The Old Royal — Restaurant in Birmingham

THE ROYAL PUB, BIRMINGHAM. Just a few words, Heading to a music gig in Birmingham on the Tuesday evening, so decided on heading to the Royal, Church Street. It looks beautifully well kept from the outside. Had a little discount so opted to use this for drinks and food. I walked in the premises,it looks the sort of place that has frank sinatra music on in the background and where office workers come in after work with their filofaxes and let off steam, haha. 😅 Great Singer he was!!!! Nothing wrong with his music. Anyway, how very clean! I can usually tell how clean a place is by how clean the windows are. Beautiful leaded glass windows with emblems on them, the sort of place you take friends and family intown but away from the Hustle and bustle of those nearby New St bars. Love the ceiling wallpaper,have a glance if you pop in and soak up the surroundings, many people dont take time to take in how nice the pub looks.I think it's what you call... Serious Decoratin. Furniture and seating tie in well with the surroundings, television screens with SkySports News. Another star just for that. Anyway, onto the main business, walked in and saw a table empty right opposite the bar. A young lady took my order, normally if I'm in town I get the ones who look cheesed off, don't like the job or can't handle the pressure. Believe me, I've visited so many bars and there's nothing worse than getting bad staff and service. I received a very warm greeting, i could have had the worse day of my life but it was nice to get eye contact, a smile, and a great listening ear, she mentioned if i had any requirements, even told me what discount i got! I ordered 4 pints but said I can have the other two after your meal as it would probably get warm. I totally agreed, it was one of the warmest nights of the year. Absolutely Genuine. She was serving one minute then clearing empty glasses.Superb multi tasking. I ordered food for me and one of the lads, the lady whose name I will mention later in this letter even walked around and placed them on the table, another 🌟 Absolutely made my evening. I ordered crispy king prawns plus a side portion of chips for my mate,he had 2 pints of the inch cider , I had Steak and Chips, well done, delicious 😋 only thing was I'm not a fan of putting the chips in a fancy metal chip basket. Takes up an unwanted place on the plate and more to wash afterwards I think. Those things don't look cheap either. Just throw those chips on. 😄 One thing I've always wondered is why at pub meals you only get half a tomato 🍅? There were plenty of condiments brought over,hp sauce,heinz mayo, salt & pepper, vinegar and an irish brand of tomato sauce which I can't remember the name but tasted nice as a dip.There was a great selection of beers on draught, I opted for Carling but will try a Guinness in there maybe sometime in the future. Not a fan of those Piper crisps, wish they had Walkers or Tayto. The only sad point was having to leave to head to a gig , a few people were disappointed that the pub was closing early for a private function. As for the member of staff i honestly thought she was a manager, she had great mannerism. Down to earth, very approachable, all the other staff were very good and attentive from observation. JOANNE Is her name if I recall. Probably thought we got a cheeky charlie customer here, we were treated like Kings. 😎 Ah Jesus, an absolute star 🌟 I used to visit the pub when Pat the irish guy had it. Vast improvement from those years, it was a great pub then. Long may it continue. 🍺 Keep up the...

First time visitor to The Old Royal tonight around 10pm, quite a late visit for me but on finishing work thought would pop in for a drink and a bite to eat. Little tucked away in Birmingham, but close to Colmore row and worth a venture across pay a visit.

Atmosphere - good music choice, and happy crowd, just fine for a Saturday night. Sport on the TVs and well lit. No problem finding a table to sit at.

Ordering - Used the QR code at the table to order. Drink came quickly with no problems at all on the service side. Noted no number on the table to order to, so used one from an adjacent table. Could do with this being checked to make easier in future.

Staff - Welcoming, friendly and polite. Proactively came to tell me the food would not be available as kitchen closed when spotted looking at the menu, rather than leave me to find out when came to order. Can't fault her service at all.

Point to note on the tables - did need to grab menu from another table as one on mine was stuck together with what think was vinegar.

Visited the toilets, generally quite clean. But noted randomly there was some pants left hanging up in the gents cubicle! No impact on score as could have just been left there. Little difficult to wash hands as the tap only runs for 3 seconds at a time, ideally could do with a bit longer.

Conclusion: Happily revisit. Few minor things above sorted would make it a 5* so hopefully take on constructively as its...

We looked at the reviews of pubs in Birmingham for somewhere different and this one looked like our type of pub so we went on a weekday lunchtime. When we arrived it was quite busy but we were greeted by one of the ladies behind the bar who recommended their 2 for £10.95 menu - when the fish and chips arrived we could hardly believe how good it was and how quick it was delivered - in fact I said to one of the ladies I cant believe you can do it for this price. The pub and toilets were so clean it was refreshing to find somewhere like this and we recommended it to our neighbours who went yesterday and made the same comments as us. The staff were so nice and helpful we cannot recommend it enough, so if you are in Birmingham give it a try you certainly wont be disappointed and if you want somewhere a little quieter try upstairs where there is a...