Tile Hill Restaurant Guide

“Adam Bennett produces dishes of supreme quality, prepared with flair and skill” at this top-class gastroboozer, whose dining room occupies a 19th-century former schoolroom, and whose bar occupies an old butcher’s. It received nothing but praise this year for what is a “fantastic dining experience and great value for money despite the ‘cost of living crisis’”. It’s worth noting, however, that in January 2025, owner Andreas Antona announced his retirement after 50 starry years in the industry, putting the legendary Simpson’s in Brum up for sale; while the latter’s fate remains in the balance, one regular here is “confident the superlative standards will be maintained” – and there’s a good chance they will, given that Antona has happily decided to carry on overseeing this venture alongside other personal projects.

Ex-Simpson’s chef Matt Cheal decamped from smaller premises in Henley-in-Arden to the former Jacques fine dining restaurant in Knowle two years back, gaining a cocktail and tapas bar along the way. There’s a lot of love for the “wonderfully plush surroundings (my old branch of HSBC!) which lend any visit the feeling of a special occasion”, while early reports on the food – à la carte or a tasting menu – praise some “beautifully presented” dishes (even if some feel “the flavours aren’t quite as impressive as the surroundings”).

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.

2023 Review: “A great surprise! An authentic Italian restaurant with a broad menu of very good food and wine” – “delivered with panache and generosity”. The “beautiful and romantic decor, with cherry trees garlanded with tiny lights” only adds to the appeal.

This “fabulous French bistro” with a “lovely ambience” is owned by Aubrey Allen, the family-run butcher’s to the Royal Family, so “delicious” meats such as dry-aged steaks are a given, and feature alongside all the traditional fare you’d expect if this was a corner of France. It’s “excellent value” too – “their (£28, three-course) set menu on Tuesday ‘Auberge Nights’ is not to be missed”, with “wonderful service” contributing to a “very pleasant evening” indeed.

2022 Review: This former fishmonger, butcher, casino, tailor etc. is acclaimed by locals for its “perfect fine dining in an intimate setting”. After pandemic lockdowns, it’s “back with a subtle but impactful makeover and a great new tasting menu” – now the only option, and ringing in at £65 for six courses.

2022 Review: Hilary & Barrie Cload's homage to Royal Thai cuisine (est. 2004) enjoys a “very pleasant” art gallery setting, and its “wonderful, beautifully presented” food just “never disappoints”; they also do a “great deal involving ‘lunch boxes’ which are delicious”.

2022 Review: It’s “nice to eat outside by the canal on a sunny day” at this well-run casual spot, with a useful menu of grills and sarnies.

2022 Review: The oak-panelled dining room at this Lutyens-style Relais & Château spa hotel makes a suitable setting for chef Paul Evans to showcase fresh produce from the hotel’s long-established kitchen garden. Long-serving chef-director Simon Haigh oversees the Eden hotel collection’s culinary offering from this flagship restaurant.

The original of what is now a duo of modern Indian venues (run by the Lasan Group) which now has a Harborne sibling – this attractive modern operation offers an affordable menu rooted in street-food dishes.

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.

“The best Peruvian restaurant in Birmingham!” – chef Robert Ortiz produces “seriously interesting food”, according to fans of this converted bank building in Moseley, where the “delicious tasting menu is very affordable”. Formerly of the Lima group in London, he has opened an offshoot in Hackney’s Broadway Market.

“Love the rawness of this restaurant – it’s all about what makes Birmingham’s restaurant scene!” – You eat next to funkily graffitied walls, listening to a carefully curated playlist at Kray Tredwell’s well-known destination: “one of the city’s most interesting restaurants serving fine food prepared by a real, committed culinary artist”. Occupying Digbeth’s Custard Factory (and named after the birth weight of his premature daughter), “the extended restaurant is more spacious than previously and now has a comfortable bar area for preprandial drinks before guests are led upstairs to the main dining area where some of the tables still allow diners to watch the chef and his assistants prepare their dishes”. “Kray has altered the style of his menus several times in the past couple of years or so but has once more returned to serving a multi-course Tasting menu” and the result is “extremely well cooked and presented dishes” (“veering more towards being less eccentric and experimental than in the past and probably none the worse for that!”). Top Menu Tips – “the best barbecued Hispi cabbage ever, perfectly accurately cooked, glistening cod with smoked ham and delightful venison with maitake and a spot-on massaman sauce”.

This 15-strong London noodle chain (now with branches in Brighton, Birmingham and Bristol) is “a good stand-by” – perhaps it’s “not as good as some of its competitors”, but it is widely seen as “good value”: in particular “the lunch-time meal deal” is a winner.

“Brilliant sushi, always creative and beautifully served” is the attraction at this venue that is quite open about not being authentically Japanese – ‘gaijin’ means ‘foreigner’. A tiny 10-seat counter operation when it opened eight years ago, it took over the tattoo parlour next door to add additional table seating, and these days MasterChef: The Professionals 2021 champion Dan Lee (Brummie-born of English/Irish/Cantonese descent) offers what is billed as Birmingham’s first 15-course ‘omakase’ tasting menu.

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.

Nisha Katona’s Liverpool-based operation has two branches in London (Charlotte Street and Westfield Stratford) offering her “very tasty” Indian street food – “with the occasional hint of raw spice”. The Lancashire-born former barrister launched the business in 2014 and now has 28 outlets around the country, whose “enjoyable, authentic food” is “really great for a chain”.