Birmingham Places to Eat/Drink

Over the last few years Birmingham’s food and drink scene has gone mad. There are so many great places to try. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and is in no particular order, but these are all worth checking out. It’s also probably worth grabbing an Independent Birmingham card as it’ll get you a discount at loads of the places listed below.

Eat

• Formosa Izakya - great chinese/japanese food. Bao is a personal fav. The katsu and the pork dumplings are great.
• Meat Shack - really good burgers, halloumi fries are delish
• Original Patty Men - again, really good burgers, generally quite busy. Can be tough to get a table. Can’t go wrong with the bacon cheeseburger and the ODB fries.
• Indian Brewery - Indian street food, really cool place - fat naans are real good. They make their own beer which is a bit hit and miss.
• Pint Shop - fancy pub grub, they do an onion baji scotch egg which is well worth trying. Great beer selection and about 100 different gins. Bit more spendy.
• Hen and Chickens - Desi pub, they do a great Indian mixed grill, a small mixed grill is big enough - trust me. You’ll need to book a table
• Topokki - Korean, the stone pots are tasty. Cheese Topokki is really interesting, not something that you can get many places, worth trying. They give you 10% off if you pay cash
• Yorks - if you find yourself wanting brunch in the city center, this is probably your best bet. Very good coffee also.
• Medicine bakery - cronuts and delicious cakes, occasionally have a art exhibition on.
• Wayland’s yard - nice coffee, good for brunch. Eggy crumpets with halloumi and bacon. Sounds a bit odd but it’s worth a shot.
• Red Lion - lovely Sunday roasts, though maybe too much food.
• Kilder - next to Original Patty Men, run by the same people. Specialises in natural wine and craft beer. Cheese toasties are out of this world good. On certain nights they do Detroit style pizza that’s awesome.
• Tiger Bites Pig - A small Bao and rice bowl spot right next to new street station. The Bao is a must try. It’s made fresh everyday!
• Sabai Sabai - Thai food done well. Bit on the spendy side. Set meals are a good deal.
• Eat Vietnam - small Stirchley resturant that does authentic Vietnamese food. The pork is a must try as is the Vietnamese coffee.
• Bonehead - Great fried chicken and craft beer, the chicken burgers are my go to here.
• Taj Mahal (on Hinkley st) - for a proper no frills curry this place is great. Brum has the best curries in the UK, and this is a good, fairly cheap curry.
• Ngopi - one of the quirkier places that’s popped up over the last few years. It’s an Indonesian coffee shop, but they also happen to do some delicious food. They’re not open late so it’s only really breakfast or lunch here.

Pizza

There are a lot of really good pizza places in Birmingham now - so it gets it’s own list

• Poli - In Kingsheath, beautiful pizza and sides. Definitely need to book.
• Franco Manca - Great sourdough pizza, really reasonably priced.
• Rudy’s - Maybe the best base of any pizza in Brum. Pretty well priced. They don’t do dips for your crusts. I really wish they did.
• Otto - Wood fired pizza in the JQ.
• Baked In Brick - also wood fired pizza, but in Digbeth.

Coffee

City Centre

• Faculty Coffe - really small cafe a stones throw away from Grand Central. In my opinion the best cup of coffee in Brum.
• Yorks - also very close to Grand Central, and as well as doing banging food, they do brilliant coffee.
• The Coffee Bar - another small place that does banging coffee, the guest beans are normally worth a try.
• Ngopi - Indonesian coffee shop. They roast everything in house. The standard coffee is good but they so specialty coffee that is well worth giving a chance. Try the Es Kopi Susu, it’s a sweet iced coffee withcondensed milk. Not something you’ll get anywhere else in Brum (as far as I know)
• Quarter Horse Coffee - it’s a little out of the way but it’s worth the walk. They roast their own coffee and even sell bags of beans to take away.

South Brum

• Pause - my go to shop. Best coffee, banging cakes and bakes.
• Flock - located in the back of Grace + James. Consistently very good coffee.
• CanEat - as well as good brunch food they do a good coffee.

Drink

• The Wellington - an old man ale pub in the middle of town. I love it here.
• Passing Fancies - recently named 3rd best cocktail bar in the UK. Great vibes and delicious drinks
• Lucky7 - Eastern inspired cocktails from a genuine cocktail genius. Some of the best most unique cocktails you’ll find.
• 40 St Pauls - Voted best gin bar in the world. Crazy selection of gin, and they really know thier shit. Expensive but worth it. Best to book.
• Glasshouse Tap - Out on an industrial estate in Stirchley, bit of a weird one to get to but the beer is worth the trip! Much nicer than the average tap room.
• Attic Brew Co. - Out in Stirchley as well, great beer and normally a really good vibe at the weekend.
• The Victoria - good cocktails and right by the train station, have DJs and dancing until 2am at the weekends
• Brewdog - same as any other BrewDog bar. You can expect some nice craft, with the kind of crowd where someone is always asking “whats the closest thing to Carling”
• Night Owl - late bar open until 4ish I think, drinks and dancing, crowd is a bit older, pretty much everyone is 25+ really good vibe, normally disco/soul kinda stuff - one of my favs
• The Button Factory - nice bar in the jewellery quarter. A little bit bougie.
• Ana Rocha - quirky place, it’s an antiques shop that opens up as a bar
• Old Joint Stock - really nice old style pub
• Tilt - some of the most niche craft beer in Brum, along with having a fair few pinball machines

Gone but not forgotten

• Nocturnal Animals - Cool 80s vibe. Good cocktails. Quite expensive.
• 18/81 - my favourite cocktail bar in Birmingham. Unique and amazing cocktails.
• Digbrew - Smallish brewery that open up and do a taproom Friday and Saturday, in my opinion some of the best beer coming out of Birmingham at the moment. They also serve great pizza.
• Island bar - cocktails and dancing
• Dough @ Digbrew - As well as excellent beer Digbrew has some of the nicest pizza in Brum. Also they have bottomless pizza on a Thursday for £10 which is a steal.