Indian Cafe Racer has moved from a cramped back room to a proper restaurant with 65 covers on Bristol Street in Birmingham, a shift the Guardian calls "a good news tale for the Brum food scene."
The restaurant started as a pop-up behind the Duke of Wellington pub, run by Azad Kayes. It had a Royal Enfield motorcycle, chequerboard floors and a psychedelic Indian soundtrack. Word spread quickly. The venue became oversubscribed and needed more space.
The new restaurant serves an ever-changing menu. During the reviewer's visit, dishes included shaktiman and salad (named after an Indian comic-book superhero), gol gappa (crisp shells filled with chickpeas and potato), chicken pepper fry and grilled aubergine and portobello mushrooms marketed as farzi steak.
The cooking "is sometimes bang on, sometimes a little slapdash, but then piques your interest all over again," according to the review.
Indian Cafe Racer's expansion stands out against a broader decline in Birmingham's Indian restaurant sector. South Birmingham's Balti triangle, which once had 30 bustling restaurants along Ladypool Road and Stratford Road, now has only two remaining establishments.