The New Inn

I probably should have gone home after the starter. It wasn’t that the pork belly wasn’t sufficiently rendered down. Or that the honey and sweet chilli glaze was cloyingly saccharine. It was the hairs. I counted seven of them on a three inch square slab of meat, reminiscent of a cheap pork scratching. It showed a worrying lack of attention to detail to a quality piece of meat that deserved better.
And therein lies the issue. The New Inn singlehandedly destroyed the notion that if you start with quality ingredients and treat them well, you’ll end up with a quality dish. Every single piece of protein was well sourced, though it was slaughtered by a lack of care that ran astonishingly throughout the food and into the service. There was a main of chicken that was allegedly stuffed olives and sun dried tomatoes, though we managed to find little evidence of either due to the massive clove of garlic that dominated the cavity. And don’t even get me started on the pasta that it was served on. Under seasoned and undercooked about sums it up.
As if this car crash of a meal wasn’t enough to make you want to bang your head repeatedly against their solid wooden tables, the shambolic service certainly will. There were long pauses between courses and equally long time gaps between serving main courses to our table. Thirty minutes between the first burger and the last dish reaching us; twenty minutes between a side dish of cauliflower cheese and the main course it was supposed to accompany. Fine if you find yourself in Frankie & Benny’s on a busy Saturday afternoon, completely unacceptable in a relatively quiet gastro pub in Harborne paying up to twenty quid on a main course.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. A cajun chicken burger finally reached the table in good nick, as did an accurately cooked rib eye, but by then it was all too late. As appetising as the desert menu looked we were all defeated, unable to risk further disappointment to a meal that promised much and delivered little. For a pub that goes to a considerable length to serve only the best meat, The New Inn has some way to go before the final product reaches the anywhere near the same standard.

This is such a chic quaint little bar, food is always tasty and a fab drinks selection in a nice warm atmosphere. I love the massive beer garden when the sun is out and the little summer house is great when your with a group of friends and you all pile in. The French martinis are particularly delicious but be careful as before you know it you’ll have consumed several and perhaps like me, you will come tumbling out of the summer house flat on your back

FINALLY made it to the New Inn! Lovely, cosy gastropub with plenty of seating and working fireplaces!
The food is fantastic– I went for the game pie (managed to snag the last one left in the kitchen!) and it was sooo good! Highly recommended. The scotch quail egg with pulled pork was also absolutely delicious as a starter.
I was a bit let down by the cocktail I ordered… a bacon old fashioned. I love me some bourbon, and I love me some bacon, but something about it wasn’t quite right– very watered down, couldn’t really taste much. The bacon garnish was the best part. A fluke, perhaps? Normally bitters n’ twisted venues do fantastic cocktails!
Service was very friendly and attentive.

The inn might be new, but the food is old… fashioned. BADA CHHH!
Actually, I had a lovely time at the new inn. I was there with my wife during national pie week, so I got the ocean (aka fish) pie and we shared an appetizer of pulled pork quail scotch eggs. Basically, all of the food was excellent. I only wish I got more of those scotch eggs to myself.
The only negative is that pie week is only a week, so the pie selection won’t be on the menu again for a while. Also, my wife got the bacon flavored old fashioned which was kind of watered down. The bacon garnish on top was good though. Bitters and Twisted restaurants typically make good cocktails, so I’m willing to think that the quality of that drink was the exception rather than the rule.
I recommend checking out the New Inn!

This place has been bookmarked in my Unilocal app for months. Last night I finally had my chance to visit. And lucky for me there were plenty of available tables.
This is quite the pub. It has plenty of varied seating, 2 bars, 2 fireplaces (but only one was lit) and an outdoor patio. It was love at first sight. We were seated in the main dining area. Beware, the windows are drafty. My neck was chilled throughout the meal. For cocktail lovers, they have a few pages to quench your thirst. And lucky for me the holiday cocktails were still on. I tried both the American Pie and the Hotini. Both were sweet and comforting and only £5!
The menu is your traditional pub style food. They also have a blackboard specials menu so don’t forget to check that out. My partner and I were feeling extra famished this evening so we splurged. We shared a BBQ starter board. Check out the picture. This thing was packed full of goodies. I especially loved the quail scotch eggs. Everything was piping hot and very fresh. Based on a recommendation I went with the homemade game pie for my main — a hearty mixture of venison, chicken, rabbit, and pheasant baked inside a flaky golden crust! It came with a few scoops of mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy and some veg. It was delish. Neither of us had room for pudding unfortunately. We will have to leave that until next time.
What stood out the most to me at New Inn (besides the yummy comfort food) was the service. The man who was taking care of us was the nicest and most attentive server (or maybe manager?) I’ve ever had in Birmingham. He was so genuine and friendly. Nobody at the other B n T venues has ever been that engaging and outgoing toward me. He made me feel right at home!
To wrap up our stellar night we received 20% off the bill with my Bitters and Twisted loyalty card. New Inn has great food, great pub, great drinks, and great service. What’s not to love?

A terrific pub off the main hHarborne High Street.
They have a big selection of drinks to choose from; cocktails, ales, lagers, whiskeys. whatever your tipple they’ll have it!
As well as the drinks they have a great menu to choose from. Their steaks are excellent as are their beer battered fish and chips.
The atmosphere is very cosy and intimate, with traditional furnishings in fact the main bar is the original bar from the pub being built in 1848!
Little tip for you, if your in to cocktails ask for Dominic to make you a French martini. Amazing.

The New Inn pub visited before and was really pleased with the cocktails, this time decided to try the food and was really disappointed.
The first feeling we got for the place was warm and welcoming, lit with a real log wood fire which I loved. The place was decorated with a vintage Christmas theme which was really charming.
After being moved tables for the mangers meeting we sat in the corner, we were the only two people eating in the place. We both decided order the buttermilk deep-​fried chicken. After waiting 40 minutes for food it came out burnt and we kinda wished we just went to KFC !!!
The chicken was dry and burnt the beans felt like they was out of a tin and over spiced. We was to say the least unimpressed with the food.
Although after saying all this the service from the bar staff was very good polite and well mannered. The barmaid did however apologise for the food. Although a bad experience with food this time, still willing to try it again get after a few months and hope it was just a one off.

I was here for a blogger event but it was quite an intimate event so I got a good feel for the place.
This is one of the only Bitters & Twisted venues I haven’t been to. I loved the cosiness of it, it was perfect for a miserable evening. I liked that it’s a traditional ‘local’ but with the quirky touches you expect from the brand. Think wallpaper featuring geese!
I tried a couple of their wonderful hot cider and apple based cocktails. The Hotini was made with vanilla vodka, ginger syrup and hot cider. This would be so lovely on a cold winter day when you’re feeling a bit under the weather. These are only £5 too!
Food is all very hearty and rich– winter pub classics. Tuesdays are pie night and they are very proud of their pies. I’m not a pie person but I enjoyed the ocean pie and game pie– both very well seasoned and served with lovely mash and green veg.
As well as pies, they have some lovely sounding sharer boards, fish dishes and an excellent vegetarian curry.
This is definitely added to my list of places to pop into when I’m in Harborne!

Wow I had such a lovely evening at a bloggers event, sampling their winter menu, it was perfect for a horrible wet Monday night! I was created with a Hotini-​a ginger, vanilla vodka and hot apple drink, it was delicious (£5 if you buy it and well worth it!)!
Various samples were brought out, prawns quails eggs, pâté and toast, salmon-​plenty to choose from, but my highlight was the game pie-​soo tasty! (£13.50 to buy). Everything is made fresh on site and you can tell!:)
The venue is traditional with a twist of modern décor; there’s a calm vibe about it too which I liked-​maybe because it was a Monday night though. Nevertheless I’m heading back soon!

Whenever the sun is out the best go to place in Harborne has to be the New Inn. It has one of the largest outdoor spaces for any pub in the area. Great for families with young children or large groups of friends. Great to have a drink outside lounging in the sunshine.

So we MEAT again! Wednesday is steak night at the New Inn in Harborne, £10 for 8oz n all the trimmings. They know their rare, from their medium rare n that’s how I like mine. I also had devilishly good venison scotch eggs to start. The New Inn is a premium local ale house, classic pub feel with a bohemian quirk to the décor. It’s comfy, cozy and well stocked, their cocktail shakers are always busy and they pull a mean pint. The beer garden is huge, and if the sun’s out so’s the BBQ. I’ve also got to mention the crew, great service, they bring the place to life with a welcoming casual vibe. Check out the loyalty card too.

Bitters ‘n’ Twisted opened their sixth venue nearly two years ago, venturing away from their usual city centre locations and opting instead to refurbish a traditional pub in the leafy suburb of Harborne. Located on a quiet back street less than a minute’s walk from Waitrose on the High Street, the quirky wallpaper and funky accessories mix well with the original features.
After a slow start, last summer saw it very successfully convert the old bowling green into one of the biggest beer gardens in Birmingham. A perfect place to spend a summer’s evening or lazy weekend afternoon. Be warned… if you decide to venture over on a warm sunny weekend afternoon, chances are most of the locals will have done exactly the same thing, so expect it to be very busy!
The front bar, when staffed, has been opened up to increase the sense of space without losing the cosy feel. The warm open fire is the backdrop to an intimate restaurant area. It has a pleasant and relaxed atmosphere with gentle funk jazz music playing in the background.
As you would expect for a «Steak & Ale House» the food here majors on beef, all sourced from organic rare breed Hereford and Longhorn cattle. There is a large steak selection from the Grill (where you can opt for a 24oz Longhorn T-​bone steak to share should you be hungry enough). If that isn’t your thing, there are plenty of other options to choose from, including oven roasted cod loin with chorizo and free range pork belly. They have recently introduced a new cheaper ‘Market Menu’, that varies from day to day and is available Monday to Saturday 12−3pm and 5−7pm. It is proving to be very successful — you can choose two courses for £12.50 or three for £15.50, with three options available for each course. If you have an eye for a bargain (who doesn’t!), the pub also has its steak and chips for a tenner every Wednesday night — it gets very busy so book in advance. For those early birds, they have started doing brunch on a weekend from 10am till 1pm, so if you fancy a good full English, eggs any way you want them or American style pancakes, you need to check it out. Our experience has been that the place is a little bit quiet for brunch, but the food is good.
On the drink side, with cocktails for £4 all day and night on a Saturday, it’s a great place to start or finish your Saturday evening. If it’s not on the menu, a few of the staff are talented enough to make pretty much any cocktail you want, although this won’t be part of the £4 deal. If you love your real ale (and I have to confess, we tend to prefer bland continental lager), you also won’t be disappointed, with their four casks rotated regularly.
We ventured over there on a Sunday evening. With only one person on the bar and one waitress, on the evening in question, we were initially concerned that the service would be slow, but as it turned out both staff were friendly with the right amount of attention.
The Sunday menu is reduced, as they major on their roasts, so I wasn’t able to have their delicious stake and ale pie.
We started with perfectly cooked Duck Scotch egg, that looked as good as it tasted. Gorgeously runny yellow orb oozed from the centre of the duck egg that was wrapped in delicious sausage meat, which in turn was covered in crunchy breadcrumbs, deep-​fried to perfection.
For our mains we went for the Cabernet braised beef bourguignon with bou angere potatoes. The sauce was a well-​balanced blend mix of rich red wine and sweet shallots. The beef was succulent and could be pulled apart with your folk.
Our other main was their traditional beer battered cod and triple cooked chip with homemade pea purée and tartare sauce, and it also proved to be a treat. The fish was perfectly cooked, moist and coated in a deliciously crispy batter, and the triple cooked chips were to die for. Just make sure you have a good appetite, as the portion sizes are extremely generous.
Our Bitters ‘n’ Twisted loyalty card came in handy. It’s not the best technology and doesn’t always work, but when it does you get five points for every pound you spend and each point is worth a penny. Points can be redeemed on all food and drinks across all of the varied Bitters ‘n’ Twisted venues*. Being our local, it meant we were able to pay for the whole meal and drinks with points. I don’t want to think about how much that actually means we have spent in the place, but it’s been worth it, and we will definitely be back for more!

Yet again the magical algorithms show me a business I was sure I’d reviewed but apparently not.
So, the New Inn is one of the newer additions to the Bitters and Twisted family and located in Harborne just a bit further down from The Junction and Waitrose opposite.
Each B&T venue likes to have a ‘thing’ and here it is most certainly steak.
We ventured here with my parents one Sunday afternoon if I recall and were promptly seated, I was glad I’d booked as the place was already pretty rammed and it was still fairly early (top tip — always book here, even mid-​week). After a brief perusal of the menu we ordered. Vicky and I went for the cheapest steak option (8oz Hereford Flat Iron) as some of the fancier cuts can get a little pricey but we really wanted steak. I opted for some bone marrow gravy to go along with mine as well. The menu is well laid out and clear, and the wine list even has a wine and steak matching section on the rear which details which wines go best with which cut of steak.
A pint or two later (yes, a pint is a unit of measurement of time) our steaks arrived. Juicy, bleeding, thick slabs of delicious bovine beauty sat before us and I instantly started salivating, and the taste did not disappoint! Beautifully cooked steak, perfect chips and the bone marrow gravy was truly delicious. The service was great, even for a busy afternoon. I think we only had to request drinks once without them asking.
I’ve popped back in recently when they were hosting a party for the Independent Birmingham card and the canapés were just as delicious as the steak I had all that time ago — these guys really have the food thing down. The fish and chips were really really good, not too greasy and not too much batter.
As to be expected from a B&T venue there’s quite an extensive cocktail list and an obligatory happy hour to accompany it (4−7pm during the week and 4-​midnight at the weekend). Wednesday is steak night where you can get steak & chips for a tenner (absolute bargain — booking is essential) and for the loyalty card holders there’s 20% everything on Tuesdays, or if they weren’t enough discounts for you there’s 20% off food Mon– Fri (excluding steak night offers) with an Independent Birmingham card.

I’ve always walked past this place and loved the look of it. The bowling green with the small beer garden looks lovely. Wanting a drink in Harborne we decided finally go in. It was busy but not as packed as everywhere else. We weren’t sure which pints to get but the barman was keen for us to try. We both had half pints. I had half a ale at £1.75p. The bar area was busy, we went further into the bar where there was a restaurant area. Luckily the beer garden had a few heat lamps.
I really like the New Inn and now I know they have a restaurant I want to go back and have a meal

Having been here for Christmas dinner 2 years ago, our friendship group in Birmingham chose to come back again this year. Now we all know a meal for 20 reasonably rowdy people can be a tad challenging. But the guys at the New Inn totally exceeded the challenge, even with a few mishaps. Sadly, the three bird roast we were served was accompanied by very bitter burnt gravy, pretty much making it inedible. So, we flagged this up, and they dealt with the issue spectacularly. We all got new plates of food with new, non burnt gravy. We also got money off and a great deal on Cappuccino Martinis and Prosecco. Despite what could have been a disaster we would all go again. Plus the pudding was a really good end to the meal.

So, this place gets pretty rave reviews from people, and I’m not one to needlessly slate places, hell I try to big up Birmingham where I can. But on my so far only visit to this pace I’m afraid 1 stars is the maximum I can give it, here’s why:
Its primarily a steakhouse (their logo is even a picture of a cow), if so your chefs have to make sure that a steak is at least cooked as requested. One of us ordered medium rare, this thing was rare as rare can be (I prefer rare so can vouch that this was on the ‘liver’ side).
If you advertise triple cooked chips, they have to be the crispest things in the worlds, im talking shatter in the mouth crisp (ok maybe a slight exaggeration but you know.), definitely not, slightly undercooked in parts!
If you serve surf and turn, learn how to cook shrip, destroyed to the point where you can barely remove the shell and tougher than the steak is not correct (we actually sent the prawns back once to be served with a replacement that was not much better, at which point we gave up!).
If somehow a side gets mised from the order, rectify it quickly! Onion rings dont take long to cook, they should really be with the table sooner than it takes to hesitantly eat a burger and chips).
On the burger note, the idea of a brioche bunn is that it is soft. Leaving it under the warmer whilst you finish off one of the meals is always going to result in texture similar to stale bread. The bottom of the bun was fine btw, so I can only assume that this is what happened.
We were offered a free desert due to the wait for the onion rings and ‘prawngate’, two of the party of three ordered ice cream (which was excellent btw), however it was a little disappointing that when they had mentioned a free desert, they meant A free desert, not simply free deserts (i’m not sure what they expected here, that one person would have desert whilst the others either watched or paid for one to make the other person feel less awkward?)
Positive parts of the meal were the staff who were actually fairly friendly, as opposed to some comments I have read on Unilocal to the contrary and the ice cream. Aparently the fish and chips was good too (although the chips again didn’t look superb to my eye.
But when you price yourself at the upper end of pub food, you have to offer quality. My conclusion was that the chef on duty didn’t actually know how to cook certain items, maybe the normal chef was having a day off (it was a tuesday), if thats the case, simply don’t offer food on your chefs day off.
I would normally say something about such a meal, but we were taking an elderly relative out for a treat (who was over on holiday) and didn’t want to sour the whole experience. I must say though, I wont be back in a hurry!

Popped for lunch with friends and ordered a Cajun chicken sandwich with the triple cooked fries. Sandwich was really tasty but just a little bit too much bread, but the chips were amazing.
We didn’t book and plenty of seating, really reasonable for lunch too, £30 for 4 people! Only negative is lack of off street parking as my friends had to circle for about 15 mins!

The New Inn is pretty much my local, and I am glad it is– Harborne needs Bitters n Twisted!
So, the cocktails are really good, as is to be expected from the BnT chain. There’s a happy hour until 7 every day and all day Saturday, you can get the classics and plenty of others– the French Martini is very good.
The food here is also good– it’s mostly a steakhouse offering several different cuts, usually very well cooked. They do that wooden boards instead of plates thing.
The downside is that the bar area is very small as the main part of the pub is given over to the restaurant, but it’s cosy, staff are always friendly, they have a very cool décor and they serve decent cider. Oh, and in summer you can sit outside on the lawn with a picnic blanket. There’s loads of room, which is a bonus in Harborne.

I had been meaning to try the newest offering from Bitters’n’Twisted for quite a while, so a visit from the in-​laws was a great opportunity! I had heard great things about the food, but not a lot else; it was with trepidation we made a booking and headed down…
First thing of note, the booking process was easy and convenient. We booked through the website and got a confirmation of acceptance within 12 hours. Not bad! Secondly, parking is a bit of a pain. The New Inn is a bit further on from the main stretch of the High Street in Harborne and all parking on street. Saying that, the waitress did say to another customer that they’ve done a deal with the church over the road and you can park there for £1. Alternatively, if you do pay for on street; they will take the parking charge off of your bill.
The New Inn is well decorated, clean and feels like a good old fashioned pub. Unlike many of the other B&T venues, it doesn’t have a trendy «bar» feel. It has a very large open garden, which I imagine would be lovely during the summer. For Winter (in the main dining room), they have a large open fire. We settled into our reserved table near the fire and enjoyed some pints of ale and mulled cider while we debated our dinner choices from the small (but perfectly formed) menu.
The New Inn is mainly a steak house, but does have a reasonable selection of non-​steak items on the menu. Mains range from under £10 (for a burger) to a whopping £45 (for a fancy steak platter to share). 8oz Steaks start from £13.50 and are well worth the money.
I started with a cream of mushroom soup what was both mushroomy and creamy. My partners in lunch went for a goats cheese tart and a game terrine. The silence during the starters (which were occasionally punctuated with a «yumm») was a good giveaway that everyone was enjoying their food. For mains, I had a 8oz chump steak. The steak was cooked Blue (perfect) and the beef dripping chips were crispy and delicious. Even the homemade coleslaw (of which I’m not normally a huge fan) was fresh and tasty. The Steak comes with a choice of sauces… I went with Blue Cheese which wasn’t overpowering; but was fantastic!
The meal was spot on, filling and the venue was lovely. Service was a little slow, but for a Saturday at 2pm; the venue was surprisingly busy. All of the servers were polite and attentive. It’s not cheap to eat here, but I wouldn’t call it expensive. The meal came to under £100 for 3×2 course meal’s and a main with plenty of drinks. All in all a great discovery. We will be back!

The New Inn has been on my list of places to visit for a while (I adore everything about the Bitters and Twisted chain, so much so I’ve just got a loyalty card), so my husband and I decided to make it our date night trip this week.
As with the rest of the chain, the décor, the cocktails and the ale were amazing. I’ll admit to not trying a cocktail this time round but the menu was extensive and what I’ve come to expect from a BnT venue. Today’s ale of choice was Black Harpy.
The hubby’s sirloin steak was gorgeous, perfectly cooked and not overdone and the pink peppercorn sauce was so good I kept having to dip my chips in it. I had the mushroom and Stilton burger and it was very well balanced, the stilton wasn’t overwhelming and the portobello mushrooms were well cooked.
We decided to stick around for dessert, hubby had the cheese board and I had the lemon tart. The tart was great, not too bitter and not too sweet, perfect pallet cleanser after all the stilton.
Overall a very enjoyable experience, more restaurant-​y than some of the other venues in the chain but worth a visit if you are in Harborne. I would recommend making a reservation for a Friday/​Saturday night it can get very busy.