HANBAO — Restaurant in Birmingham

As avid fans of the original Worcester branch, we were very excited to find out that Hanbao was expanding to a place in Digbeth, which is a lot closer to where we live. We wanted to take a friend here as a birthday treat and managed to book the last available slot for 3 people at 18:45 last Saturday.

I was a bit surprised to see that the Birmingham branch is a lot brighter than the Worcester branch, which has a more ‘secret underground burger den’ feel to it. It’s so light and airy in the Birmingham branch that they could probably do away with all the fake plastic plants that they’ve filled it with and put lovely real plants in there instead.

We placed our order and then the waitress returned to apologise that there was a backlog in the kitchen so there would be a wait for our food. We didn’t mind this as we were not in a rush and were enjoying sitting there and chatting anyway.

I went to the unisex toilets to wash my hands and was disappointed to see that they were not kept as clean as the Worcester branch. There was urine all over the toilet seat, used toilet paper on the floor around the toilet and water from the basin on the floor.

We were not waiting too long for the food. If the waitress hadn’t previously apologised then I wouldn’t have noticed we had to wait. Actually, it arrived in good time. The waiter who brought the food to our table asked if there was anything else. I told him that the toilets were… and as I was trying to think of a suitable non-swear word, he finished my sentence with the word, “crap.”

Anyway, I’ve given this 5 star review based on the food alone. Everything was as tasty and high standard as the Worcester branch. It was our friend’s first time visiting either of the Hanbao branches and he liked it. We love the delicious Asian twists on the usual burger and fries that you just can’t get anywhere else. The flavour combinations, the sauces on the top, the quality taste, all served in traditional Hong Kong dim sum steaming baskets. So unique to Hanbao.

We had three burgers, three sides, two soft drinks and one pint of beer. The bill came to just over £60. Not the cheapest burger out there but I much prefer paying a bit more to come here because it’s worth it for the quality of this food.

I visited the “crap” toilet on the way out to see if anything had been done to clean them up. Nothing had changed.

My fiancé and his friend were waiting for me outside and they were chatting away to the door man. It was nice to see a door man who was friendly and you could have...

Genuinely one of the best restaurants I've ever visited, and the place I always bring people to whenever I have guests visiting from outside of the city!

Hanbao is an absolute gem of a place, and easily the best burger I've ever had, and I'm saying this as someone who isn't much of a burger person, especially beef burgers. But Hanbao's smash patties are to die for -- I've now tried the Hanbao, the Juicy, and the Black Bean Philly and they all balance the ingredients perfectly. The buns don't fall apart and you're not fighting to get the entire thing in your mouth despite how intimidating they look in the photos on the website!

Admittedly, it is a bit of an expensive place to eat. The burgers don't come with any sides, so you'll need to buy fries separately for the classic burger experience. You're looking at around £15 - £20pp minimum before any drinks are included, which does make this place more of a treat for me than a regular eatery.

Despite it being pricier than I would traditionally be willing to fork out for, it's more than worth it in my opinion. My personal favourites are the Black Bean Philly burger and the Shaolin fries. My partner isn't a fan of pork belly but despite this he absolutely loves the Shaolin fries!

The staff are lovely and are super accommodating, too. We had half of our booking having to take a taxi all the way from Stafford thanks to mass train cancellations over the weekend -- one quick phone call later and we were able to push our booking back by 90 minutes which was a huge relief.

Part of me wants to gatekeep this place because of how good it is, but I'd also love for more people to know that Digbeth is full of fantastic places like Hanbao. Even if you're not a huge burger fan I'd recommend you give it a go, I reckon you'll be...

The burgers were delicious, however it has been a long time since I have received service that poor. Upon arriving at HANBAO, the hostess at the entrance stood looking at me without expression. After a few moments of staring at me, she eventually asked wether we had a reservation and then showed us to our table. It appeared a real inconvenience that we had arrived at the restaurant. The waitress who took our order pressed us hard for both drinks and food orders. She attempted to take our drinks order before we had finished sitting down at the table. She requested our food order multiple times within a five minute period of being seated. When taking the order, one party member changed their mind on what they’d like to order, at which point the waitress rolled her eyes, ripped off the sheet of paper she was taking the order on, and threw it in a nearby bin. If we weren’t so rushed, perhaps we may have had time to consider our order properly. We had eaten our meal and were asked if we would like anything else, within 25 minutes of sitting down. The waitress cleared away our meals while two members of our party were still attempting to finish eating. This restaurant is clearly product focused, with no consideration for customer service. We experienced a culture of poor staff attitude throughout our meal. I suggest the owners perform a serious of secret shopping exercises to understand just how significant this problem is. Since experiencing this, I have discussed with a number of friends who provided me with similar feedback. A shame because no matter how good the burger was, I will not be returning to this establishment. This restaurant has potential if they can resolve their...