Prince Of Wales

What a wonderful find, we spent the evening in the back in the tiki bar which serves delicious cocktails. Outside but still under cover, it was actually really quaint to have smokers in our midst, the ample heaters kept the chill away, to the point that we was all getting too warm!
The cocktail menu is really impressive and I had the best French martini of the year in the tiki bar.
From outside the prince of Wales looks just like a traditional English pub, but travel all the way to the far back bar for a taste of tropical paradise.

Oh, I thought I’d reviewed this before, clearly not!
The Prince is a great pub on the Alcester Road in Moseley. It’s a favourite haunt of many locals I know in the area and worth traveling out to as well. The front bar is a traditional old school pub in terms of décor and clientele. The snug at the back is cosy and can be hired out separately for party’s which is great. Out at the back is a large smoking area, decking, and a Tikki bar — with sand woo hoo! Brilliant fun:)

This place is ridiculous. The only way I can fully describe it is like an adventure playground for grown-​ups that’s based around alcohol.
You walk in through the front and it looks like any other traditional pub, a few tables and chairs and a long bar with a good selection of ales and ciders. A quick walk around the back and down the corridor reveals the Prince’s true face, just past the toilets and outside is another little world with everything from a cigar room, wine cellar/​bar, chilli dog stand and tiki bar which serves some of the most amazing, over-​the-​top cocktails you’ll ever see — there’s even a beach area — a goddamn sandy beach in Moseley.
There’s always a good vibe in the Prince and usually plenty of space although it can get absolutely rammed in summer (as expected with a giant beer garden) and it’s dog friendly which is a massive selling point for a lot of people round Moseley.
I’m yet to try their chilli dogs but I’m setting aside a chilli dog-​shaped hole next time we’re there as I’ve been told they are fantastic.
I don’t think they take card payments so it’s wise to get some cash out before hand (there’s loads of ATMs nearby so you won’t have any problems there).
Also worth noting that it’s up to 30p off any beer on tap and £1 off cocktails with the Independent Birmingham card which gives you even more reason to head on down the the Prince.

If you asked someone to describe what a quintessntially english pub looked like to a sketching artst, I’m pretty sure the front bar of the Prince of Wales in achingly cool Moseley would be the picture presented to you. Small but perfectly presented bar and the usual pub stools, chairs and a couple of tables (a bit of a mini Queen Vic a la Eastenders but a blue colour scheme). Perfect place for a quiet pint to wind down with the regulars after a hard day’s work.
A good range of beers and tonics awaits with a über friendly service, all the things you want from a nice local hostelry and a straight forward review on here.
And then you walk outside the back.
Wow.
So it was my first visit to the Prince of Wales this week for a good olé mid week pub quiz which I was intrigued to be told was to be held in the pub’s fantastic beer garden which also serves as host to their tiki themed bar. The event itself was run very well, we were treated to Quiz of the Year style questions with a variety of media to display and illustarte the questions.
It all felt very British and I mean that in the best way sense. It was a bitterly cold night so we were treated to a wood burner in the middle of the room and heaters that were scattered across the marquee area were lit for teams to huddle under together. The pub also provided some substance for us quiz goers which was a lovely touch and much appreciated gesture. The whole thing was just, well, lovely. Things got more raucous as time and drinks passed but all in good humour. My team didn’t win but as with all good quizzes it really didn’t matter, good time had by all and a jolly nice night out.
Can’t wait to come back in a warmer month and spend a lazt Sunday afternoon here and sample the beach I heard tell of last night.

So I must be the only person over the age of 18, living in Birmingham that didn’t rave about the Prince of Wales (quick check of Unilocal reviews, yeah pretty much). I’d been once and just didn’t get it. Reasonable selection of beers, cocktail menu, screen showing sports, blokes stood round. Yeah its a pub, no its not the second coming. Tiki bar out back? yeah not really my thing to be honest/​
Then I went back a few years later, and actually walked out the back. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh.
The tiki bar at back is seriously well done. Walking through the alley you feel as if you are at a music festival, but a seriously upmarket one that swaps comedy tees and dodgy burgers for wine merchants and cigar stores. Once outside there is a great space, with a canopy and a separate bar. It doesn’t feel overly ‘themed’ somehow (hello island bar), it feels just like a really great courtyard with a tiki influence (ok so there is sand in one area but its out of the way so we can forgive that). Nice tables to sit at, candlelight, patio heaters, this will be my place to go as soon as we get this quickly decending winter out of the way.
I hear you can smoke under the canopy due to some law about cigar bars (explaining the cigar hut). I’m not a smoker but I’m sure I can put up with a bit of smoke if thats the price to pay for rain proof outdoor spaces!
So the lesson learned from this place? Tiki doesnt have to mean tacky (taki?)!

The Prince of Wales is one of the most surprising places I’ve ever frequented in my ten-​plus years in Birmingham, and it is also one of my favourites. From the outside it looks like your standard, unassuming, «old man pub» (not something I consider to be a bad thing). Walk in through the front door on a week night or in the daytime and that image holds fast, too. There’s a small bar with a small selection of decent ales.
Where the fun really starts, however, is when you walk past the bar and up the hall to the beer garden at the rear of the pub. I say «beer garden», but that really doesn’t do it justice — This large, mostly covered and heated area, features a cigar hut with an excellent selection of cigars from around the world (the landlord, Keith, is something of a connoisseur), a wine hut and a tiki bar serving up some excellent cocktails.
This all comes alive and gets very, very busy at the weekends. Its a popular nightspot for a reason — The drinks are excellent, the atmosphere friendly and lively, and the staff are all first-​rate. Prices for cocktails are perhaps slightly higher than some places in town, but I would consider that you are paying in part for the location and ambiance which you don’t get in town.
I’ve visited the Prince on many an occasion and can honestly say I’ve never been let down. Keith is an excellent landlord, whom I have had the good fortune to sit and talk with on more than one occasion, and I would never hesitate to recommend his pub to anyone looking for something just a little bit different.

I give a five star review for a great experience. And this was great!
I thought this venue was just the smallish front bar which is a pretty intimate space like being in a posh front room at big old house.
There are yet more authentic (I don’t know what era it’s from) rooms on the ground floor giving the feeling that you are really in a «public» house.
A long corridor leads out the back and there are two outhouses/​huts on the left one seems to be a cigar shop and the other a hot dog stall. (Both were closed but it was a monday)
The back of the venue is a large covered seating area with an outside bar up some steps.
There’s more seating to the right which currently has a tiki bar feel with wooden stools for groups of two or three people.
Next time I’m in Moseley I’ll be back for a drink and to sit out the back in the Tiki area for a chilled Sunday afternoon.

I’ve been drinking here since before I was really allowed to. When I was seventeen it was a smokey traditional pub with a snug with a roaring fire, a room with a jukebox and a sofa-​seating and a beer concrete outside with a few picnic benches. The clientele was almost exclusively teachers and students. Everyone drank Directors.
Fast-​forward a few years and The Price of Wales is now under the helm of Keith and Diane Marsden (remember the wonders they worked with Epic Skatepark?)
Inside the bar is respectfully kept similar to how it has always been, but with a tasteful refurb. A similar deal with the snug, with its log fire for Autumn evenings. And the back room? It now serves cocktails and acts as a meeting room and rehearsal room for community groups, including the fantastic Moselele.
Once you are outside then the spectacle begins. This one-​time yard has been transformed radically into a fun park for adults. There’s both a wine shack (selling wine by the bottle, which saves you joining the queue inside) AND a cigar shop. You can then stroll with your drink and smoke to a huge undercover area with a transparent shelter where you can enjoy your leisure whatever the weather. To your right, a TIKI COCKTAIL BAR!!! With Tiki wooden statues and even an area with sand the Marsdens have brought a little piece of the South-​Pacific to Birmingham. How about the cocktails?
These are the best Zombies I have ever had, and they are the Zombies that I judge all others by. Three rums, triple-​sec, juice, a slice of dried pineapple and a flaming absinth float. The more flamboyant cocktail waiter will add a little pizazz by creating a flaming cloud over you drink with Angel Delight.
On weekends and on sunny weekday evenings this place is usually pleasantly rammed with smiling people, which is testament to just how darn good this pub is.

My very first visit to this lovely little pub in Moseley — I went along for a meet up the other weekend.
When you walk in it just feels like you have gone back inot the past, where pubs were pubs. I was running late for my meet up so did not get chance to have a good look around or go into the beer garden but I hope to go back.
we need to support pubs like this, to keep that traditional feel, décor, furniture and surroundings alive. Classic!

Prince of Wales… How I love thee… Let me list the ways… So, Prince of Wales is a gem of pub in Moseley. It’s pretty hard to miss, with it’s name festooned on the exterior and with it’s location being a gateway to the area.
It’s large looking from the outside, but you might be mistaken for thinking it was a bit of an «old man pub» venue… Oooooh… how wrong you would be. When you first enter the pub, you end up in a traditional pub area (with little stools, wooden tables and lots of people nursing pints of ale). The ale selection is plentiful and the staff are more than happy to give you a recommendation and a taster (if you aren’t sure).
So far, traditional pub, right? Well… let us continue. The pub bar opens into a hallway with several different directional choices. We WERE headed for the indoor cocktail bar, but this had been reserved for a Christmas gathering (so unfortunately, I cannot give you any idea of what this is like). If you head straight down the corridor, that’s where the magic happens…
So, the garden immediately hit me as a) Massive and B) Rammed. On our left was a cigar vendor and a smaller (heated and covered) seated area with comfy armchairs and lots of people enjoying a cigar. Just to the left is the «Wine bar», a wooden shack with everything from a very fine red, Champagne to mulled wine offerings. Further on from that is the huge decking area. Lots of warm heaters, tables, chairs and a «Beer festival» feeling, even though there were hundreds of people out there (no joke), there were still seats to be had.
Attached to the decking area was a hot dog bar (I know, A HOT DOG BAR!) and a TIki cocktail bar. This HAD to be our destination. We opted to go for Zombies (£7 each — about average for a cocktail bar in Birmingham) and were suitably impressed when the server had finished pouring, tore open a packet of Angel Delight (with gusto), sprinkled over the cocktails and set them alight to a mighty «POOF»! With drinks firmly in hand, we went to find somewhere reasonably quiet we could have a chat and a contemplate on the venue’s we had been that evening.
This was when we found my favorite spot in the whole pub. The sanded, covered beach area. Who would have thought there would be a beach in Moseley? With Bamboo walls, lit up tiki masks adorning the interior and plenty of chairs and tables, it nailed it’s place as my favorite pub of the night. This is the kind of venue you will go for 1 and end up having at least 3.

The outside and front room may look like a typical traditional boozer, but go round the back and you’ll find something quite different.
The Prince of Wales is rammed most evenings. Some people could find it too loud. The garden is massive with a big marquee and cocktail bar. The marquee has plenty of heaters, but it can get too hot! A good range of cocktails. There is also a hut that sells cheese platters (good tasty choice with plenty of biscuits — nom) with wine and a hut selling cigars.
The back rooms, although cozy, need attention. The seats are full of rips and are in desperate need of reupholstering. When I went last week, they had a fire burning in the front room which made it very cozy.

This is a great pub and a real gem to be found. We had been there quite often from 2008 or so on and really enjoyed it when we once made our way to the garden in the back to have a smoke that we took a glimpse of the cocktail lounge in a back room. Seriously, I thought we had mistakenly entered another building. Went in and it was absolutely amazing. Old school furniture, armchairs, leather, dark wood, top notch barkeeper, proper drinks for fair money. Sometimes you just walk in the back and discover something amazing, don’t you. This time it was the unexpected joys of the Prince of Wales.

They have an average selection of ales and beers on tap, wines and cocktails available outside in the beer garden.
Its pretty noisy outside but if you don’t mind that, and a bit of smoke, it’s alright.

The Prince of Wales looks from the outside as a typical, real ale serving, old school pub. And the front bar is very much like this, with a large selection or real ales and traditional ciders served by attentive bright young things in smart formal waiters outfits. However, on a weekend, the garden and back part of the pub beomes alive with various small ventures, such as a cocktail bar, a cigar shop and barbeques selling pork rolls. This innovative use of the pubs’ large garden means that the space comes alive of a summers’ evening.
The landlord and landlady Keith and Diane should certainly be congratulated for all the hard work and effort they’ve put into making the Prince Of Wales into such a a varied and lively buisness. My only (admittedly nitpicking) criticism is that the beer could either be slightly better or slightly cheaper — it seems to be slightly overpriced in my opinion. However, this is relatively minor and I’m sure the Prince’s many customers will continue to enjoy it for years to come.

I have always heard great things about this pub and when I visited for the first time it didn’t disappointed me! Starting with the façade — this traditional pub dated to 1861 is one of the most gracious constructions I have even seen!
Looking at inside it, the front bar, as it is called, is a good place to catch up with some football even If I still find that a huge big screen doesn’t fit in classic style of this pub!
I have started with a pint of Guinness but my friend asked for a Dirty Bastard beer that is just one sample of all sort of drinks we can try there.
The beer garden at Prince of Wales is just charming and it seemed much more appealing when we were informed there were a Cupcake festival there that afternoon! Who could resist the guilty pleasure of trying (any) cake for only £2 ?
What happens in a nice beer garden should stay in the beer garden!
Overall, I really liked the bohemian atmosphere of the Prince of Wales.

The Prince has been pouring pints since 1861 and when you first enter the pub it seems like little has changed, until you decide to further explore. The bar is a classic saw dust floor boozer, straight from the Victorian era. The lounge at the back is comfortable and a pleasant place to count away the pints and the hours till oblivion comes knocking.
We have had a pretty bad summer in terms of weather so far, fingers crossed that June and July will be hotter. The gardens at the Prince of Wales have changed quite exponentially in recent year with the juxtaposed inception of the Tiki-​Cocktail bar and the cigar shop/​humidor.
The Cocktail Lounge is open Friday and Saturday evenings in winter: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from Easter to September. The cocktails are inventive, fun and relaxing on a hot day. The consistency of the cocktails was spot on and I seem to remember having 5 glasses of Long Island iced tea. After that I can’t recall the cigars we bought, but we certainly enjoyed smoking them on our outside table like Al Pachino in Scar Face.
No trip to Moseley is complete without a visit to the Prince of Wales, it is part of the fabric of Moseley society and you are not a true Mosleyites till you have staggered out of this place at midnight wondering if you are too old or not to carry on the party at Snobs nightclub.

This pub has been a mainstay of the Moseley drinking experience since before I was even a glint in my Daddy’s eye. In my time in the area it has changed from a proper, old school den of booze into a new school den of booze. In other words, it has changed but it still retains the character that once made it famous. This is a place to spend an afternoon, and then a late afternoon, and then an evening.
All that has really changed in truth is that, since the smoking ban in the UK came into force a few years ago, it no longer smells of «fags, wet dogs and regret», as a friend of mine once accurately put it.
You enter the POW from the Moseley High Street into the main public bar. Here you can get a decent selection of beers, wines and spirits and watch sport on a Saturday afternoon. Behind the main bar is a quieter (and much better) room where you can sit and drink with friends away from the noise of the sport. A further interior room has recently been converted into a ‘cocktail room’ /​‘restaurant’.
Out the back there is a large, concrete beer garden which is always lively in summer months. There are some covered areas and a food service section (for BBQs in the summer). The pub stays open late and is a great place to sample the lively area of Moseley.

Gosh, things have changed since the last review here.
Under new management for nearly 2 years now, this amazing traditional pub has blossomed into a real gem. The front bar has been lovingly restored with the fireplace re opened and a clean, post smoking ban, victorian interior. The bar boasts 8 real ales, a range of lager and ciders and a fine selection of Belgian beer — honestly, it needs to be seen to be believed.
One of the two back rooms is now a cocktail bar, big leather armchairs and potted palms give it a luxurious feel. Open Wed-​Sun, the list of top notch cocktails will make your head spin — I love the Dark & Stormy.
The other back room remains un touched, victorian snug, with a roaring fire for winter nights and boasts a lovely photographic dispaly of Moseley architecture.
The beer garden is immense with good all weather covers and plenty of heating. New tables and chairs add to the comfort factor and the red candle holders make it feel rather cosy and intimate. A huge screen is available for those sporting must sees, but it’s big enough for the non footy fans to drink & smoke in peace. Dogs welcome!
I have been drinking here for nearly 20 years (on and off) and have nothing but praise for the new management and their investment in the place. As the previous reviews testify, it had gone down hill badly and was barely worth a visit, even for the extremely cheap beer. Prices have risen, but I for one am happy to pay a little more for good beer, well served in clean, period surroundings. Oh, and the loos have been sorted and I am told the gents is all new and very clean.
The 50 bus stops close by, so no need for the car keys. It can get very busy at the weekends, for good reasons, so if you want to get served quickly and have a seat in the front bar — mid week (or weekend afternoons) is recommended. Wednesday nights in the cocktail bar can be fun.
Best pub in Moseley — bar none.

Waitied nearly 15 minutes at the bar, no staff to be seen. Two ‘customers’ served themselves pints, I used the toilet (filthy), still no bar staff so left.

from the outside this looks an old mans pub, and from the inside you realize it IS an old mans pub. No B. S pretense like other Moseley pubs, just well priced booze, seating and a friendly atmos — just make sure you dont make eye contact with the local alckies

This is a lovely, cosy local pub and has a good atmosphere — great if you despise the bright lights and plastic atmosphere of chain pubs. The beer’s cheap, and people are friendly. There’s a cosy snug room at the back and the beer garden’s huge. It’s also said that this is where Tolkien came to drink and get inspiration. The front bar’s popular for it’s sports screens but you can get away to the snug if you’re not a fan.