Cow & Sow (Birmingham) — Restaurant in Birmingham

Both myself and my wife visited here at 5pm on a Wednesday. It was our first ever visit to a Cow & Sow. First impressions were good. It was clean, the staff were very welcoming and took our drinks order (bottle of red wine and a lager). For our starter we had the Cow & Sow sharer. This is a great starter for a couple of people...the pork rinds and burnt ends were superb although the whipped butter was still in it's very cold state if not completely frozen! Onto the mains; my wife ordered the sirloin (medium) with a cider and wholegrain mustard sauce and I ordered the ribeye (medium rare) with the beefy blue cheese sauce (out of this world). We also went for the cheesy leek gratin (beautiful) and the Koffmann's chips with dripping (you get charged extra for the sides and the dripping). Presentation was good but the steaks were cooked incorrectly (wife ended up with medium rare [that's how I wanted my steak cooked] and I ended up with medium [that'show my wife wanted her steak cooked]). However, spoke to Nicholas and he had my wife's whisked away to be redone without any fuss whatsoever. Unfortunately the chips and leeks weren't replenished when my wife's steak came back...again, no problem...Nicholas sorted that out and replenished the sides. However, when the new steak arrived back at the table (by the way she was fully prepared to have had the same steak just cooked a little more to the medium side as it was way too rare for her) it was even rarer than before so we just swapped our steaks. Kitchen- sort your s*&t out and read the actual order!!!!!! Maggie, our waitress definitely took the right order but the kitchen got it completely wrong! Anyway, the quality of the food was very good indeed and I had a great irish coffee to finish. However, and I'm annoyed that I have to say this but, with Pasture within touching distance, C&S are closer to Miller & Carter in terms of quality of steak than they are to Pasture. We both can't speak highly enough of Maggie and Nicholas who were attentive, charming and very kind. We'll give it a go again at some point. Cost for 2 people: £167.65 However Nicholas took my wife's steak off the bill and the additional sides making the total £126.75....what...

Having being constantly teased by the social media adverts about Cow & Sow, I chose to visit the Birmingham location rather than the Clifton, restaurant as I preferred the more central setting and lively atmosphere. Unfortunately, while the service was excellent, the overall experience left much to be desired.

From the start, small disappointments began to add up. I was looking forward to my go-to cocktail, a mojito, only to be told they had no mint and could not make my drink. A minor issue, but one that set the tone for the evening. Things took a bigger dip when I was informed that a steakhouse had run out of ribeye. Thankfully, what I assumed to be the manager stepped in and assured me they could sort one out, though it would require a short wait. I appreciated the effort, and I was happy to wait for my favourite cut.

The starters were exceptional and recommend the chorizo!

When the main meal finally arrived, I was underwhelmed visually. The steak, while cooked too perfection, was served on a large plate with just a small pot of “split garlic” oil, resulting in the plate itself looking sparse. Sides were ordered separately, and while I understand this is common practice, the quality just wasn’t there. The “beef dripping” chips were cold and soggy, which was incredibly disappointing as a fan of beef dripping. Had they served the dripping as a separate dipping sauce rather than pre-soaking the chips, it would have been much better. The seasonal greens were also lackluster—I had expected tenderstem broccoli, but instead, I received regular broccoli. While this wasn’t necessarily bad, it felt underwhelming considering the price point and the restaurant’s reputation.

Overall, the highlight of the evening was the attentive and friendly service of the staff but at a restaurant like this that’s expected regardless, beyond that, the experience didn’t match the expectations and social media content that has...

We booked a table for 8 people for 8.30pm and arrived at 8.29pm to be told the table wasn’t ready yet. So we went to the bar to order some drinks while we waited, we asked for some still water to go with the drinks but were told only tap water is available at the bar and that we’d be given still water once we were seated. Just after 9.05pm the table was ready and we sat down and was given the still water (why this isn’t available at the bar makes no sense).

We ordered around 9.30pm and was told steaks take 30 mins to arrive, so we had some more drinks and waited. Over an hour went by before the food finally arrived. A couple in the party had burgers which they both found had gristle in them, very disappointing. Also the chips for both burgers were forgotten - when we raised it with the waitress she said they would be just a few minutes. Just over 20 minutes later some very undercooked chips appeared (they were literally white) as we were all finishing our meals.

Two of us ordered an espresso martini at the end to be told the coffee machine wasn’t working. But then the waitress came back and said it was sorted and asked if we still wanted the martinis, we said yes and was told “3 or 4 minutes” when we asked how long they would be …. You guessed it - 20 minutes later the two cocktails appeared. They were the worst espresso martinis we’d tasted with some sort of coffee powder in the bottom of the glass.

Overall the service was very poor and needs immediate attention if this location is to survive amongst other steak houses in the city centre. The food was mediocre at best (with the burgers being poor) and also need improvement to survive.

We won’t be returning. Very...