Fumo - Little dishes, big flavours.

When a new restaurant opens in Birmingham it can make a lot of noise as even though the place is the countries second city it is not a huge place and fine dining is limited. If that restaurant is also owned by the best known and most reputable Italian in the area - San Carlo, the buzz is huge, and they are offering a new concept for the Brummies too - small plates of Italian tapas called cicchetti to share. This is popular in London already with the likes of Polpo and even San Carlo owned Cicchetti but Fumo is big news for Brum.

It was my Mom's birthday so it seemed an great way to treat her and have a bit of time together. She had already been for lunch and raved about it, which was good as there is no menu on the website so I wasn't sure what to expect.

The place is in a great location, just up from San Carlo and overlooking the square which holds Birmingham Cathedral (and Louis Vuitton). The interior is beautifully done with a huge cocktail bar as the focal point, it seemed a shame to bi-pass those so we supped champagne and then moved onto the cocktails. I went for an expertly made Bramble and my Mom a Japanese Moijito, which even though liked, she switched to the Bramble too for her second cocktail.

By 7.30pm the place was starting to get very full so we grabbed a table (another no reservation policy restaurant) and started to have a look over the huge menu, there was so much we wanted to try so we asked the waiter for a bit of advice - happily he recommended the few things I had my eye on already.

We had a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio and some olives and a bread basket to keep us going. First up was the gorgonzola gnocchi in a parmesan crisp - it doesn't look very pretty but was so tasty - a perfect combination of textures and things I love - cheese, potatoes and... more cheese.

Next was deep fried calamari which was lightly battered, not at all chewy and served on a specially designed newspaper - cute.

The meatball pizza had a good kick to it and a really thin, crispy base.

Last, the stand out dish was the prawns in chilli and garlic - wow. Juicy, really fresh and the flavours really let the prawns flavour burst through... but why only three as a sharing plate I think should come in evens to save people in twos fighting over the extra one - my Mom won as it was her birthday but she did share it with me - bless.

The desserts were great too, a classic cheesecake and affogato - ice cream drenched in coffee, but now we were full to burst and so was Fumo, it was heaving by the time we left with it people three deep at the bar and people waiting for tables to become free to eat, I was just glad we got in there when we did.

So... the food was amazing, the staff knowledgeable, helpful and friendly and the cocktails perfect, plus my Mom had a great time which is the important thing - we will definitely be going back.