Bridgtown, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“In the middle of nowhere geographically speaking, but attentive service and innovative cooking make this a number one restaurant venue” – chef-patron Liam Dillon has transformed this former pub since 2017 into a champion of sustainability, with its own micro-farm incorporating a water treatment plant with ponds to breed trout and carp. It impresses all of the Midlands-based reporters who make the trip – at dinner there’s a short tasting menu for £75 per person or a full version for £110 per person (while at lunch, prices start at two courses for £42 for a short à la carte menu).

2023 Review: A “smart hotel” with its own lake set in the Staffs countryside, where the “cosy restaurant serves good value food using local produce”. Tuesday night is grill night – on other evenings steaks and pub classics feature on the menu alongside somewhat fancier fare.

“Excruciatingly atmospheric” is – we think! – meant as a massive compliment to Alex Claridge’s “Goth-black” restaurant with “at times pounding music” in “the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter”, where “he finds new and ever more interesting ways to bring old diners back again and again, as well as to intrigue and excite new visitors who have not previously made their way down the passageway between jewellery shops on Warstone Lane”. ‘Come as you are. Stay weird.’ is the motto and – love it or hate it – “everyone will have to admit that some remarkable food comes out from behind the pass of the very open kitchen and that’s even before they meet the larger-than-life sommelier and GM, the unique Sonal Clare who knows a thing or two about wine”. To give you a flavour, in autumn 2025, you can choose the more limited ‘Control’ menu at £65 per person, ‘Submission’ at £140 per person or the time-limited ‘Requiem’ menu, which includes puddings such as ‘Oh B*ll*cks’ (being a mix of Hojicha, Plum and Honey) all promising ‘Minimalist cooking, maximum flavour’. Top Menu Tip – “Two of the best fish courses of the year: stunning steamed Pollack and razor clam, only superseded by a blockbuster Red Mullet fillet, perfectly charred over hot coals and served with a rich smoked eel veloute”.

“Opened by Ben Tesh and his partner Lucy Hanson in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter back in 2017” this small venue perhaps “shuns the razzamatazz of some of the city’s other smart restaurants but just gets on and serves a menu (short- or long- tasting) which is finely judged and made up of clever and unimpeachable dishes”. “Ben quietly prepares his fine and lovely dishes to be served mainly by Lucy in a quiet, friendly and knowledgeable way. All is calm, with the sunlight streaming through the large window; the seating is comfortable, the decor restrained”. Top Menu Tips – “enjoyable signature canapé of chicken liver parfait in a burnt onion crisp, Cornish cod with a punchy lobster head sauce, Wagyu with the texture of butter nicely paired with grilled, marinated endive and ‘yesterday’s sourdough’ cake with caramel and cobnuts with cobnut ice cream”.

“I hate Birmingham… This is worth going to Birmingham for!!!” – “Aktar’s cooking sets the bar for modern British Indian cuisine” nowadays (especially since Michelin gave it a second star in 2024) and – as one of our Top-10 most commented-on restaurants outside London in our annual diners’ poll – all reports on his “smart, chic and spectacularly lit” Jewellery Quarter HQ acclaim it as “an amazing experience from entering the restaurant to the final delicious mouthful”. His food “is a clever take on Indian food as we have come to know it in the UK”, “redefining our expectations” and “taking it to an entirely new level”; and is “enhanced by the distinct style of the matching wine flights of head sommelier Stefan”. “You feel in good hands with the staff” (“such kindness permeates through all that they do”) and “the meal is unrushed” with “small, exquisite dishes served over the course of the evening”. You are advised to choose the five-course menu or ten-course one based on how long you want your meal to last: the former is £140 per person and the latter £185 per person. Top Menu Tip – “The apple macaron with chutney and liver parfait snack is the most amazing thing”.

“Birmingham’s finest restaurant in a restaurant scene increasingly dominated by mediocre and unimaginative offerings” is, say fans, Adam & Natasha Stokes’s “understated, smart and professional” destination, which is celebrating its tenth year in these three-storey premises (incorporating private dining and chef’s table) in the city-centre. Under chef Adam and the ‘other Adam’, head chef Adam Wilson, it produces “complicated” and accomplished cuisine, be it from the à la carte menu (for £89 per person), the five-course or seven-course dinner menus (for £109 and £139 per person respectively) or cheaper lunch menus (with three or five courses, for £60 or £85 per person). All reports this year again rate it well, but a striking number of basically positive accounts also include drawbacks in our latest annual diners’ poll. One regular feels that “recently, it’s begun to feel too cool and elegant and the impeccable service can be slightly intimidating” creating a more “sterile” ambience. Or that, “the food is very good but less striking than before” (“some dishes risked the fine main ingredients being swamped by the punchier flavours of some of the subsidiary flavours”). Just a rough patch?

Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan was – as of mid 2025 – rumoured to be on the verge of buying a £1 billion stake in Richard Caring’s restaurant empire, of which this famous brasserie chain is the crown jewel. Presumably, he’s more interested in ‘rolling out’ the brand in The Gulf and beyond rather than dropping by for a Salmon Fishcake and ‘Ivy Chocolate Bombe’, but if he’d asked the opinion of our annual diners’ poll, we’re not sure that he’d sign on the dotted line. “How can a restaurant with this heritage produce such uninspired, tick-box food?” is a question merited by its poor ratings, ditto what explains the “very slow and disinterested service”? The answer may be that “you don’t come here for the food, obviously” but for the “gorgeous” interior design and “picturesque” locations that continue to underpin their appeal. Let’s hope for the Sheikh’s sake that the middle classes of the Arab World are as undiscerning as those from the UK!

“Magnificent cooking” from Tom Shepherd justifies the bet made by his father four years ago when he commissioned the “smart” conversion of the first-floor space above his jewellery shop in the centre of town to accommodate a new 28-cover dining room with open kitchen to showcase his son’s cooking. Awards – including a position in the Harden’s Best UK Top 100 2025 – have followed for this “friendly, warm and unpretentious” venue, where you eat from a seven-course tasting menu of high ambition. Its ratings dipped a little in this year’s annual diners’ poll however, as a result of feedback which – though relentlessly positive – included more caveats than previously (“very good, but the very long waiting list made expectations hard to meet…”; “as popular as ever, but it all felt a little frenetic and prices seem to have risen steadily…”).

Founded by Liam Dillon of the Lifeboat Inn – a nearby neighbourhood pub offering modern pub classics with a twist, led by Head Chef Beth Hipwell.

“Just amazing in every way” is the overall verdict on Alex Claridge’s (of nearby Wilderness, see also) striking and “fun” yearling, which he opened in June 2024 in a space that was formerly ‘Atelier’ (RIP). “The setting in this beautiful old canalside Jewellery Quarter factory is itself a visual delight and the interior decor is exciting, very modern and centred around a gleaming, steel counter at which fourteen diners are served”. “The seating ensures a vibrant atmosphere, with previous strangers feeling comfortable to chat with each other and the service is relaxed but efficient”. He serves a “very adventurous” seafood and fish tasting menu “with a heavy Japanese bent (although they are quick to say they are not a Japanese restaurant)” and “revelatory” drinks pairings are “an impressive mix of wine and sake” alongside “marine-themed cocktails”. “The dozen or so courses are fresh, exciting, original, generally delicious and accurately and beautifully prepared”. “Alex has come up with an original concept in opening this restaurant and it is certainly a unique and rewarding experience for West Midlanders and those prepared to travel from further afield”.