Kibou, Birmingham

Oh look, Birmingham has acquired yet another Japanese restaurant, which is either cause for celebration or evidence that the city’s appetite for neon, sushi and expensive small plates remains insatiable. It’s another one that I find difficult to get excited about, because it’s another chain, of course, and one that has required six previous openings to discover that Birmingham exists. KIBOU, on Temple Row, arrives with the confidence of somewhere that has already decided it is an event. There are murals, animations, elaborate upholstery and enough atmospheric lighting to make everyone look as though they have recently returned from somewhere more interesting. The Japanese aesthetic is deployed with considerable enthusiasm, although one suspects that in the modern restaurant business the distance between cultural appropriation and theatrical set dressing is sometimes measured in the thickness of a menu. The menu is a grand tour of contemporary Japanese restaurant convention: sushi,…

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