Pulperia
HIGH STAKES
Eating out with the family for Saturday lunch feels like being on holiday. It’s a rare treat likely to end in a squiffy afternoon—my holiday standard—but it could also be the Hispanic accent of our waitress, or even the splendour of the décor.
Pulperia is Islam Aktar’s new restaurant; it’s a classy space, oozing confidence. Much like his former place, Legna and current flagship, Opheem, it’s mostly natural tones and celebrations of nature with some grandiose flourishes. It’s also striking how big the place is—this is a bold new opening for Birmingham—the man’s got big cojones.
Main dining room
Pulperia specialises in Argentinian cuisine, so there’s a lot of meat on the menu and a lot of cooking on the charcoal and wood-fired grill. I’ve got to confess I’m not much of a steak man. It’s probably at least ten years since I ordered one in a restaurant and with Georgie being vegetarian, it’s not the obvious choice for a family lunch. But, given I had my favourite meal of 2019 at Opheem—without them—it just feels like the right thing to do.
We’re going in big time, so let’s crack on. I’ve gone for ‘pulpo—smoked octopus with paprika potato fondant’ and it looks fantastic, totally photogenic as indeed all our starters do. The thick curl of tentacle is easy on the bite, but it could be crisper off the grill. I’m also not getting that it’s smoked, then again there are some bold flavours on the plate—there’s freshness, it’s sweet and ever so slightly sour with some quiet heat of chilli in the mix. The sautéed potatoes don’t let the dish down, but they are absolutely not fondant potatoes. On flavours alone I like this dish but it’s not doing what it says on the tin.
PULPO (inspired by Francis Mallman) - Smoked octopus, paprika ‘potato fondant’
Katrina has gone for the gambas—wild Argentine king prawns. It’s an uncomplicated dish with just the sweet condensed comfort of confit tomatoes and aji molledo (crushed red peppers) but the prawns have good flavour and are perfectly cooked off the grill.
GAMBAS - Wild Argentine king prawn, tomato confit, aji molledo
Georgie’s gone with the burrata with heritage tomato. She’s not really feeling it as it lacks flavour, not least because of some “very ordinary tomatoes”. Then, just past the halfway point the basil and chilli dressing—sitting in a puddle at the bottom of the dish—comes into play and it lifts the whole dish.
ENSALADA - Burrata, heritage tomato, basil, chilli
I’m intent on mopping up the juices on my plate, so suggest we order some ‘house bread.’ At £5 on the menu we’re all a bit shocked that it arrives as just one small brioche style roll, although it does come with a beautifully, lightly whipped, ‘aged beef butter’ that’s almost worth the price tag alone. So with just a third of the bread roll, I’m stuck between enjoying the exceptional joys of the butter or mopping up the exquisite flavours on the plate. The plate eventually wins out, with me leaving it almost as clean as it started the day.
House bread… (my portion) and aged beef butter
Whilst it’s very much a carnivore’s dream menu, Georgie is perfectly happy with a mains option of tagliatelle with wild mushroom, truffle and pecorino. It turns out to be very garlicky and creamy, albeit with a good intensity of truffle in the flavours, although she declares it “just a good weekday meal at home”.
TAGLIATELLE - Wild mushroom, truffle, pecorino
I’m not here for anything other than steak and there are ‘standard’ options—grass fed, aged for a minimum of 30 days and two breeds—aged for a minimum of 50 days, including a 400g Galician Blonde rib eye on the bone, which the menu states is “considered to be one of the best steaks in the world.”
Galician Blonde 400g rib eye on the bone
Katrina opts for the standard rib eye (300g) but I’ve only got eyes for the blonde. We’re told steaks come with chips so that just leaves us to select sauces – the bone marrow & malbec sauce for me; and the peppercorn for Katrina and we share a side of ‘charred broccoli’.
Ancho (Rib eye) 300g
Bowls of chips arrive with chimichurri vinaigrette that lights my addiction touch paper, but thankfully there’s plenty to distract me away from just drinking it from the bowl. We completely mess up the sauces (although I say ‘we’ politely). Never mind, it just means I’ve got both sauces adding extra layers of flavour mixing in with the lightly smoky steak juices and the sweet hits of black garlic and caramelised onion purees. There is so much joy for the palate on this plate. My rib eye tastes like it’s a beautifully intensified reduction of a bigger steak and whilst I was unsure if 400g would be too much meat I’ve stripped it to the bone cleaner than if it’d been thrown into the River Amazon.
My plate… fully loaded
Katrina’s happy enough across the table with her regular rib eye, leaving minor quibbles that the supposedly ‘charred’ broccoli never got anywhere near fire and the chips are on the limp side.
For dessert, the girls have both gone for churros with el submarino sauce that turns out to be a whipped, lightly chocolately cream. They’re nowhere near the best churros ever but they’re still churros and sometimes that’s enough.
CHURROS - Deep fried choux, el submarino sauce
I ummed and arred over the panqueques, but I definitely picked the winner. There are two folded, warm, crispy-bottomed pancakes with sweetness from hesperidina liquor caramel being the perfect foil for subtly sharp orange and then there’s the comfort of dulche (sweet milk) ice cream sitting on a biscuit crumb base. This is my new favourite dessert.
PANQUEQUES - Pancakes, orange, hesperidina caramel, dulche ice cream
With two sparkling waters, a gorgeous bottle of Argentinian Bonarda—that’s all fresh raspberries with a long smoky, leathery finish—and two dessert wines, I’ve got a bill of £130. There’s a 50% discount on the food—as we’re in their ‘soft-launch’ phase—so it feels like a steal. At full price, they’ve got some creases to iron out—but that’s what the next few weeks are all about.
My steak was excellent and the flavours across all three of my courses were sublime; the rest is mostly quibble. The vegetarian isn’t nearly so convinced but totally appreciates the setting and we head off into Saturday afternoon with a holiday skip in our step.
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3 Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2JB
