Navigation Inn

Not a great place this — firstly you’ll have to fight your way through the smokers who hang around the porch to get in — they’re not exactly a welcoming bunch either. Secondly when you get into the pub you’ll see that it’s seen better days. Every time I’ve popped in it looks like they’re just recovering from some kind of bar room brawl (which if the other review is anything to go by, is a distinct possibility) — seats are ripped and tables are wonky.
Staff are nice enough and the food looks okay and I’ll always rather like the place because I used to skive off College and pop here with my mates for a cheeky half, but really there are nicer places to go.

The Navigation is a nice inviting and family friendly pub that caters for children as well as providing a cute petite jungle gym for them in their beer and food garden. The bar and staff members at The Navigation are very warming and easy to get along with, however, despite these good aspects of Kings Norton’s local pubs I wouldn’t personally go here myself for either a drink or meal. I say this because most of their punters and customers are regulars that are quite aggressive and menacing. I have seen so many fights happen outside of this pub on several occasions and wouldn’t recommend bringing a family here unless you are a regular that knows the people that socialise here. In competition with The Bulls Head across the road, I would say that their catering quality is better yet I still wouldn’t travel to go here.

This used to be a good pub with decent food and service but after changing to 2 for £10 the pub went downhill. The food delivered was not brilliant and to make it worse no waiters coming past offered to help. And finally when they delivered a new meal to my mum they didn’t check up on us, which is usually good courtesy anyway, never mind when one bad meals come out. Its a shame because now it has to go on my blacklist after 2 disappointing visits.

We often pop into The Navigation Inn on Kings Norton Green for a meal because they are one of those 2-​for-​1 pubs and this makes it cheaper to eat a proper meal here rather than heading up the road to McDonalds.
The food is really nice, it’s typical pub grub and the menu is fairly extensive for a pub of this type. When me and my fella eat here we usually go for one of the steak meals, although I love their chicken breast with bacon smothered in a cheesey bbq sauce! You can choose to have chips, potatoes or a jacket with your meal which is ideal for those weeks when I am on a healthy eating kick! The chips are worth having though, they have a beautiful home made quality and are not greasy in the slightest. When you order tell them how you want your steak cooked at they will endevour to get it perfect, occasionally it’s not as rare as I’d like but it’s still so well cooked that I never bother to tell them.
The meals cost between £5.79 and £10, it will be the cheapest meal you get for free so try and make the prices as even as possible to make the most of the special offer.
They have a good kids menu which is more or less smaller portions of the full size meals, I think this is great because my kids would rather eat the same kind of food as me so it was nice to see that the menu didn’t consist of just chicken nuggets and sausages! The portion sizes for all meals are very good, but the childrens meals are excellent in size and would fill me up let alone eating a large size meal!
The Navigation Inn is fine for disabled visitors, my mum lives nearby and regularly visits with her friend who uses a wheelchair. All areas in the pub are on one level so no-​one should have a problem getting around, although if you want to use the beer garden you will need to go out the front door and through the car park in order to avoid a steep flight of stairs. Likewise if you are very drunk.
There are a good range of drinks behind the bar, everything you would expect to find in a pub like this. You can also choose from a good selection of soft drinks including tea and coffee plus the most delicious mixed fruit juice which is served in a tall glass with loads of ice.
Surprisingly the drinks are not overpriced and are actually among the cheapest in pubs around here. I usually find these 2-​for-​1 pubs will inflate the prices of the drinks to make up for all the free food they are giving away, but the Navigation has cheap prices across the board with some great promotional prices as well.
I like the atmosphere in this pub because there are plenty of children playing around which always makes a place seem fun, also there are lots of elderly gentlemen who drink here who are obvious regulars. Sometimes it gets very busy, especially at the weekend, but usually there are just the right amount of customers to give it a lively feel but not so many that you are having to elbow your way to the bar.
Outside you have a large car park, beer garden and an excellent wooden play area for the kids. My daughters’ love the freedom they have in the Navigation because although it’s located on a fairly main road they can go into the play area and have some fun while I watch them from the comfort of the wooden bench.