Hotel Du Vin & Bistro

Arrived at Hotel Du Vin on a Friday night, we were lucky and found a parking space right outside (which is extremely unusual around there).

The hotel looked superb, it was beautifully decorated with friendly staff ready to greet you. The restaurant was full (luckily we had booked 2 weeks in advance), and the Decor was extremely French as you’d expect.

For starters we had a Goat's cheese, beetroot, walnut and mixed leaf salad & a Red onion, rocket and mixed cheese tart, petite salade

They arrived about 20 minutes after ordering. The Goats cheese was cooked just right with the salad been simple with thin strands of beetroot for colour & flavour. The Red onion tart was good, nothing special, it was let down by being slightly too dry.

For main we had a Char grilled rib-eye steak, slow roast tomatoes, snail and garlic butter, hand cut chips & a Pan fried sea bass with crushed puree of summer peas, brown shrimps, and tomato and herb beurre blanc

They arrived about 25 minutes after we had finished our starters. The steak came out on a wooden board and was cooked perfectly how I asked for it (medium) and tasted perfect, the hand cut chips were served in a paper cone. These were very disappointing, they were fries not chips (the chefs hand cutting ability is remarkably like a chip cutting machine). Presentation wise it looked good apart from the fries! The sea bass was a good size, very moist and tasted fresh, shrimps were good and the puree of summer peas were surprisingly very tasty (for peas), presentation was good.

For Desert we had 2x crème brulee

You can’t really go wrong with a crème brulee unless you burn the sugar, and they didn’t, it tasted divine, and it was huge, 1 brulee would easily be substantial enough for 1, although we ate them both with ease.

For wine we had the Balfour Brut Rose at £49 which was light & fruity. The wine waiter was extremely knowledgeable and polite.

Overall the service, food and the atmosphere was very good, no complaints.........apart from the chunky chip fries!

The bill was £120 + service charge

i have been here twice. once on a business meeting and second time with a friend. the food is good although the wine not great unless youre willing to have no buget! service excellent, and staff polite. parking a headache but now a little wiser about that! The only gripe i had was not being there with my wife, but still a pleasant place to escape to.

Beautiful hotel close to the centre of Birmingham. The hotel is an old eye hospital and has the most amazing architecture. The staff are very friendly and helpful. The food is great and the rooms gorgeous. My room had possibly the best shower I’ve come across in a hotel with big fluffy towels and robes.

It’s worth ordering breakfast in your room one morning as it arrives on a big tray with warm pastries wrapped in a linen napkin in a basket, little pots of jam and amazing fruit compote, yogurt and musli.

Parking isn’t easy but the hotel has valet parking (for an extra charge).

Make sure you check out the cellar bar - you can even book a tour of the wine cellar!