Orientee Artisan Bakery & Cafe – Birmingham
HALAL STATUS Halal chicken (zero cross-contamination) • Pork served
While Orientee ostensibly has a touch of the Orient to it, this Birmingham-based eatery actually defines itself as an “Artisan Bakery & Cafe”.
Located not too far from the Bullring shopping center, this 50-cover restaurant is crisply decked out, with clean white walls and large windows allowing plenty of light to filter through.
The good news is that despite having only opened in September of last year, Orientee made the decision recently to introduce a Halal chicken to its menu in response to overwhelming inquiries from the locals for it’s chicken sliders. The other meat dishes on the menu are the Scrambled Egg which has chorizo and can be easily removed, the other is The Big Morning. The rest of the menu is vegetarian.
Every product we sell is freshly baked and made everyday on site, using the most fresh and natural ingredients.
As a cafe, it is traditionally English, with a twist of sriracha mayo here and there to spice things up.
More importantly, it has an indoor bakery that offers diners that delightfully soothing aroma of freshly baked bread and other goodies each and every morning.
CAFE
Hot Chocolate, £2.85
A hearty cup of hot chocolate. Can’t go wrong with that.
English Breakfast Tea, £2.00
The teapot offers a trio of cuppas that’s perfect with any of the breakfasts had below.
BAKERY
(V) Halloumi, spinach, sarasha mayo, tomato and courgette ratatouille, spring onion, mushroom cream sauce, £4.50
While we’ve all had plenty of sandwiches before, we bet most of you haven’t had one like the above!
This was essentially a hollowed out loaf of crusty bread filled with an aromatic combination of tomatoes and cheese, melted halloumi, wet sarasha mayo and plenty of creamy mushroom sauce. Add to that the gorgeous smoky flavour conspicuously apparent throughout, and what we had here for only £4.50 was a meal large enough to satisfy any hungry diner.
Be warned though that these are made in limited quantities, so go grab em nice and early.
BREAKFAST (08:30 - 12:00)
Eggs Benedict (v) – Two poached eggs, buttered spinach on the Orientee bakery sourdough with hollandaise, kimchi coleslaw, £6.00
A lot of care and detail has gone into each dish at Orientee; none more so than this.
Set against a jet black plate was a colourful assortment of attractive components which all came together to play their part in making this exotic Eggs Benedict by far the best we ever had.
Enveloped in a good amount of silky smooth hollandaise sauce were perfectly poached eggs placed atop soft fried bread and a layer of buttery spinach. But what helped to enhance the familiar flavours here, was the addition of an exceptional homemade kimchi coleslaw, whose hit of chilli added a kick of heat that lingered pleasantly in the background.
French Toast (v) – white chocolate sauce, popping candy, candy floss, chocolate brownie & strawberry, £5.00
Before we unpackage this gorgeous thing from across the Channel, it’s important to note that the condiments to this French Toast are subject to both the chef’s innovative streak and the ingredients available on the day (as an example of a variation, the following was published on their Facebook page: peanut butter, creme pat stuffed strawberry syrup, caramelised banana, honey pop corn!). Thus, although yours may vary from the one above, we doubt any given variation will impact on the overall taste of this sublimely balanced dessert of sorts.
The thick slice of freshly made bread was soft and warm, and topped with a moist homemade brownie which was covered in white chocolate sauce. Now you might think, given the inclusion of candy floss and popping candy, that this might be a sweet one, but you’d be wrong. While the former provides a nostalgic touch of sweetness, we would have actually preferred a bit more. In any case, the popping candy was minimal and barely noticeable. However, the slices of strawberry helped balance things out.
In the end, this was so nice that we’d recommend it simply on the basis of its element of surprise re ingredients.
CAKE
Raspberry Bostock, £2.80
This, however, was fairly disappointing in light of the previous dishes.
The cake was far too dry, made worse by a crunchy exterior, and topped with dry raspberries which simply didn’t live up to its pairing of almonds.
Orange & Poppy Seed Cake, £2.50
With plenty of orange icing on the outside, this poppy seed cake, which wasn’t exactly moist, tasted pretty good, though nothing more.
Lemon Curd Cruffin, £3.20
Finally this Lemon curd cruffin certainly looked the part, but flattered to deceive.
Its biggest shortcoming was that it was palpably dry!
And it’s only saving grace was that the lemon curd custard on the inside simply wasn’t enough to counter said dryness.
As for the dry orange on top, then this was more for show than anything else.
- NO/ YES
- CHILD SEATING
- DISABLED ACCESS
The main reason we visited Orientee Bakery, was on the back of this Instagram image of their Halal Chicken Sliders comprising of two olive salt and pepper marinated chicken breast slider with kale, tomato, smashed avocado, lettuce, one with wholegrain mustered mayo, one with siracha paprika mayo on black brioche bun, served with kimchi slaw and sweet potato chips.Unfortunately, due to technical issues, no hot food was being served on the day, so we didn't get to try said sliders, which was a pity given the three outstanding dishes we had which exceeded our expectations. It's also worth noting that the menu here is regularly being tweaked, with the availability of certain ingredients dependent upon delivery.
We will definitely be back to try more of the menu, particularly the other sandwiches.
Sandwich - Halloumi, Spinach
Breakfast - Eggs Benedict
Breakfast - French Toast
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Orientee Bakery & Cafe
57-58 Dale End, Birmingham, B4 7LS.
T: +44 (0)121 439 2522 | W: facebook.com/orienteeartisanbakery | E: [email protected]
Opening Hours: Tue-Fri 8:30-18:00 | Sat 10:00-18:00 | Sun 11:00-18:00
FtL / Author
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15 Feb '19