Chef Aktar goes Italian in second city centre venture

TOP Birmingham chef Aktar Islam is to open another restaurant in his home city.

Legna, based in Summer Row, will be his second restaurant in Birmingham.

Due to open in November, it is the latest venture in Aktar’s AI Restaurants chain, with more planned in coming years.

The new Italian is just doors away from his existing restaurant in Summer Row, Opheem, which opened in May of this year.

It occupies the site of the former FSK restaurant, which was operated by Aktar as Mi Amore.

Legna – which is Italian for ‘firewood’ – will have 70 covers and will “blaze a trail for Italian cooking”.

It will focus on eight starters and eight main dishes, and have just two varieties of homemade pasta, which will change regularly according to seasonal produce. Mr Islam said: “This is the culmination of a dream for me and I am so excited about welcoming guests to Legna,” he said. “It truly will be like no other Italian restaurant in the city, both in its vision and its delivery. “We’ll stay true to traditional Italian cooking techniques; however, our dishes will have the flair and innovation that diners have experienced at Opheem. “Our chefs will focus on a relatively small number of great dishes to ensure customers’ expectations are always matched and hopefully exceeded. “Gone are the days of over-long menus. Customers now want authenticity and quality, not overload.”

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