Redditch Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: “Much improved by a change of owners” (the all-conquering Brunning & Price), this seventeenth century pub in “beautiful surroundings” – a hamlet “out in Warwickshire’s lush countryside” – wins applause for “upmarket pub food at a reasonable price point”, and which comes “allied to lovely service” to boot.

2022 Review: “A real gem in our local area” – this branch in the stylish, seven-strong Warwickshire-based 'Lovely Pubs' group has a lot to recommend it: “service is on the right side of friendly and very attentive”, they serve “great pub food, but restaurant quality” (including “fantastic seafood platters”), and if you stick to the main bar downstairs, there's plenty of atmosphere too.

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.

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.

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.

2023 Review: This grand Victorian manor house hotel on a 70-acre estate offers both tasting menus and a conventional 3-course format in its elegant Chaddesley Restaurant – “have eaten there several times in the past few months and the food never disappoints”.

Stop Press – in February 2023, ex-Simpson’s head chef Matt Cheal closed down his popular Henley-in-Arden venture, which was too small for his planned expansion, and upped sticks eight miles down the road to Knowle High Street, where he now co-runs things with the manager of the Jacques fine dining restaurant which previously stood in the new location. According to early reports, “the exceptional quality of Cheal’s food, not up till now as appreciated as it ought to be, has not deteriorated in its relocation”, while the new space – a former bank with a posh cocktail bar – is “comfortable” (if “a little too glitzy” for some tastes).

2022 Review: On the banks of the Avon, this riverside eaterie boasts an excellent terrace overlooking a scenic Saxon bridge. It serves a modern bistro menu, with char-grilled steaks the prime attraction.

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).

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”.