Ye Olde Saracen's Head — Restaurant in Metropolitan Borough of Solihull

UPDATED AND REVISED REVIEW This place is always on top of my mind when it comes to thinking of a pub to eat out at. The food is always delicious and staff are friendly. I haven’t had a bad meal here until yesterday (29/05/23)

Starters were lovely (hummus and pita and black pudding sausage roll) however the steak was a huge let down. I asked for medium and it came out very rare, the peppercorn sauce had a horrible rancid bitter taste and almost tasted like medicine. I told the waiter and explained the steak was very rare and the peppercorn sauce was very unpleasant, they then sent over another member of staff, my partner had finished his meal and I didn’t want to eat by myself so I said I didn’t want a replacement.

They took away and then when the bill came the steak and peppercorn sauce was still on the bill despite only eating a bit of the steak and leaving all of the sauce, and complaining.

We had paid the bill because on looking at the bill it seemed there was some adjustments which we thought was a deduction however when we added everything up it turned out there wasn’t any deduction to our bill. When we questioned the bill they said oh we can refund it but it was too late and the damage had been done. I just think it is the right thing to do when someone complains and doesn’t eat the meal provided.

We were disappointed really as the meal was ruined and we’d spent a fair amount as we had starters and desserts and we always come here.

Unfortunately won’t be coming back due to this.

10 Months Ago Came here for Sunday lunch and I have to say it is one of the best pub meals I’ve had in a while. A lot of country pubs have gone down hill recently especially food quality and customer service but the Ye Olde Saracens Head didn’t disappoint! Went for the crispy squid, pil pil prawns and beef ragu arancini to start. All were delicious and a good sized portion. All of us went for the roast as it looked lovely. We had 3 racks of pork and one beef sirloin. Wow, one of the best roasts I’ve had. Plenty of veg and gravy and the meat was lovely and tender and really tasty. The pork had a nice fennel marinade and came with crackling. The beef was so soft and melt in the mouth. Yorkshire pudding nice and crispy on the outside but soft and fluffy in the middle. The waiter (can’t remember his name) was lovely. So friendly and accommodating and really made our dining experience. We were sat right outside the entrance to The Den and booked a table at 2pm on 03/07/22. Just to give him some recognition 😊 will definitely...

Ye Olde Saracen's Head is an incredible place with delicious, fresh, and amazing food, with the most wonderful team working throughout.

My wife and I had our first date here in March 2018, I then proposed here in August 2019 (a proposal which wouldn't have happened in the way that I imagined if it wasn't for the team working and communicating with me for months running up to it to help organise things!), and we had our wedding day meal here in December 2022.

We had our 'big day' cancelled 3 times over the course of 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, so we decided to cut our losses and have a small, intimate day that we could organise and put together even if pandemic restrictions were still in place. From the first point of contact all the way through to the day itself, Chloe communicated with us (a lot!) via email and phone to get everything in place - we were able to arrange table plans, decorations, menu choices for guests, have guests sorted onto different tabs, and so much more! Chloe just couldn't do enough to help us have the most magical day possible, and considering it wasn't the 'big day' we had planned previously, it was quite honestly perfect, and that is in large part due to the Saracen's Head, all of the staff there, and the incredible food that was served.

To put things into perspective, most tables at Ye Olde Saracen's Head are for 4-6 guests, whereas we had 32 guests in total on our day (we had around half the restaurant to ourselves) and none of our guests had the same combination of starter, main and dessert. So, this was a huge undertaking for the staff and yet everything was seamless, every single guest commented on both how delicious and fresh their food was, and how endearing the general ambience of the venue was.

Thank you so much to everyone at Ye Olde Saracen's Head, and a special thank you to Chloe for all of your tireless work to ensure our day was beyond all expectation. You definitely have customers for life from us and all...

Lovely location. - overall well worth a visit.

I was a little disappointed that masks are no longer being worn here when numbers are so high - lots of businesses are still asking people to wear them even thought the law has changed and I would have felt more comfortable had this been the case, this was the first place we have visited that staff were not wearing a mask but I suppose that will become more common now.

Service was good - Michael was friendly and patient with the children choosing their meals. a little thing though - it would have been super if we had been told when one of us ordered a pizza that it was 2 for 1 as we could have either changed our order ( as one of the children had ordered pizza for their kids meal and the other chose pasta which they actually didn't end up liking 🙈 ) or added another pizza to take away with us. We were a little disappointed to only see the 2 for 1 sign only as we left, but hey - that's life I guess, we will know for next time! My steak was perfectly cooked medium rare as requested and they substituted the chips for a salad with no issues.

The outside space is really nice, and with plenty of shade which was a must. We were also given a highchair for our youngest and it was clean and good quality ( you wouldn't believe how often we get given a grubby or damaged highchair!) So that's appreciated.

The toilets were clean and the good quality soap and moisturiser was a great touch.

I didn't see much of the interior of the venue, but from what I saw, it...