The Briar Rose

The best of the Wetherspoons in Birmingham. Had a good pint of something called Wentworth Meathead, from a decent selection of ales.

Does rooms too if you need somewhere to stay! Bit rammed weekend evenings.

Named after a series of works by a painter born a little further up the street.

A decent example of the Wetherspoon's collective located all throughout Birmingham. Spacious and pleasant inside, with a large and well-stocked bar staffed by friendly staff.

The Rose is very popular with all manner of punters, although unlike a few other 'spoons in town, in my experience you don't get much trouble going down here. The fact it gets so busy means you'll often fnd it hard to get a table here, but if you're lucky you'll grab yourself a sofa and be able to enjoy the atmosphere in comfort.

The Briar Rose also has a hotel aspect built into it, offering overnight accommodation. I've not used it myself, but a friend of mine who was visiting town said that the rooms are very reasonable for the price.

There are 3/4 'spoons pubs in brum and this is my favourite. Apart from the toilets being so far undergound that is!

Usual good selection of real ales, food ok. Always stop for 1 or 2 when in brum.

The Briar Rose is one of the expanding range of Weatherspoon Hotels. This one is extremely well located in the centre of Birmingham and good value at £44 for a single room.

The staff seemed to be tied to as script and on some sort of a go-slow. Despite the fact I had pre-booked it seemed to take ages to get the key to my room. Breakfast (which is taken in the bar) also took ages to order, but arrived surprisingly quickly and was hot and reasonably tasty. Checking out also took ages, and I had to wait whilst they transferred the breakfast food bill over on to my bill, and this took several minutes. The breakfast seems to have a standard charge of £4.20, whatever you order, and this seemed to the cause problems.

On the bright side the rooms seem to have been recently refurbished. They were a good size, comfortable, with a flat-screen TV and a nice bathroom with an excellent shower: an excellent standard for the price.

Recommended, shame about the staff.

This is a lovely pub which does a good variety of cheap food and with it’s nice central location is a great place to meet up and start your night out in Birmingham.

The staff are usually friendly although when dealing with food order they have got a tendency to get things wrong, something that they don’t always deal with in the most polite of ways.

That said there is a good selection of beer available at the bar and as it is all reasonably priced, you won’t have an extortionate visit.

The pub can get very busy straight after work and seats can quickly run out. It is worthwhile getting there early!

I love the Briar Rose! So many of my nights out have started at this pub! It was the first in the city to introduce a smoking ban, which is one the main reasons I started going here!

This Wetherspoons has a slightly 'classier’ feel about it and a much nicer vibe that the Square Peg just up the road. Being a Wetherspoons the drinks prices are the same accorss the board, so you always know what you’re going to pay.

Food here is delicious - one of the better Wetherspoons I’ve been to. Obviously no music is played here, but it is still a great pub with a fantastic atmosphere most nights of the week!

The toilets are downstairs in the pub and are always very clean and nice smelling - quite an important point to make!

The queues at the bar are never huge, which is a bonus, and the pub is quite tastefully decorated.

The pub itself offers accommodation, but having never stayed there, I couldn’t fairly comment on it.

The Briar is situated just off New Street in the city centre. It’s lightly out of the way in that respect, but this means you can usually grab a table on a night out or if you’re popping in for food.

Last time I was there a little mouse ran across then floor…. eekkkkkk!!! Average wetherspoons other then that. Staff not particuarly friendly but hey it’s cheap and … and that’s about it.. bit dirty!!

Had an enjoyable day here.
Great selection of ales and wetherspoons good value food to soak it up.
only problem here is that in windy weather, you get a bad draft when sitting at many of the seats and sofas near the door

Wetherspoons pub with a lodge upstairs. Usual menu, although they could have at least left the lasagne in the microwave long enough to make it hot.

The 3 stars are more for the price of the drinks. It was wine week when I was there, meaning that all the wines (inc guest wines) were at house prices. Now, normally that would be a bit of a saving, but when house prices are £7.49 a bottle… Well, I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven. For those who like ale this place is also fab. A million different ales and a board telling you all about them and what the guest ales will be for the next week. And they probably cost about 10p a pint or something (I didn’t verify this - but it’s got to be a lot cheaper than anywhere else). The bar staff are nice, the clientele more bearable than at many of the bars in Birmingham. And you can go out and still have money left for’t’ bus ride home. Fab.

The Briar Rose is one of the new Wetherspoon 'Lodges' which feature accommodation above a Wetherspoon's bar or pub. The aim is to provide simple, modern, good-value accommodation in central locations in major UK towns and cities.

The accommodation itself is on the well-established Ibis model: a simple en-suite room, with simple decor, and basic but adequate facilities. There's no room service, but food and drink can be bought in the Wetherspoon's below. The Briar Rose is situated in a refurbished "bankers' classical meets art-deco" style office building, with a large bar on the ground floor. We booked a triple room for a week-end.

In terms of our stay, we found:

Pros:

- incredibly central - between New St and Colmore Row
- unbeatable value - £20 per night each (£60 between three)
- clean (not spotless, but fine)
- surprisingly comfy beds and pillows
- spacious, bright room with high ceilings
- in-room tea and coffee making facilities, hairdryer
- easily booked on-line

Cons:

- no double-glazing, so some street noise (little traffic, but the odd drunken reveller until 2am. So probably less of a problem on week-days than at week-ends)
- no air-conditioning
- not much privacy from the the flats opposite (I loathe net curtains, but it needs something)
- reception was a bit too casual for my liking, but efficient enough
- a mix-up meant the room wasn't ready at 2pm as stated, but this was sorted out quickly by the friendly and helpful cleaner
- breakfast not included, but good-value breakfasts available from the Wetherspoons below.

I'd happily stay there again (so long as the weather wasn't too sultry), but would try for a rear-facing room. Once I'd fallen asleep I slept like a log, as th bed was very comfy.

I might look elsewhere for breakfast, though, which was the only real downer. Although the meal itself was absolutely fine (veggie cooked breakfast for £2.10) and the service friendly, they serve beer at 9am on a Sunday morning, so attracting very late night revellers in various states of inebriation. (Two blokes were actually snorting 'poppers' as they were drinking...) They were all harmless enough and friendly in a drunken sort of way, but the management ought to think seriously about the wisdom of serving alcohol so early on a Saturday and Sunday.

It's hard to decide how many stars. I think:

- five stars for sheer value
- a safe three stars for the accommodation (four had the room been ready)
- breakfast experience was definitely two stars.

So three stars overall, this time.