Cylla, Birmingham: Maybe the best potato side dish in the UK
Cylla, a classy Greek restaurant on Newhall Street, Birmingham, takes its name from Scylla, the legendary Greek sea monster. The front of the room has gorgeous private booths, and we eschewed the long, prettily lit cocktail bar to sit in one and try a Poseidon’s Wrath, a mega-bitter mix of vodka and vermouth with piney mastiha, seaweed and kalamata olive brine.
There are also about a dozen other honey-, peach- and meringue-based cocktails with dramatic, Greek myth–related names such as Aphrodite’s Bloom. The recently revamped All Bar One has been cleverly reimagined, pulling off high drama without tipping into pastiche.
Staff were warm, bright and knowledgeable, and on a wet Wednesday in mid-January the room was nicely heaving with tables of two and larger groups, which made for convivial midweek, mid-winter dining. The menu is roaringly traditional Greek with occasional Mediterranean and British leanings.
United Kingdom, Birmingham