Sugarvine

Opus opened for business back in July, set up by a team formerly at Bank. While some restaurants can be annoyingly hard to find, Opus, with its name emblazoned in large letters on the façade, is impossible to miss. Situated at the bottom of Cornwall Street, it's in a central location but one which has in the past had rather a dearth of restaurants. Walk in through the automatic doors and you find yourself in a large, simply decorated restaurant, with widely spaced tables seating up to 120, and with a comfortable banquette seat all along one side. Behind the restaurant is a bar, serving a good selection of beers and cocktails, and a small crustacea bar. Further back again is a large private room at the back which can seat another 65. Altogether it's a comfortable space, and as the restaurant fills up there's a pleasant background buzz of conversation.

The cuisine at Opus is modern British. The evening menu starts with an early supper menu, with two courses for £15 and three courses for £17.50. It's only available until 7pm but if you fancy a meal straight after work it's well worth considering. The crustacea bar menu contains rock oysters (£4 for three), prawn cocktail and salads, including lobster and mango salad (£12.50). Or you can order crustacea from the kitchen such as steamed moules marinière (£6.50). Once seated at your table, first to arrive is a basket of delicious warm home-made bread, but the starters arrive promptly, held aloft as they are brought in from the kitchen. The service, in fact, can hardly be faulted; the attentive waiters are always on hand to offer judicious advice on the menu. Starters include a pleasantly smooth foie gras and oxtail terrine with orange and fennel marmalade (£8.50), Bosworth goat's cheese with crispy bacon, baby cos leaves, roasted garlic amd parmesan dressing (£6.50), and chilled gazpacho with Bloody Mary sorbet (£6).

The main course menu is divided into dishes from the grill, such as whole grilled plaice with new potatoes and herb butter (£15), dishes from the land, including Barbary duck breast with sauteed summer cabbage and peach tart tatin (£14.95), and fillet of beef with potato and spinach cake and celeriac puree and Oxtail Gamay sauce (£18.50) - the beef is dry aged Aberdeenshire, deliciously tender and succulent - and lastly, dishes from the sea, such as monkfish medallions with wilted spinach, wild mushrooms and tomato and shellfish sauce (£18.50), and pan fried scallops with braised belly of pork, whole grain potato mousseline and caper berry butter (£18.50). Note that none of the main dishes come with vegetables, which have to be ordered separately at £3 a dish. The wine list is good and varied, with many wines available by the glass. One unusual and delicious red is the Mexican La Cetto Nebbiolo, Baja California 1999 (£7.25 per glass or £29 per bottle); you don't know what a full-bodied wine is until you've tried this one!

The desserts, nicely presented, include iced pistaccio bombe with almond sable, intoxicated cherries (staggering around on the plate, poor things!) and chocolate sauce; warm summer berry compote with passion fruit sorbet and glazed orange sabayon; and granny smith apple delice with rhubarb, cinnamon o-nut and yoghurt ice (all £5.50). Or, if these all sound a bit fancy and, well, a bit foreign, then you should go for one of the British classics such as sticky date pudding with chantilly cream, toffee sauce and frosted nut, or the bread and butter pudding with rum-soaked raisins - which of course bears no relation to the pudding which many of us were put off for life by school meals. (All of these cost £5.50.) Or you can go for ice cream or a selection of cheeses. To accompany your dessert there's a choice selection of dessert wines, and there's also a good selection of port, Cognac, Armagnac or Calvados for you to round off your meal, by which time you should feel suitably replete. All in all, Opus is a satisfying place to eat, with its reliable, well-cooked and well-presented food, its attentive service, and its friendly atmosphere.

Opus
54 Cornwall St
Birmingham
Tel: 0121 200 2323