Eateries

Caffe di Milano, Birmingham – review by HungryOwl

On June 1, 2021 by
Italian High tea

FattyCat bought me a Groupon voucher in autumn last year for Italian Afternoon Tea at Caffe di Milano in the Arcadian Centre. We booked and then lockdown happened, so had to postpone. Then we booked again for just after Christmas and lockdown happened again.

So, this adventure to Birmingham had already been postponed twice before I rebooked again for the 1st June 2021. We got into Birmingham mid morning for some window shopping and arrived at the cafe on time, but very hot. It was a joy walking into the air conditioned cafe and were grateful to be seated promptly.

I explained that we had booked and had a Groupon voucher, the waiter nodded courtesously and took the voucher. he returned promptly with 2 glasses of chilled Prosecco. We took our time chatting and sipping our drinks, watching the food come out to other tables (all of which looked amazing). After thirty minutes our food still hadn’t arrived and I was wondering if it had been forgotten – the waiter explained that they only bring out the food and tea once the guests have drank their Prosecco.  This was a nice touch, but it would have been better if he had explained this.

Food…… The top plate was a small selection of Palma Ham, Salami, Mozzerella, sun dried tomatoes, artichokes and olives with a few small slices of Ciabatta. It was like being back in Italy, so lovely and I discovered I like artichiokes, who knew?

The second plate was 4 mini sandwiches with their crusts removed, very common in Italy and called Tramezzini – we had 2 cheese and tomatoe and 2 smoked Salmon.

The third and final plate was the dessert section. 2 Macarons ( 1 coffee and 1 pistachio), 1 white chocolate Profiterole and 1 mini custard tart with a sprinkle of coconut. Then finally the fruit scone with Strawberry jam and clotted cream.

All served with a pot of Twinnings Breakfast tea.

My only disappointment was that there were no Canoli that day for us to take home to enjoy for supper – but that’s perhaps a good thing because it was so hot that they would probably have melted before we got home.