The Briar Rose (JD Wetherspoon), Birmingham

Just off New Street, this is a decent sized, well positioned Wetherspoons pub that always seems to be doing a good trade whenever I’ve walked past. The pub has a fairly large, single room layout with the servery located midway down the left hand side. There is a sizeable seating area underneath the front windows, including some impressive high backed banquettes which run down the right hand wall, whilst high tables and stools fill up the space closer to the bar. The servery is quite unusual, in that it has some large upturned silver domes decorating the bar back and a tiger print image running below the bar counter. The rest of the pub has lots of stylish curved lines and period fixtures such as lamp shades which hint at an art deco look. The room opens out a lot to the rear, where a pleasant carpeted seating area can be found. This space boasts some nice wood panelling, large frosted windows with small square stained panes and a handsome fireplace with an elaborate carved mantle and surround fitted with a small stove. The usual TV screens were present and correct, showing muted Sky News to a busy Saturday lunchtime crowd, which staff seemed unable to cope with, resulting in a number of tables remaining uncleared for long periods. I think I noted four guest ales, three regular Wetherspoons ales and three unused pumps whilst stood at the bar. I decided to try something called Dark Odyssey from The Beer Studio, which was a decent enough pint to start off a crawl around the city. The staff at the bar seemed much better equipped to deal with the crowds than those waiting the tables. This is a fairly standard city centre Wetherspoons that will be an attractive option because of its location rather than any specific point of difference. It’s also very close to several excellent ale houses, including the neighbouring Wellington, which makes it an obvious addition to a crawl around the immediate area.

The Briar Rose is a Spoons that is housed in an old building,this is probably Birminghams premier Spoons. Once inside there was a long oblong shaped room with the bar on the left side,there were tall tables and chairs very close to the bar,making this area very busy with people drinking at the bar and generally clogging the bar area up,i walked round and eventually got to the bar where the service was very quick. I had a drink of Exmoor Gold which was a very nice drink,the other beers i noted were Ringwood Fortyniner,GK Abbot and Ruddles best. I was a bit dissapointed with this spoons. Pub visited 17/8/2013

there's very much an Art Deco feel to the decor but it's still unmistakably a 'spoons, the Greene King beer is a give away of course. The long thin shape with a low ceiling and windows just at one end make it dark inside. As befits a flagship city centre pub it seems well run with fewer of the usual gripes about 'spoons, it has a shortish straight counter which helps and there appeared to be a reasonable number of staff. The beers were in good shape. The toilets are downstairs with the Hotel bit upstairs.

The Briar Rose is a large Wetherspoons with a long bar along the left hand wall that supports a standard draught range and ten hand pumps. Four of these were off during my visit just before midday last Friday and the other six were drawing Spoon’s favourites and a couple of guests. The usual cheap food is available and I enjoyed a large breakfast that was very good value for money at £2.99. The service was friendly and I was even asked if I was enjoying my food which is a first in my experience for a pub chain. There is a plasma screen at the rear that was showing muted rolling news and unsurprisingly there was no music playing. I wouldn’t go out of my way to drink or eat here again, but like most JDW pubs it is handy to know of its existence.