“This restaurant is like a comfort blanket”, drools a fan of celeb chef Glyn Purnell’s self-named bistro, just round the corner from his Michelin-starred flagship Purnell’s. Set in the heart of Birmingham’s upwardly mobile financial district, it offers a taste of the chef’s idiosyncratic style with easier prices and some user-friendly tweaking here and there to suit the local populace. Shades of claret and brown provide a soothing – but “buzzy” – designer backdrop to “well-priced, well-presented” dishes with some clever touches: think a chorizo Scotch egg with patatas bravas and garlic aïoli, baked cod livornese with fennel marmalade and polenta chips or roast Creedy Carver duck breast with braised baby gem and scorched leeks. You can also get steaks with hand-cut chips and no-nonsense plates of wild mushroom tagliatelle, while dessert might bring dark chocolate and peanut butter moelleux with salted caramel ice cream. The premises are also home to Ginger’s – a glamorous themed cocktail bar.