A RESTAURANT less than an hour away from Worcester has been praised by renowned food critic Jay Rayner's in his round up of 2022. 

Guardian food critic Mr Rayner said he was "privileged to eat stupidly well in 2022" in his round-up of some of his favourite cafes and restaurants.

One of his finds was Yikouchi at Chancer’s Café on Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham, which is only a 38-minute drive from Worcester. 

He described Yikouchi, which is roughly pronounced 'ee-koh-chuh', as a "love letter" and an "utter joy". 

The word Yikouchi is the beginning of an idiomatic Chinese saying that means "One mouthful won’t make you fat."

The restaurant belongs to James Kirk-Gould and his partner Cassie who lived in Beijing for six years. 

The couple taught English and explored restaurants before moving to Paris. 

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After eventually returning to England, James started working in the kitchen at Duck & Waffle in London, and eventually became head chef of the second Duck & Waffle near Piccadilly Circus.

But after having their first child, the couple moved to the West Midlands. 

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Cassie set up a fudge-making business called Sweetmeat Inc on the high street and in Stirchley, Birmingham while James took chef jobs and cooked Chinese food at pop-ups. 

But when the hairdressers right next door to Cassie's fudge business became available, the couple transformed the venue into Chancer’s Café.

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In the review, Mr Rayner said the restaurant served a brunch menu of beignet and waffles, often with fudge sauce. 

"An awful lot of fudge sauce" he noted. 

All of the dishes listed on the menu range between £3.50 and £9 while beers and wines cost £4 a glass. 

Mr Rayner added: "The menu is short, at barely more than half a dozen choices, none of which cost more than £9.

"Credit where it is due: I am here with the Birmingham-based writer Simon Carlo, whose funny, well-written, wide-ranging blog Meat & One Veg tipped me off to this brilliant cut-gem of a place.

He called the chicken 'mouth-watering' which for £9 is a whole skinless chicken breast "pearlescent and creamy, served at room temperature in a golden bath of chilli oil, bobbing with numbing peppercorns and dressed with fronds of coriander and rings of spring onion." 

In 2015, Mr Rayner visited The Talbot at Knightwick giving it a glowing review.

"You’d have to be a ‘hard-hearted, self-regarding, po-faced schmuck’ not to like the Talbot," he wrote.