ines — Restaurant in Birmingham

I went here earlier this week for niece's 18th birthday. We booked ahead for 10 people, and as I mentioned to a work colleague that I was going, he told me he knew the owner, made a call and said we'd be well looked after. I wasn't looking for special treatment but if it was offered was expected. We got there and noticed an old sign saying cash only, which is inconvenient, who really carries cash these days? they claim machine was out of order but seems to me a ploy to get cash payments. The decor looked nice until we were moved to the back room, I understand this may have been because there were 10 of us but they could have rearranged the tables at the front. The corner we were in was dark, and decor didn't match the front area of restaurant. Food is mediocre, described to me as Pan Asian, but nothing grand, flavours were not memorable. For what you get, it's pricey, I had a plate of biryani for about £13. Mocktails at about £6, I've had nicer mocktails in a bar and a couple of quid cheaper. As it was a birthday we were allowed to bring our own cake, the mother of the birthday girl also bought the birthday package as offered by the restaurant, this was an oreo cheesecake and a bottle of fruit drink for £10, what she got was an awful tasting mousse and a cheap bottle of drink you'd get from local Asian stores. I've been to Bangladeshi restaurants and see the desire to do something different, but this isn't a restaurant I'd be visiting again, did we get looked after?No. The waitresses were nice and friendly enough but weren't attentive and this is probably because we were kept in the back room. There were a lot of south Asian families like ours and many south Asian youngsters with their friends, but choice of music was also poor, playing old skool R&B from the 90s and noughties seemed like a very bad choice considering the tones of the songs, not really appropriate for young children and elderly. I would have given a 2 rating but they have a car park, and the prawn starter was nice. I've tried it, nothing special, if you don't mind pretentious food then it's ok, otherwise avoid, you'd get better service on Woodbridge Road, at Kabbabish who also do beautiful food which you won't...

Aesthetically pleasing! 🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸 Honest and fair review below. Some good work here and a nice concept that we have not found elsewhere in the local vicinity.

✅️ Great effort with the presentation of all the dishes - a really nice concept (a bit sad I didn't get any violas with our dishes ☹️) ✅️ Clean premises including glass screens / dividers. Staff clear tables promptly after customers, which is nice to see. ✅️ Clean cutlery and crockery ✅️ Promptly greeted, seated and we had our parking validated upon arrival ✅️ Lovely decor and their crockery is pretty - matches the decor well. Love the plates with the lipped edges (perfect for beans in your brekkie!) ✅️ Nice choice of items on the menu - plenty too choose from with extras available too ✅️ Decent portion size for each dish ✅️ Staff are attentive but not overbearing ✅️ Staff thoroughly check for dietary requirements and allergies before taking your order- we were asked twice for confirmation ✅️ Relaxed atmosphere ✅️ Sufficient seating available ✅️ Parking available but get here early!

❌️ The toast needed to be cooked longer in both of our dishes the toast was too soft and so it was soggy (that is the toast in the inés breakfast and the sourdough toast in the 🥑 dish) ❌️ The poached eggs 🥚 were over cooked unfortunately so no soft yolk but still edible ❌️ Potatoes in the Inés breakfast had been sat for too long before service / were a little stale. They were edible but did not taste fresh. ❌️ Glass screens - a nice idea but can you frost the bottom half for a bit more privacy between tables? The tables are really close together - you can hear conversations next to you too. I suspect seating in the next room were not being used until the afternoon covers ❌️ No sugar or spoons were provided with our hot drinks - are these self service or should they be provided with the drinks?

A few tweaks required but we were...

Absolutely beautiful venue, decor is so elegant and they even have a ring light for those good insta pics! Venue is huge so be sure to book in advance as tables fill up quickly. Staff were amazing and the service was on point. Waitress in hijab was honestly so lovely (can’t remember your name but thank you!). Staff an venue 10/10, but the food...massive let down. This restaurant is one of those places that have everything, the venue, service, friendly staff, but the only thing they are missing is good food. I ordered a berry mocktail, it was really nice compared to other places on ladypool road. For started ordered lamb chops, got three lamb chops with barely any meat on them at all, it was as if we were given bones, spices were deffo lacking, it was really basic lamb chops. For mains ordered burger which came with a side of chips, they could have at least added like salad to the plate because it looked like it wasn’t complete ,the burger was fine, it wasn’t undercooked or anything but again was lacking flavours, it was really basic and I wasn’t amazed by it, also ordered the shatkora donner kebab which came with a side of chips, honestly guys for £10 you are better off going to somewhere like shazanz for shatkora donner, it didn’t have enough flavours to it nor was it half as good as the chippy! The sides we received for chips was appalling, probably got 10 chips in total, portion size for the food here is rubbish. For dessert we ordered biscoff cheesecake and added strawberries, dessert was the only thing worth the money here it was delicious ! Overall, venue is beautiful, staff amazing, but the food is a massive let down, it’s not overpriced, pretty much similar prices to other restaurants on ladypool road but with the portion size and food that you get you would think...