This afternoon I was invited to a bloggers’ event at The Stable on John Bright Street in Birmingham. Just a two minute walk away from Birmingham’s main New Street station, The Stable is a quirky pizza, pie and cider restaurant which was founded in Dorset in 2007. There are now fourteen restaurants across the south of England, with Birmingham being the first one to open up in the Midlands. Each restaurant has its own unique menu featuring dishes named after places in the local area. All of the ingredients used on the pizzas are sourced from local farms.

Cider tasting

As The Stable serves over 80 different varieties of cider, the afternoon was kicked off with a talk from Alan of Hogan’s cider who introduced us to a range of different real ciders. I’m not a fan of cider at all, so I was a bit hesitant to try some of them as I knew I would probably not like them. We were encouraged to smell each cider before we tasted it and to describe what we thought we could smell in each one. As expected, I wasn’t keen on any of the ciders however I did enjoy the cider brandy which was not surprising as I’m more of a spirits lover.

The pizzas

Then we were onto the part that I was the most excited about! We were taken into the kitchen in groups of four and were allowed to cook our own pizzas. We had a look at the menu and decided what we wanted to make. However it ended up with us just putting whatever we liked on them with the encouragement of the staff. I chose pulled beef (my favourite!), pepperoni, jalapeños, smoked cheese, goats curd, double Worcester cheese and mozzarella. I really went overboard on the cheese, but can you blame me with so many different varieties? When the pizza was cooked, I had a drizzle of sour cream over the top.

This was honestly one of the nicest pizzas I have ever tried. I’m not just saying that because I made it. The sourdough base was fantastic and I especially loved the smoked cheese. Unfortunately, I’d already filled myself up on the garlic bread that we had at the beginning. So, I didn’t manage to finish all of my pizza but I can guarantee that it was delicious.

I’m definitely going to be visiting The Stable, Birmingham again. There was such a friendly atmosphere in the restaurant. You could tell that every member of staff genuinely enjoyed working there. I keep meaning to visit the one in Winchester but I never get around to it. I’m going to have to make sure I go now!

Tags : Birmingham, food, pizza, restaurant review, The Stable