HAYELP! HAYELP!
Wife and I are meeting her American pen pals and they are staying at a hotel in the middle of the NEC complex and the plan is to pick them up and take them out for dinner. Don’t really want to head into Birmingham City Centre as we will have an hour drive back home after and want to maximise our time with them so somewhere local(ish) to their hotel would be convenient. Any suggestions? I’m not familiar with the area so there is potential of getting lost and giving our ‘pals’ a shitty guided tour of nowhere special

I was in the NEC Hilton Metropole yesterday for a corporate do and the dinner was excellent – very good effort considering they were catering for 150 or so.

Generally struck me as a bit of a desert though so I don’t know whether there are any non-hotel eateries out there.

The holiday inn by Birmingham international has a Marco Pierre white’,s in it that’s not very scenic but close and not bad.

Alternatively go to Knowle where there are a few options, Lloyd’s curry house is very good and good one for yanks as curry’s a bit of a rarity over there. There’s a rather nice skandi themed bar down an alley across the road as well.

If you want close but nice then try the Malt Shovel in Barston
It about 2 miles away but in a nice little village, food is decent

There are a few good curry houses in Solihull which isn’t too far away

resorts world has just opened,…there’s a few eateries in there, all very new so no reviews yet… but they’ll be eager to please I’m sure!

https://www.resortsworldbirmingham.co.uk

Marco got a ‘zero’ hygeine rating in 2014

If you plan on eating, give this a try before you do.

http://ratings.food.gov.uk/authority-search/en-GB/birmingham?sm=1

Stars on the doors rating is pretty much tosh, but it gives you a fighting chance

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/revealed-85-zero-rated-hygiene-birmingham-8736851

The bar at the Crowne Plaza is good, Hilton Metropole not bad. Some nice places in Solihull or even dash down to Coventry?

The Blue Orchid is a decent thai and Indian in Coventry. There’s the bulls head in Meriden for decent pub food. The kings head (previously the herons nest) in Knowle. The Orange Tree in Chadwick end has a good reputation but I’ve only been there once and thought it was nice but a bit over priced.

+1 on Malt Shovel at Barston

Superb! Thanks STW’ers, I knew you would come up with the goods. They are staying at the Hilton Metropole but are keen to do the ‘village restaurant’ thing so the Malt Shovel at Barston looks a good option. Cheers Chaps!

Just thought I’d let those that recommended the Malt Shovel at Bartson know my evening with my American friends was a success and the Malt Shovel is a lovely place and very very nice food. Thanks for your help.