Penn Restaurant Guide

“Can’t beat it” – there are “lots of Indian restaurants to choose from” in these parts “but make sure you book this one”: Bangladesh-born chef Sitab Khan’s veteran destination (est. 1982), where “unusual dishes are all prepared to a great standard” and “your tastebuds will not be disappointed”.

This “absolute jewel of a place” in Harborne, two miles from Birmingham city centre, is hailed by fans for its “outstanding food and divine tasting menus”, while “the unusual wine pairings work really well” – “how it doesn’t have a Michelin star is beyond us all!”. Midlands-born chef-patron Jamie Desogus (formerly of Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus) opened the venue in 2016, and has not faltered since. Top Tip – the reduced five-course weeknight menu offers “exceptionally good value”.

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).

“Unmissable!”. “Chef-patron Alex Claridge with head chef Marius Gedminas are at the cutting edge of modern British cuisine” at this Jewellery Quarter venue, which is “very much of 2023” with its moodily decorated black-painted brick walls, dark wood, dark leather and open kitchen. “It produces superbly original, highly inventive, exciting and ultimately delicious tasting menus with a passion which one could only wish that all British chefs brought with them, with some exceptional items that could only be described as works of art”.

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”.

This “glitzy post-modern Indian” in the Jewellery Quarter serves “solid accomplished food” in a “stunning dining room”. Now 21 years old, it was an early pioneer of ambitious modern British-Indian cuisine but these days faces “lots of competition” in this field – not least from founding chef Aktar Islam, who left to open Opheem (see also).

Noma alumnus Ben Tesh and partner Lucy Hanlon run this “lovely smallish restaurant” in the Jewellery Quarter, whose “fantastic tasting menus” (comprising “classic dishes with a twist”) come in ‘short’ or ‘long’ versions – the latter going 14 rounds. The “brilliant” venture, which was launched in 2017, elicited real raves again this year: for one fan, this is “perhaps the finest, truest expression of modern British cuisine in the West Midlands”.

“Just wow!” – Aktar Islam’s city-centre HQ reliably “lives up to expectations… and more!”; and remains Brum’s most commented on and highest-rated destination in our annual diners’ poll. “His unique twist on his family’s ancestral dishes with superb matching wine flight provided by sommelier Stefan” (Liperowski) “magnificently takes Indian food to the highest possible level” – “flavours are off the scale” – and “the range and variety of each distinctly different meal is glorious”.

“Excellent Indian food that’s amongst the very best in an area where such restaurants are plentiful” – this outpost of London’s smash-hit chain wins strong ratings, despite the local tradition of brilliant subcontinental cuisine, for its innovative – often “exceptional” – dishes and winning retro style (influenced by the Parsi cafés of 1940s Mumbai). It’s in a big, 330-cover site, overlooking Birmingham Town Hall from the city’s Paradise development.

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.

A rooftop fire in July 2023 briefly shuttered this hugely popular hangout of stars, and offering northwest Indian food that’s packed with taste; it’s now back in business and while “not cheap”, you can expect “a stand-out meal every time with a proper cocktail bar and Bollywood ambience” befitting its owner – nonagenarian singer Asha Bhosle, who was namechecked in Cornershop’s hit ‘Brimful of Asha’.

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: “Arresting” design is a big feature of Adam and Drew Jones’s stunning-looking Chinese-themed yearling: the city’s biggest basement bar and restaurant situated in the recently reopened Grand hotel (built in 1879, and refurbished after over a decade’s closure). Too few reports for a rating as yet: its menu contains a “theatrically presented combination of small bites and larger dishes”. The next stop after this is Edinburgh, opening late 2019.

“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”.

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.

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”.