We like weird at Secret Birmingham, in fact, we love it. If a strange dining experience is what you’re after, then look no further than Albatross Death Cult (a reference Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner). Its founder, Alex Claridge, has called it the “weirdest restaurant in Brum”. That says a lot coming from the man behind The Wilderness – Birmingham’s boundary-pushing fine dining restaurant soundtracked by heavy metal and punk.
Best described as an omakase-style restaurant, it’s now open in the Jewellery Quarter – replacing the short-lived, former cocktail bar at 1 Newhall Square (you might remember it as Atelier). And it only seats up to 14 guests, serving “an ever-changing, rapid-fire” menu of roughly 12 courses, in the kitchen, seated at a monolithic counter gathered around the pass.
There’s only one sitting per service too, with all dishes served by the chefs. So expect Albatross Death Cult to be “raw, unedited, and decidedly stripped-back sibling” compared to The Wilderness. And when it comes to the food? The menu features mostly seafood and coastal ingredients, but whatever you do, don’t call it a “seafood restaurant.”
The idea behind it is to give Alex somewhere to test ideas that don’t perhaps fit The Wilderness’ menu – so expect a mix of experimental luxury. It’s also his chance to “break the fourth wall – where the meal exists as a conversation between chef and diner.” Previous trials of the concept have, according to Alex, seen strangers leave as friends in the close-quarters bonding experience.
“My goal is straightforward – to open a restaurant that I love,” said Alex, speaking to Restaurant Online. “If The Wilderness was the restaurant that I needed to exist when I was 25, Albatross is the restaurant that I need to exist at 35. And so it goes – I am my own muse. In my wildest dreams, other people fall in love with it too, but I’m a romantic. I’ll also settle for being a casual fling.”
Albatross Death Cult will also be as accessible as possible – though we can’t say particularly cheap – with the launch menu costing £88. But that’s half the price that the restaurant should be charging. To book a spot and to learn more about the “weirdest restaurant in Brum” head here.