The 18 Best Places to Drink and Stay in Birmingham UK

Every cocktail on the menu is built around a film, and the menu itself is designed as a picture editorial, so you're reading a small magazine before you drink. This walk-in neighbourhood cocktail bar in Stirchley topped the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list in 2026, which is a long way from a quiet side street in Birmingham. Wednesday to Saturday, 4pm onward, stools at the bar and bistro tables, no reservations required.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #1 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars

The menu changes constantly by design, which is the whole point of the name. This cocktail bar in Digbeth's Custard Factory keeps only twelve drinks on the list at any given time, ranging from fruity and approachable to a rye-walnut-salt number that means business. The room is laid out like a kitchen at a house party, which sounds like a cliche until you're in it. It landed on the Top 50 Cocktail Bars list at number sixteen.

1. The Pinnacle Guide 2 Pins
2. Top 50 Cocktail Bars 2026 · #16 · Top 50 Cocktail Bars

A Victorian red-brick that used to be the Birmingham Eye Hospital, which at least explains the attention to detail. Hotel du Vin leans into rich, warm tones and a faintly baroque sensibility while the rest of the boutique world goes minimalist and white. It's the only outpost in the chain with a spa, and the bistro's wine list runs to hundreds of bottles. The shopping outside is fine, but you'll be thinking about dinner.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Full-length windows overlooking Birmingham's canal district set the tone at this large, polished city-centre hotel. The rooms are spacious and properly fitted out, the spa has a pool and a round-the-clock gym, and the lobby sits close enough to the shops that afternoon tea afterward feels almost obligatory. It runs on the Hyatt template, which is less a complaint than a description: reliably comfortable, nothing left out.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

Housed in a converted Royal Mail sorting facility inside The Mailbox, Birmingham's upscale canal-side shopping complex, this boutique hotel trades in dark woods, earthy tones, and generous room sizes that make a quiet dig at London's overpriced cupboards. Harvey Nichols is essentially your lobby. The Malmaison house style runs cool and calm throughout, with a brasserie and spa on site for anyone who needs a reason to stay indoors.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

The Queen's Suite is named for Elizabeth I, who last slept here in 1575, which gives you a sense of how long Fawsley Hall has been at this. It's a country house hotel with Tudor, Georgian, and Victorian wings, all of which were, at some point, the new addition. Rooms range from period-heavy originals to quieter contemporary spaces in the stables and spa building. A full spa, restaurant, and weekend screenings round things out nicely.

1. Michelin Guide Selected Hotels

1. The Pinnacle Guide 1 Pin

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A red door street-level, a flight of stairs down, and suddenly you're in a subterranean bar lined with curtained alcoves that feels like someone converted a Victorian vault because they did. It splits into a restaurant left and a bar right, the latter being the point. Weekend booths require a reservation and a premium, so midweek regulars who know better tend to have the atmosphere to themselves and the tab to prove it.

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

Turn left past the hotel lobby and you find yourself in a cocktail lounge where murals of women styled as absinthe bottles share wall space with soft Tuscan colours and a dark oak bar that stretches across two rooms. The champagne-house names painted above them set the tone: this is a place that takes its drinking seriously, even if the Pub du Vin downstairs is right there if you need an exit route.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

A red-carpeted staircase lifts you out of the four-lane chaos outside and into a hotel bar that has somehow engineered genuine calm, with high ceilings, dim lighting, and soft music doing the heavy lifting. The focal point is a pillar plastered in readable postcards, which is either charming or a lifeline if the conversation has gone quiet. The mood runs warm and a little theatrical, all flickering red tea lights and hushed tones.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

The corridor just inside the front door is lined with framed glowing reviews, which is either very confident or very self-aware, and at The Lord Clifden it's probably both. This Jewellery Quarter pub has Banksy prints, exposed brick, beautiful wood panelling, and an enormous beer garden out back. The bar straddles two rooms and the whole thing has the unhurried feel of a proper British boozer. Ale, scampi fries, pub grub.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Patterned carpets and stained glass windows set the tone at this old-school Birmingham pub, which somehow survived the gastropub wave with its character intact. It's a proper boozer on John Bright Street, with a ground-floor bar that feels genuinely lived-in and an upstairs lounge where the programming swings between stand-up comedy, poetry nights, and touring bands depending on the week.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A chrome Buddha greets you at the door of this cocktail lounge and piano bar in the Brindleyplace development, which tells you most of what you need to know about the vibe. Twinkling ceiling lights, comfy chairs, and live piano most nights of the week make it easy to lose track of time. Sink into a seat at the black stone bar and the place wraps around you quickly.

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide Difford's Guide