Billesley Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: With its “good home-style Indian vegetarian cuisine”, the Joshi family’s canteen and sweet centre has developed into a Hall Green institution over almost five decades. Specialising in Gujarati and south Indian cooking, it lists no fewer than 72 main dishes… none of them is priced at over £5.95.

2022 Review: One of a quartet of Syrian cafés, serving up “authentic” Middle Eastern titbits and more – including ‘fuul’ fava beans, pastries and flatbreads – from breakfast until late. This is the first branch, opened in Moseley.

Chef Robert Ortiz has introduced his “delicious and extraordinarily colourful Peruvian cuisine” to the West Midlands at the converted bank in Moseley he opened five years ago – a “relaxing place for a meal, with a spacious dining area and good service”. Only authentic ingredients are used, and the bar stocks an impressive range of pisco, the national spirit.

2022 Review: The first solo venture for Great British Menu finalist Kray Treadwell opened in September 2020 and is named after the birth weight of his premature daughter. Housed in Digbeth's Custard Factory, the venture very quickly earned him Michelin’s pick as Young Chef of the Year 2021. According to a May 2021 report in the Birmingham Mail, this is ‘the hottest Birmingham restaurant to book right now’.

“Tasty, good-value noodles” in a “relaxed environment” make this 12-year-old London chain (14 branches, plus Brighton and Brum) “worth a visit”. The “ramen is deep and fabulous” if “limited in range (no fish-based dishes except prawn)”, and is augmented by “quite acceptable katsu curry”. Aficionados should head to the Haggerston branch to watch the noodles being made.

2023 Review: Rectangular pizza cooked in 90 seconds is the draw at this top local pizza pit-stop, which is consistently well-rated: choose a base sauce and cheese and then zhoosh it up with various toppings.

Some would say “the doyen of Birmingham fine-dining restaurants” – fans feel that “owner Andreas Antona and chef Luke Tipping still deliver the best fine-dining experience in Birmingham, even after so many years” at this gracious-looking Edwardian villa “in leafy Edgbaston”. And even those who feel it’s “not the market leader it once was” say it’s “very good all-round”: “service is very good and delivers the high-quality dishes the Birmingham diner expects in a setting that’s excellent and very relaxing”.

2022 Review: Sicilian-born Carlo Distefano founded his now international chain thirty years ago with this Brum institution, creating a template of classic upscale Italian food served with immaculate professionalism in a smart and “romantic atmosphere”. He now has 22 restaurants in England and branches in the Middle East and Bangkok.

Adam Stokes’ more casual – but still very posh, down to the marble-topped tables – offshoot to his acclaimed Adam’s, on nearby Bennett’s Hill; it “not surprisingly specialises in fish and seafood dishes”, reflecting the name, and while ratings tend to be rather up and down, there are early reports of some “lovely” cooking since the 2023 arrival of new chef Stuart Langdell, whose CV includes Simpson’s in Birmingham, and MPW’s Pear Tree Inn in Whitley, Wiltshire.

“Smart, chic, highly professional” – Adam & Natasha Stokes’s “commendably consistent” operation is “outstanding in every respect” and “one of the leading lights in Brum’s high-quality restaurant scene”: in fact the No. 1 in the city in our annual diners’ poll this year where European cuisine is concerned. “Not cheap but worth every penny”, its central location and “unfailingly impressive combination of brilliant cooking and presentation with excellent service” makes it “just the setting for a business meal” (the top option is to be “royally looked after at the chef’s table”). Top Tip – “the set menu at lunch is brilliant value”.

With the “lovely decor” replicated from the Theatreland icon for which they are branded, Richard Caring’s “always buzzy” spin-offs have found a gigantic audience nationally. But “these places live off the name for sure” and “it’s the ambience that keeps them going” – while fans say the food is “reliable”, more sceptical types dismiss it as “conveyor-belt cooking”; and say service is merely so-so. Some branches are better than others: best in London is ‘Chelsea Garden’, which has the same “distinctly average” standards as the others, but reliably offers an “uplifting” atmosphere and “great people watching” (and “on a sunny afternoon there is literally NO WHERE ELSE TO BE but its large garden. HEAVEN!!”). Also worth mentioning is the outlet by The Thames in SE1: “excellent views of Tower Bridge”, “even better if outside in summer and convenient for The Bridge Theatre”.

2021 Review: “Latino steak restaurant in the heart of Birmingham city centre” – this well-appointed new branch of the expanding Brazilian chain offers its trademark “generous meat and buffet” formula. It’s tipped by one or two reporters as “good for business meals”.

2021 Review: Yummy brunches, fine coffee and stone-baked pizza are the top attractions at this funkily decorated pub, on the high street (which has a good garden for the summer months).

2021 Review: The “lovely Thai food” at these reliable cafés is “impressively authentic given that they are a chain” – “excellent value” and “fast”, if occasionally let down by “iffy service”. Founded in 2008 by Saiphin and Alex Moore, who inherited the name of their first East End site, the group has 18 branches in London and expanded to Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (delivery only) and Leeds following the sale of a majority stake to US investors. The couple also have two spin-offs, Lao Café in Covent Garden and the new Chinese noodle bar Hoh Sek in St Katharine Docks.