B1 - Birmingham

Unfortunately not available. Bar seating and only menu

We went to B1 restaurant to celebrate a graduation. It was a massive disappointment. The restaurant was largely empty during our entire meal (7pm on a Saturday night) which in hindsight was an ominous sign. The menu contained numerous misspellings, another ominous sign but it was too late to change location. The food was awful. The starters of fishcakes and goats cheese were ok. The main courses we ordered were the crispy belly pork (the crackling was more hard than crispy, and it was dry and tasteless), the confit duck (so overcooked that it was largely inedible. We couldn’t even get the meat off the bone. The spinach that came with it was bitter and the rosti soggy) and the chorizo risotto (one dimensional with an overwhelming taste of Sainsbury’s basics chorizo). The desserts were forgettable as well. I would not recommend this restaurant.

I requested a nice table as it was part of my sisters 50th Birthday present, we were given a booth which was nice and private as there were some Xmas party groups in. This only added to the evening and we sat in the bar until midnight listening to the music, chatting and having fun. Lovely and relaxed just what we wanted.

I couldn't mistake the restaurant myself, but I arranged a Valentine's Day at Kronplatz B 1 restaurant. Both my date and I arrived at the house and asked where the B1 restaurant was. My date was said it was the other side of the city, so got a taxi to say destination. What meant she wasn't there when I arrived. When I asked, I was hit with regret that I don't know. Luckily I use my view and noticed the restaurant sign. I then called my partner and told her where I was, that she returned to the place where she originally arrived, that we had only hours and half of each other and only one of us eat. I am surprised that the staff at the hotel do not know the name and location of their own restaurant. I traveled quite far for the evening, just for it to be cut short.

This must be the worst experience I had through OpenTable. Firstly, at no point in the booking was the actual location of this restaurant revealed. It is the dining room of Hotel Crowne Plaza! The address on the app does not say that, and if it was made clear, we would not have booked it. I'm sure that's conscious. If you want to eat a one-star dinner at four star dinner prices while surrounded by tables made for breakfast, then this is the place for you. The ambience was not existent, the service slack and badly trained. The food wasn't good. Steaks were hard and cooked. Desserts were poor. The overall experience was really bad. However, prices were premiums and there is absolutely no justification. To make it even worse, the invoice was automatically added a service fee for four. It is simply unacceptable that this kind of legitimate behaviour continues. The overall experience was that we felt fit into the booking and if we had been earlier, we would have left before the order.