Blue Ginger

I really like this place, the food is fresh and tasty and the staff are friendly. I live very nearby (in fact, my phone still connects to my home wifi when I visit haha) and I feel quite proud to be able to take friends such a short distance to such a nice restaurant. It also has a brilliant range of vegetarian food and does a vegan night on Mondays. I’m knocking a star off for being slightly overpriced in their mains where you have to buy sides separately (they don’t come with rice) and also because on a Sunday I usually crave beef rendang and the restaurant is closed! Haha. I would recommend the carrot cake starter.

After moving to the area we were told about this place, after all the good reviews, we decided to try it, maybe the problem was that we ordered take away…
But the food was bland and nothing that I couldn’t have cooked at home for myself and boyfriend.
We haven’t been back, but reading everyone’s reviews am tempted to go back but for a sit in meal. It’s always packed when we walk past in the evenings.

I LOVE this place!!! Such tasty food! Service is always good and the prices aren’t too expensive. It’s not pretentious and I like that it has an intimate yet casual setting. Book to avoid disappointment! Veggie platter is a must!

I’m going to let you all in on a massive secret that only the people of Kings Heath probably know about… Blue Ginger is AMAZING!
I have found finding a genuine Singaporean/​Malay restaurant extremely difficult in Birmingham until I found Blue Ginger.
The first thing that strikes you about Blue Ginger, located just off the Kings Heath High Street, it’s it size. O. K, it’s not the biggest place and I would strongly recommend that you must book a table before visiting, but to me adds to the highly personal nature of your experience at the restaurant. Staff are so knowledgeable and friendly that you feel like you are best mates with them.
On the subject of the staff, the day I visited, I surprised my friend as it was her birthday. I had spoken to the waitress working there that night on the phone previously, and we organised a special chocolate brownie with candles in, and we both serenaded my mate with «Happy Birthday» to her joy and embarrassment! The plate even had a heart and smiley face made of Roulade!
For the starter, I would urge you to try the Sweet Potato Fries, These are not normal Fries friends, but wrapped in rice paper and deep fried with a tinge of Ginger. You get 4 pieces which we shared. They sound mad, but need to be tasted to believed.
I must warn you, the portions are HUGE! You might struggle to finish the main on it’s own even without steamed Jasmine rice. And I’m not ashamed to admit I had to take half my meal home and I never take my food home!
I had the Chilli Tofu Stir fry which was quite fiery but the waitress said that the spice level can be adjusted. It was jam packed full of delicious vegetables and tofu. The Pineapple worked very well with the Chilli. My friend had the Mushroom and Aubergine curry, which she told me she has every time she has been to Blue Ginger. It’s that good!
I just managed to squeeze a vegan sticky rice pudding which was made with coconut cream, and unlike any desert I have had before.
Although there is lots of veggie/​vegan food on the menu already, on Monday nights, they have a fully Vegan menu which I am looking forward to trying soon.
I wish I had my phone to take some pictures, but even more reason for you to go visit!

What makes Blue Ginger different among many of the other restaurants in the area is that they specialise in Mayalsian and Singapore food. By doing this they simultaneously corner the market, while tempting people in who might have otherwise settled for more usual chines, Italian, of Indian fare.
My only experience of Malaysian food has been on airplanes when I’ve traveled to Australia, or meals that I’ve cooked myself using pastes or sauces.
I felt a little lazy in my choice of ordering Beef Rendang, as it’s an obvious Malaysian dish to choose. I justified my choice to myself though as it’s also a classic dish, and I was eager to see how it compared with my version. As you may know, Chinese food is cooked quickly on a high heat. This came out of the necessity to cook quickly as cooking fuel in many parts of China is scarce. Malaysian dishes, however, are often a slow cooked affair. The beef in my Rendang was soft and tender having absorbed the coconut milk, galangal, and chilli over sometime. Halfway through the meal, having eaten most of the meat, I added a side-​order of noodles to the sauce to lessen the heat and to mop up the sauce.
There is a choice of six dishes from the menu of main courses. Two meat dishes, two fish, and two vegan. Top marks are given to the restaurant for offering an equal choice for different diets. The limited menu meant that our group of four ordered 66% of the menu and each one was a beaut.

I’m a massive, massive fan of South East Asian cuisine. In fact, it’s probably my favourite kind of food. Considering the fact that I was recently in that part of the world for a few months, I now compare everything I eat to the genuine, home-​grown, home-​cooked stuff out there.
Which is probably a bit unfair, considering the fact that the ingredients are never going to taste the same over here. Suffice to say that I was a little disappointed with Blue Ginger — but I think that’s only because my standards are a little high, having been spoilt rotten by fresh, authentic cuisine in South East Asia itself for months. I had a Gado Gado for starters, which was great, if not quite as fragrant and delicious as the spicy salads that I’d tried in S.E. Asia. I had a yellow curry for main — again delicious, and really well cooked, but without that gorgeous complexity that I was expecting.
If you haven’t just spent months in S.E. Asia, eating fish that has just come out of the sea, and mangoes that you’ve just picked then I would absolutely recommend this place. Actually, I’d recommend it anyway — it’s a lovely, tiny, friendly place, the food is great and the staff are superb. I guess for me it just had an impossible standard to live up to.

I used to have a really adverse reaction every time I ate Chinese food and for some reason this put me off all types of oriental cuisine which I now realise was a lot of time wasted when I could have been eating in places like this restaurant!
I’m a massive fan of Thai food and seeing as my taste buds are not yet adept to telling the difference between Thai and Malaysian food this place does the trick.
I went recently with a group of friends and we got 20% off our food bill by ordering before 6.30 on a weekday night. I shared a mix platter for starter which really wasn’t up my street, but the main of the Singaporean chicken curry was delicious and spicy. I had a liquid dessert in the form of a Singapore Sling which definitely had a kick to it. Great place for eating with friends and the people serving are really friendly.