Semedos restaurant — Restaurant in Birmingham

Overall: a pleasant setting, attentive waitress, generally available affordable paid parking but a disappointing experience due to a badly managed restaurant as a result of low quality ingredients, poorly prepared dishes and lack of customer service skills.

We were hoping to have a nice outing as a family of five when we visited earlier this week. We ordered two different pasta dishes, a peri peri chicken burger, a fish burger, and a Bachalau à brás. The food overall wasn't great, the pasta was fresh and well presented however it wasn't an authentic experience in terms of taste or customer service. Our pasta penne arrabiata was served with no chicken despite us ordering it with chicken, however, the waitress was quick to rectify this with the kitchen and ten minutes later we were served with a new penne arrabiata, it was over seasoned and over spicy unfortunately while claiming only to have a 'hint of chilli' on the menu. My daughter was unable to enjoy it.

The burgers had a lot left to be desired in terms of construction and taste. The peri chicken burger was bland and tasteless (despite claiming to be medium chilli). We were expecting big things from the cod fish burger, but unfortunately it turned out to be a cheap frozen fish patty thrown into the frier and served on a layer of oxidized lettuce on a slice of cheese and no discernible sauce. The overall experience was a bland burger the likes of which I can cook much better of in my home kitchen. When I pay three times as much as I would in a FF joint like McDonald's for a fish burger I would expect a better experience, however, Maccy D's Fillet-o-fish blows Semedos out of the water (no pun intended).

When the brás arrived it looked very unappealing, despite the elegant description on the restaurant menu; "cod, onions, and thinly chopped fried potatoes in a bound of scrambled eggs" leaving us expecting a light fluffy textured stir fry of fresh ingredients. To our dismay when it did eventually arrive i can only describe it as a grey dehydrated rissotto, obviously overcooked and very underseasoned. We were still willing at this point, however, after the first bite we realized the dish was infested with thin 1-2 Inch sharp fish bones! My wife immediately stopped eating it as we were expecting a cod fillet preparation which implies deboned ingredients. Thank God that dish wasn't served to a minor unknowingly. When one member of our family raised the concern with the manager he became very defensive and started directing her to some small print on the menu which states they take due care but cannot guarantee bone free fish dishes. Fair enough, but I can't understand how a chef can ignore several large fish bones in a stir fry! Furthermore, the fish just didn't taste fresh, we requested the dish be returned and removed from the menu as it was inedible however the manager outright refused to refund the returned food despite several polite requests.

We went ahead and paid our full bill of £53 because I didn't want to upset my daughters over raised voices but unfortunatly we were left with a very bitter taste in our mouths. I hope this restaurant can improve its food quality and attitude towards customer service as it has good potential, howevet, they've lost a family that would have been a repeat customer and any referrals to my extended business network locally and from...

(2023/10/05) Another visit this Thursday at 4pm, another inefficient service. While there were only 5 customers including myself at the time, I waited exactly 20 minutes for my Chicken Mushroom Stroganoff and Peri Peri Burger. I wouldn't say they were lack of staff, they were just used to a below par service speed.

My Peri Peri Burger was again very dry this time, really hard to finish it without a drink. My Chicken Mushroom Stroganoff was not cooked in an Italian way, you could see from the photo that pasta, chicken and sauce were definitely cooked separately. Not looked very nice, but the actual taste was okay. The pasta was in a proper state, neither raw nor mush. The sauce was creamy with a Peri Peri mix, it went well with the pasta. However the chicken had a totally different taste, didn't have a harmony with the rest of the dish. At least, it reached my expectation for a £12.05 pasta dish.

I'm gradually losing my love with Semedos, the food quality is maybe not that high. Semedos will still be one of my options in Jewellery Quarter, though the order has definitely changed.

(2023/08/17) Another visit this Thursday at 5pm, still an off-peak period with only a few customers but the service was inefficient this time. It took me around 27 minutes to get everything I ordered (1/4 Peri Peri Chicken with Fries, 3pc Lamb Chops and 3pc Baklava).

Disappointingly, the chicken I got this time was too dry. Bigger portion of dry chicken just imagine, pack of protein! Nutritious but not delicious. The Lamb Chops and Baklava were both fine. That’s it, nothing more nothing less.

Some comments are saying that they waited more than an hour to get their dishes. If you order something big in a busy period, one hour is definitely possible and nothing is exaggerated.

(2023/07/28) Found this restaurant online and it had some decent reviews. First visit this Friday at 5pm, definitely an off-peak period. Only 1 staff there, but the service was friendly and efficient.

There was a huge menu with very competitive prices in Jewellery Quarter. The impression climaxed when I saw the 2 plates. Well, they looked so good with such prices. Maybe the expectation was too high, the actual tastes could not match in the end.

The best item for me was the Peri Peri Chicken, really tender and juicy. The Peri Peri Burger was okay apart from the patty that was relatively dry. Fries and Chunky Chips were freshly fried and they tasted delicious with salt and all those condiments provided. The Gelato was a huge disappointment. Very icy, 1 of the scoops wasn't even compact! Maybe I should have checked the display counter more carefully before I placed the order. The Nata tasted a bit weird, not sure whether that was the authentic Portuguese taste.

Overall, still a fairly positive experience. Will come back for sure, still want to check out some other items...

The food and drink here tastes good. Some of it's good value (ice-cream milkshakes £4-£5) but on the whole, it's expensive for casual dining (£5 for a bowl of veg for 2, £20 for 20 wings and 4 sides). I've been to other places where you get buffalo wings for the price of the dinky wings you get here. There may be better value options or deals on the menu but I wasn't looking out for them, so can't comment unfortunately.

The venue's cosy (seats about 30) and well-decorated, though parking can be tricky to find. We went in the late evening and parked in the area in front of Tesco (2 doors up).

Service is by far the biggest area where improvement's needed. You're greeted promptly as you enter but that's as far as the promptness goes. They only have one waitress, and she also has to make any drinks, which were fab btw. My gripe here is that our 5 drinks were served in 3 waves. The food, however, arrived all at once, though no one asked at any point if everything was ok. It all tasted good, but you expect these things when you dine out and it's table service.

One major issue with this place is the labelling of the peri-peri sauces. I picked up a medium (there were also hot and extra hot options) and for the 3 drops i tasted, my tongue was on fire! I can handle spicy food, and we have a massive bottle of Nando's medium per-peri at home, so this was quite unexpected and annoying to say the least. I can only imagine that the extra hot doubles up as rocket fuel.....you have been warned!

When we'd finished eating, no one came to ask if our meal was ok, if there was anything else we wanted (my kids wanted dessert), or even to offer the bill. I mean, it's table service so why would I go to the counter? Anyway, I went up to the counter with my 4 year old and asked for our bill, which was promptly produced. There was a large jar with lollipops right next to me (which I'd noticed were accompaniments to people's bills). Considering I had a child with me, you think they'd offer him a lollipop....nope, happy to see us go.

I really didn't get a vibe that they wanted my custom, so i probably won't be going again or recommending this place either, which is a shame considering my...