Michelin star-rated chef opens new West Midlands restaurant and wine house

A chef, who spent eight years at a Michelin-starred restaurant has opened a 43-cover restaurant and wine house in Shifnal.

Laura Kimber has opened The Lloyd after working at Paul Foster’s Salt in Stratford-upon-Avon as chef de partie from 2017 until it closed in 2025.

Ms Kimber is chef director and joint owner and The Lloyd served its first guests on November 4.

She grew up in Hampshire, but calls herself an “adopted Brummie” after ten years in Birmingham, and brings a wealth of experience to the restaurant, having cooked at Lower Slaughter Manor and at Michael Caines at Abode Chester and being a semi-finalist in National Chef of the Year 2024.

Her sous chef is Oliver Mitchell-Hewitt, who has worked at Opheem in Birmingham and Midsummer House in Cambridge and finished third in the final of this year’s British Culinary Federation Young Chef of the Year at University College Birmingham on November 9.

The Lloyd occupies the former home of J C Lloyd, a major regional grocer that traded from the building from the mid-1800s until the late 1960s.

The restaurant takes its name and its tulip logo from the original mosaic in the doorway and a six-month refit involved major structural alterations and turned the shop into a calm, elegant dining room.

At the back of the room is a turntable, where guests can browse the records and choose what plays next.

The team at The Lloyd bring a menu which they say is modern British and uses local produce where possible, alongside the best suppliers from across the UK, from Cornwall to Scotland and Wales.

Every dish is made to share and served family style.

Small plates include crab doughnut with Cornish crab, ’nduja sauce and pickled fennel, and 28-day dry-aged beef tartare with Cornish red dulse.

Large plates include roasted monkfish tail with crispy capers and chicken sauce, duck breast with pickled blackberry and confit leg, and a salt-aged 20oz T-bone for two.

Desserts include Shropshire cider and apple tarte tatin with Shropshire Blue. Sunday lunch is £34 for two courses or £39 for three.

The wine list opens with more than 70 bins, built on single estates and grower producers with Burgundy at its core, and will keep developing, and Veuve Clicquot is the house champagne, in keeping with a female-led business.

Laura Kimber said: “Once you sit down, the table is yours for the evening.

“Everything goes in the middle to share, elbows out. The Lloyd is somewhere to unwind with the people who matter most to you, with good food, good wine, and good music.

“Generosity runs through all of it, from the plates to the pour to the time you spend with us. Nobody should feel rushed out of a restaurant.”

The Lloyd is open for dinner Wednesday to Saturday from 6pm, with last bookings at 9pm. It is open on Sundays from 12pm to 6pm, with last bookings at 4pm, and is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.