The Black Horse

Another large weatherspoons offering slow service and food that you’ll look at twice before eating. Was here to start a stag so good as it’s pretty cheap. Only good thing would be their large selection of cask ales. (Visit — 24/​05/​2014 Dinner)

This is a big place in Northfield with a busy local lunchtime trade and prominently located along the A38. The vibe is OK, staff are pretty friendly, as is the service. In fact, it’s really the friendly staff and willingness to help that gets this place the good score. Service counts.
The food was merely OK, nothing special. I’m pretty sure it’s all from frozen and then prepared, even the desert! The beer was Ok. I had a pint of Ruddles as the London Pride had run out (a favoured tipple of mine usually). Prices are keen compared to similar pubs in the city centre, but Northfield isn’t generally a well heeled kinda place so you sense it would be difficult to charge much more and so be able to provide better quality ingredients.
There are lots of middle-​aged and older men, sat in small groups or alone with their beers, plus a smaller crowd of local workers perhaps, generally younger men and women, having lunch. You get a real sense of the unemployment and deep rooted poverty problems around this neck of the woods. In the old days many would have worked at Longbridge and perhaps people are retaining at least some sense of community when they meet up here.
There’s plenty of mixed seating and some very useful 4 – 6 people long tables, which would be great for a group of friends meeting up. The rest is lower coffee table style, or the higher perching on a stool style small tables.
It has WiFi but it was broken when I was there.

I’ve always wanted to have a look at this Wetherspoons, the building looks so attractive with its mock tudor front.
I went for a quick lunch with my friend and even though the interior was like one big banquet hall the atmosphere wasn’t that inviting. This is a local pub and when we entered we felt out of place surrounded by pensioners. That isn’t a bad thing but isn’t really a friday night type of pub/​bar.
Great for locals but I’d recommend going into Selly Oak for somewhere to go thats a bit more younger and lively.

The Black Horse has all the usual ingredients of a Wetherspoons pub mostly cheap food and drink.
Now I’m not normally a huge fan of Weatherspoons (unless it’s for pancakes and bacon and I’m hungover), but there’s something about The Black Horse that I just love.
Firstly, as noted by previous reviewers it’s huge! There are rooms and seating everywhere! The décor is nice and it’s clean (extra points there). I’ve only been here for breakfast/​lunch and it’s normally quite and it’s easy to get a table.
It has a large beer garden, so when it’s warm it gets very busy.
Overall a fairly standard Wetherspoons pub in a lovely building.

We booked to have our mothers 90^th Birthday meal 19÷08÷12. From the time we went to make the booking we found the staff extremely friendly and helpful. The day of the meal the room had been assigned and the tables set out to accommodate 21 people. All the meals ordered were served as we requested and staff were very attentative. Thank you to Sal and all the staff that day, for the smooth running of the meal. Food was perfect.

I never ever usually get excited to check out Wetherspoons pubs, why would I be? They’re all exactly the same!
The first time I passed this pub on the bus, I thought it was an independent one; it looks really unique and unconventional to its other chain-​siblings. I have to say, not just for a ‘spoons, it’s also one of the grandest pubs I’ve ever come across in Birmingham. Exteriorly, the architecture is beautifully mock-​Tudor crafted, and the actual size of the building is truly astonishing and unmissable from the road side.
Inside, there are literally rooms everywhere you turn, so you’ll never struggle to find a table. There are also some great replica mosaic knight and horse pieces on the walls, which bring a great heritage to the the whole drinking/​dining experience. But the artistry doesn’t end here, because the garden area is home to more horse monuments and statues.
Although the most obscure and unusual thing about The Black Horse is that there’s a bowls field at the back of the garden. I’ve never ever been to a pub like it!

Wetherspoon are a pretty big chain but thought this one was worth noting. Now Wetherspoon are renown for taking on amazing old buildings and giving them some love to be a useful, vibrant space again. This time they did a bit more than give it some love. This pub was built in 1929 and its a big pub but Wetherspoon spent over 2million to mock tudor it. They did a decent job and the inside is standard Wetherspoon quality, they’ve created a traditional pub feel. Prior to their take-​over this pub had a bit of a dodgy feel to it and now it has a massive beer garden and a brand people feel confident in. The food is always ok, unless you get bad service, and the drinks are always the most competitive you can find. Located in an area that like many had lots of pubs, the numbers and now dwindling and yet they have the biggest Wetherspoon I’ve ever been to. I don’t know if it is but it certainly feels like it. This is a monster pub.

I went with my family this evening for a meal and was bitterly disappointed! Our food was brought to us at separate times and when my food arrived, I ordered gammon and eggs, the chips were over cooked, the gammon was dry and the eggs looked like they had seen better days! I asked the waitress to change both mine and my sons which she did but only to return with what looked like exactly the same meal! so i bluntly asked her to return it yet again as I felt this wasn’t fit for consumption! I spoke to the manager who was very apologetic and agreed that the food didn’t look how it should. In fairness to the manager he offered us a free meal on our next visit, which I might add Im reluctant to go back! The waitress was a pleasant young girl who told us the chef didn’t quite understand when I said I didn’t want an over cooked egg! I mean its not exactly rocket science for a chef to cook an egg! I would definitely not recommend this pub to anyone! And to top off a disastrous evening a fight broke out which required a police van and several police men to arrive! Not a nice place family place to dine out in the slightest!

The pub looks impressive from the outside and they’ve done an equally fantastic job of refurbishing inside.
Amazingly it’s actually the largest Wetherspoons in the country, which isn’t hard to believe once you’ve had a wander around. Downstairs there are five different seating areas, and there’s more seating and and a private conference room upstairs.
As with all Wetherspoons they offer excellent value and a great selection of drinks and pub food, along with special nights such as steak night and curry night.
Outside most certainly hasn’t been forgotten either, it’s has been transformed with a beer garden and immaculate private bowling green.