please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Like the previous interlocutor, I was wowed by the Cappuccino Stout from the ever reliable Titanic and this along with the extremely pleasing interior replete with gorgeous stained glass mark this out as a winner. Busy and slightly less relaxing than some of the other pubs we visited on this day but an essential stop off in any Jewellery Quarter pub crawl.
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Visited in December 2014
Beautiful pub owned by Bitters n Twisted chain who run a number of venues in town.
I had an amazing pint of Cappucino Stout, I'm not a great stout fan but this was just gorgeous.
Food is available, its in the style of american diner type stuff but is nice and filling and prety cheap.
Absolutley worth the trip
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The last reviewer forgot to mention the superb stained glass windows but there is not much more I can add. Slightly boho place with a varied clientele where the range of hand pulls doesn't suggest much (Black Sheep Bitter, Doom Bar and the guest Wadworth's The Usual) but the £3.40 guest proved to be very good indeed and the cheap cocktails were also as good apparently. Busy at lunchtime on Saturday and it might be difficult to find a seat but it is worth persevering. Was a little cold later on but probably more to do with the high ceilings and the open plan layout rather than a lack of heating.
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Worth the walk from the city centre. Fantastic original tiling from the early 1900's
has a great tiled fireplace that you can sit at. Cental bar so you can walk around the pub to see the tiling. Beers i tried were, Wye Valley, Butty Bach £3.30 and Redwillow, Mirthless £3.25. Both were good.
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Nice pub, good beer (with some decent choices amongst the three or four guests, which is good to see in a place aimed at a younger clientele), good food, lively at weekends. My only criticism is that it can be bloody cold when it's quiet and a bit dark at night. Spend a bit more on electricity, please.
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Superb victorian pub. Great beer and decent food. Wish it was closer to home.
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Update to my review posted a couple of years ago. The pub has been taken over by the bitters and twisted chain that runs a couple of other pubs in the town including the jekyll and hyde and the victoria. It keeps with the same philosophy of wacky interior and a great selection of beers (ales and cocktails.) The exterior has been kept the same which is great as its a impressive building but the inside has had a make over which is also very impressive. There's a area out the back to enjoy again with the wacky artwork and a small shed type structure you can go in to relax. If you like the pubs mentioned above i'd definitely recommend this one!
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Lovely looking building which contiues inside. 4 ales on although one was the omni-present Doomed Beer. The others consisted of a light, a ruby and a porter so a decent choice. Mine was a bit hazy but tasted ok and the others were fine. It was early on a quiet Saturday morning and we had no complaints about the service.
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a brilliantly victorian yet trendy venue. tradidtional stained glass windows, glazed ceramic wall tiles, and other victorian trimmings, combined with very trendy art work and brightly coloured furniture etc. odd combination, but it works really well.
beer selection was excellent, although my pint of Jaipur IPA was as cold as a lager. i dont mind that, but most beer drinkers would be offended.
the staff were absolutly useless though. every one of them was a 20 something, skinny jeans wearing hipster. complete with x-factor hair, sailor tattoos, and geek glasses. service was painfully slow, uninterested and resembling the shop window of river island.
ignoring the staff, the pub itself is superb, and i will definatly be back (as part of a jewlerry qt. pub crawl) when ever chelsea are playing in brum again.
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Service is terribly slow and beer is extremly cold when you finally get it. Noisy alot of the time. Can become uncomfortable when its busy.
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Beers too cold for my liking but interesting pub and food not bad at all. Worth a go.
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A fine old pub with nice stained glass windows and a wonderful interior with three separate rooms, each with beautiful tiling. 4 ales were on today - Brakspear Bitter, Wasworth 6X, Sharps Doom Bar & Oakham Citra. There are no real cider. Although Stowford Press is an adequate subsititute. I don't remember any music. So the atmosphere was quite soothing. There's also a good range of spirits and a few cocktails advertised. Would give this place another go. But the ale range was fairly bog standard.
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I like the renovation, staff fine, wi-fi didn't work, beer (Thornbridge Sequoia and Lord Marples) far too cold.
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Visited this pub yesterday (29 Dec 11) and had an excellent pint of Thornbridge Lord Marples, chilled and effervescaent as a properly kept cask ale should be. The people next to me were drinking Thornbridge Sequoia which looked super too.
First time in this pub - a real cracker - stained glass windows - airy, high ceilings, but with plenty of little alcoves if you want something more cosy. Recommended.
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When they announced that the Rose Villa Tavern was having a refurbishment, and changing hands, we had great expectations!! Especially as myself and a number of friends (who live in and around the JQ) frequently enjoy it's sister venues Victoria and the Jekyll and Hyde.
I didn't know that you could still get a drink in Birmingham where after asking for a top-up, the bar girl uses her finger to wipe the top of the glass!... the last time I experienced that was at my uni bar in 1996, and the beer was more like 99p a pint rather than over �3. Poor..... very poor....
The owners of the Rose Villa seem to be pulling the bar in a direction it reluctantly wants to go. The interior does not have the warmth and welcoming aura of its sister venues and when competing with Lord Cliffden and The Lion, fails miserably. The fact that it gets busy I'm assuming is because of it's location. Seek a little harder my friends and you will be rewarded with venues 10 times better!
I won't be visiting this venue again...
Maybe the owners should consider dropping this venue before it completely ruins the groups perceived ethos.
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Update of my review July 10th. I really wanted to like this pub as in theory it would make a good mini crawl, forming an arc between the two shades of Lions. So I was persuaded to return under the assurance that my last posting was harsh and that the teething problems had been ironed out. Well I managed to get served, but not in turn, and for the princely sum of �3.10 I was treated to a freezing, on the turn pint of 3.4 Brakspear. All this to a pounding soundtrack of a synthetic salsoul version of Sunshine of Your Love on the speakers we sat under. I think CatherineElizabeth's succinct comment just about sums it up, and as the Rose Villa was pretty well populated it does indeed seem this is the sort of standard Jewellery Quarter residents are eager to embrace for their pubs. I hope they'll be very happy with each other, but I'll keep out of their way.
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If you like overly priced, crap, freezing beer served in a dirty glass - this is the place for you!
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Yup it`s a trendy looking place, nice interior though, tiling reminds me of the White Swan in Digbeth. Beer was ok and prices not too steep. Went there early doors so not sure if it ever gets really busy. One of the better ones I`ve been to round those parts.
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Looks fancy after the much needed refurb, some of the interior flooring was awful, but to be honest I preferred it as it was before. Too much of a trendy bar now and prices seem to have risen accordingly, staff seem up themselves as well. Could be better in the day-time.
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Has finally had a much-needed refurb. If you've been to the Junction, Fighting Cocks, Old Contemptibles, etc, this is much the same, but a vast improvement on its previous neglected state. Beer range is much-improved as well.
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I have to agree with the previous posts that its one of those trendy places to be seen. Bar staff tend to ignore you if your not in the part of the in crowd. On saying that the place is new & a novelty, Every pub has its day the crowd will move on, the time consuming cocktails will stop & the staff will learn. to acknowledge & serve the punters.
The trad beers are well kept & they serve a novel idea called a trio. This is three glasses the equivalent of a pint in price & size. Each one has a different bitter so you can sample. The best time to visit is early doors (16:00 � 18:00)
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Have to agree with covman45. It *could* be a fine pub- there's good beer, beautiful tiles and glass- but there's also far too much of 'look how cool we are', which dissapointed. Whoever chose the wallpaper and tree branch should be beaten until they see sense, frankly. The beer was great, and everywhere clean, but it's not a proper traditional pub any more.
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Watched with mounting thirst and an unwanted sense of self consciousness as the barman spun containers in the air, working with great concentration on what appeared to be a mammoth order for cocktails. At no point during this operation was my presence acknowledged, not by the juice juggler nor the other dude who fiddled at something behind the bar stopping briefly to pass the time with someone he knew. After roughly four minutes of being made to feel like a wino who'd just wandered off the street I left. I could try again I suppose, but my experience seemed to encapsulate the very worst of what the Jewellery Quarter has become since it's gentrification. Am I being unfair? Quite possibly, but on this occasion I don't care.
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It has been "renovated" and all the original windows and tiles retained.However some bright spark has decided to hang a tree branch covered in fairy lights from the ceiling and put hideous wallpaper above the tiles.Place was clean and tidy- including the toilets.Selection of 4 real ales and Dorothy Goodbody was tasty. The downside was that at 9pm the lights were turned down and the sound system was set to ear drum splitting lev Cue for a hasty retreat !
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Been taken over early June, same people who own the Victoria and Jekyll and Hyde in Town. Keep on eye out as refurb. currently underway!
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This pub is an architectural gem (pun intended (its in the jewellery quarter)) - a beautiful Victorian interior - the pride of Birmingham.
Sadly...
this place has all the atmosphere of a bike shed - upon entering one is greeted by the smell of urinal blocks and a blaring TV. The place is cluttered with gaming machines and crappy arcade games. Posters plaster the walls advertising various sporting events to be shown on the big screen.
Unsurprisingly it's nearly always empty
The finest Victorian pub in Birmingham... in the whole of England stinks of neglect and decay while other Jewellery quarter pubs make a killing.
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good old boozer with alot of character. Quite large inside with a good feel to it
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Beautiful building but 100% keg when I visited.
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Externally, an impressive looking red brick Victorian pub with the usual leaded stained glass windows, the Rose Villa Tavern occupies a prominent street corner postion in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter close to the Chamberlain Clock.
A central island bar serves a number of different adjoining rooms, variously named as The Bullion Bar, The Emerald Lounge and The Smugglers Den. There is some splendid wall to floor tiling, but the effect is marred slightly by the usual promotional posters advertising football fixtures and, most notably, a poster advertising what is referred to as an "Indoor Bring and Buy Car Boot Sale" at the pub on a forthcoming Sunday morning.
The main bar is The Bullion Bar and this contains a games area with a snooker table and dartboard and, at the far end of the bar, a red telephone box. The Smugglers Den contains some interesting old photos of the area. The Emerald Lounge notably unfortunately contains a rather unattractive looking boxing gaming machine that would be much more at home in an amusement arcade or fairground.
As previous posters have already pointed out, real ale does not feature prominently here. On my visit, a single handpump in The Bullion Bar, not immediately noticeable, was serving Adnams Broadside. Tellingly, despite it tasting fine and very reasonably priced at � 2.55p, the barmaid's quizzical facial expression had "blimey, someone's ordering this real ale stuff" written all over it.
This is a fine traditional pub, the kind that I like, but I'd like it even more if there was a greater emphasis on real ale which, as previous posters have experienced, is not always available.
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Splendid old boozer right in the heart of the Jewellery Quarter by the clock. From the red brick exterior to the tiling, everything about the building is impressive. It's redolent of a London pub in ways, with a mahogany island bar complete with gantries and clock serving distinct rooms around it. These rooms are beautifully tiled around the walls, many with pictures depicted on these tiles. There are also stained glass windows and beautful shiny pattered tables which complement this, particularly in the back room by the toilets. The main bar room is large with darts and a pool table at the bottom end. Contrary to previous reports I found the place to be very clean and the toilets OK. Service also fine.
Which brings us to the beer situation- the pub obviously doesn't put a strong emphasis on real ale, with the one pump clip (Bombardier) turned around early on a Saturday afternoon. Now I don't mind drinking keg in a place like this (Vines in Liverpool comes to mind) but many would and this would deter them. A better real ale policy would transform this pub from a lovely building to another Birmingham must-visit, though if you are a lover of traditional pubs you should go anyway. I know I will again.
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Working in the Jewellery Quarter myself, it is of universal opinion around the trade that this pub has the potential to be a great pub!
It has some lovely Victorian features, which sadly get ignored due to the fact that it carries a reputation of being a bit unclean.
The toilets are nothing short of awful. This is one thing that seriously needs to be addressed and sooner rather than later.
The food is ok. The food is well priced and for the money you get what you pay for. It's not as good quality as other local pubs/bars, but its ok for a quick snack.
The beer can be hit and miss, which is also a shame. I personally feel that somewhat dingy pubs are often the better places to find a good pint. This pub is not one of those unfortunately.
This pub is now up for sale and hopefully someone with a bit of vision can bring this pub back to former glory, without taking away any of it's Victorian charm.
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It was a cold wet day in the Jewellery Quarter and after spending to much money we went in for lunch. The pub is a beautiful old Victorian pub with superb stained glass and lots of lovely old tiling. Although the place is in need of some TLC it is a very busy local pub and all this adds to the charm.
Ales wise not great just Bombardier but the menu was lots of really good looking pub grub which was very well priced. I had a 16oz steak at �6.95 which was really good value I would of happily paid �3 - �4 more for the portion.
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This is a beautiful old Victorian pub with the old tiling throughout and some lovely stained glass. I had a nice pint of M&B Mild and good pint of Wychwood Hobgoblin. I found the bar staff very friendly. A good pub and one to definitely return to,
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Yet to be there when the handpump is actually on. And the music is too loud. Could be so much better....
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I often visit a couple of times before posting a view. A revisit to the Rose Villa was eagerly awaited by JB and myself, as it is a quality building. Elated as we were to see Greenalls and M&B Milds, they were a pretty poor pint. I will visit again, as currently the score is 1-1 and i hope the third visit will be as good as the first
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lovely building, shame about the bar staff. The staff used to be great around 8 years ago, but over the last 2 years when i've been in the service has been dreadul, as has the beer actually. Shame really as could be a cracking boozer.
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This pub is a beautiful red brick building in the heart of Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter and is listed in The Historic Pub Interiors National Inventory - Part 2.
They had one real ale [Black Sheep] on when we visited on a Saturday lunchtime. The barmaid trashed a couple of them before serving us a couple of pints that were definitely the wrong side of their sell-by date.
Pool Table in a corner by the public bar.
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