

Considering you can expect to pay around the £40 mark for a tasting menu at Two Cats for one person and a lot more than that at other fine dining restaurants in the city, this is excellent value for money.

Some dishes stood out more than others but they were all memorable - and very filling.

Salt and Earth at 1000 Trades was a whistlestop tour of fine dining - at its most informal.

1000 Trades dining area
1000 Trades dining area

Both mine and my friend’s main gripe was that because the food came out all together the whole meal was finished in an hour.

The menu had more obviously Southern American influences to me than South American but the Japanese flavours were clear.

The Salt and Earth team acknowledge on their twitter they are a ‘pop up in progress’

By that definition it’s an exciting time to join them on the start of what looks to be a new Brum foodie adventure.

Food: 4/5

Atmosphere: 5/5

Value for money 5/5

Service: 3/5

Overall: 4/5