670 Grams, Birmingham B9: ‘A cascade of small, meaningful bowls that just ooze flavour’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Odd and delightful in equal measures

Birmingham’s dining scene often leans towards the intense. I recall a hazy afternoon seven years back at the Digbeth Dining Club, a ramshackle food market inside an old factory with few seats, loud music, breakfast cocktails and baos; it was a thoroughly chaotic way to take on board calories. More recently, I loved the city’s Albatross Death Cult, which served 12 courses of scintillating, seafood-focused finickiness to a pounding, darkwave industrial-goth soundtrack.

And, now, it is the turn of 670 Grams to bombard my senses Brummie-style, in Digbeth’s Custard Factory development. Chef Kray Treadwell began cooking at the city’s well-loved and much-missed Purnell’s, followed by a stint at Michael O’Hare’s The Man Behind The Curtain in Leeds. By 2021, he had been named Michelin’s UK young chef of the year after creating, with head chef Sacha Townsend (also formerly of several O’Hare projects), this kooky, monochromatic, moody restaurant that plays semi-loud hip-hop.