Beehive Inn, Sutton Coldfield

Traditional village inn, with a compact and plainly decorated two-part public bar area near the main entrance plus a larger lounge and various dining areas in mix of rear extensions of different ages. Also has a small rear patio beer garden on a slight terrace. Doom Bar, Pedigree and Landlord (£3.60) available from the bank of three handpumps on each counter.

The Beehive is predominantly a restaurant with by far the larger room at the back of the pub given over entirely to food. At the front are a few tables from where you can watch the car park and there's a small garden at the back. There's a small bar, through which you go to get to the restaurant, at the front which was populated by younger locals enjoying some loud tunes. Beer on was Hook Norton Lion, Pedigree and Purity UBU. It was a warm day and none of these took the fancy as thirst quenchers so I had a Peroni. Fine for a quick one.

Quite an old building in the middle of the village,the interior to the front has low ceilings while a more modern extension at the rear houses a restaurant section.The front door open onto a public bar with it's own servery with 3 handpumps,an alcove for darts and some wooden furniture.However the lights in the bar were off and it appeared unloved,so go through the door marked Lounge to your right for signs of life.The interior here is split into further sections around a L shaped serving bar .It is worth walking around to inspect all the handpumps to see whats on,Old Speckled Hen,Hook Norton Lion and a very decent Pedigree on my trip.The flatscreen just inside the lounge features Sky Sports but the locals (and I suspect the bar staff) are very keen on heavy metal which was being played at quite some volume.The restaurant looked a bit tatty with a jumble of furniture and cooking smells. It felt a bit rough and ready with a typical pubco choice of real ale,but it serves a purpose and was fine for the one.