please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
I still rate this as the best pub in Birmingham. It's small and gets quite crowded at peak times. But the beer and cider range are second to none. Not really enough time to do it justice whilst changing trains at New Street recently. But the beers were Kinver 1st Class Stamp, Hobson's Champion Mild, Nene Valley Manhattan Project, Red Willow Smokeless, Crate Amber, Stonehenge Spire Ale, Bespoke Going Off Half-Cocked & Little Critters Sleepy Badger. Ciders (and perries) were Hogan's Lonely Partridge Perry, Harvest Press, Hazy Rays, Panking Pole & Wild Elder, CJ's Perry & Watkin's Sunset Oak. Excellent.
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a pair of.Make your own private packed meal.I know how little time every person have which explains why we tend to take the straightforward road and by lunch in the office.But if you just took a while each evening prior to to sleep and make your individual packed lunch you can actually save around $15 per day on takeaway.What's extra is that it's far more healthier than what you would end in place buying at your local restaurant or food items court.<br />
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I may be wrong , but I think this used to be a Post Office. At some time.
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I may be wrong , but I think this used to be a Post Office.
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zzz
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Doh, what's all this below
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Popped in both before and after football at Walsall. Brilliant selection at decent prices. Lunchtime was quiet, early evening it was rammed but not uncomfortably, and no problems getting served. My pub of choice if I've got time to kill near New Street station...
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I was a bit worried about the subterranean aspects of this place but on a Saturday afternoon it was not too crowded and OK. Beers seemed OK and not expensive.
One minor point. The entrance (especially the New Street one) is very easy to miss.
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Friendly staff. Some interesting beer choices. No Birmingham beers though! I had a good pint of Hobson's Mild. Mostly boomer generation in at lunchtime. Appears to be a subterranean bar from the New Street entrance. Well worth a visit; I'd go back.
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The Post Office Vaults is always top of my list of pubs to visit in Birmingham City Centre and it has to be if you like real cider (and perry). 13 were on this time - Hogans Poachers Perry, Pickers Passion, Hazy Daisy, Panking Pole & Elderflower Power, Tricky Medium, Rich's Farmhouse, Penallt Capsy Wennet, Bartestree Katy, Williams & Hughes Orchard Blend Rioja Cask, Ventons Skippy's Scrumpy & Days Cottage Blakeney Red Perry. The ale range is more limited. But it's still sufficient to attract my fellow drinkers in - Salopian Oracle, Hobsons Champion Mild, Sperrin Annesley Mild, Acorn Hallertau Blanc IPA, Three Shire Hafren Ale, Beowulf Beorma & Finn's Hall & Animal Brewery Shark.
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Excellent pub, terrific range of ale & cider. Because it's quite small, it makes it feel lively inside, even when it isn't busy. But then it's always busy!
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Wednesday evening late on. 8 pumps, 2 were stouts, 1 was mild, 4 were pale ales and 1 , that is ONE, was copper trad bitter. The only downside is that one was 5.6%. So again, I have to hit the road in a no doubt fruitless chase for a pub that knows some customers prefer a selection of traditional English bitters mid strength, copper coloured and Not I repeat Not citrus, lager style beers. The Backstage IPA was in good condition, well kept, too strong for the only bitter available, hence the reduced score.
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Previous visits to this pub have left me undecided, as its size & popularity make it an uncomfortable body contact drinking den, not my favourite body contact sport. This visit was mid afternoon, on a Monday & apart from a few late liquid lunchers the place was nearly deserted. My pint of Hobson's Champion Mild (2.80) was quite good & the service excellent.
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Still the best pub in Birmingham, in my opinion. The fact it's reasonably small and a bit dingy would be the only drawbacks. Service is always friendly (apologies I managed to break a glass on the way out!). Customers are always willing to chat too. Ales on Saturday lunchtime were Salopian Oracle, Hobsons Champion Mild, Siren Liquid Mistress, Windswept Blonde, Brass Castle Eclipse, Hop Stuff Pale Ale & Plain Incognito. Ciders and perries were Hogans Poachers Perry, Pickers Passion, Hazy Daisy & Panking Pole, West Milton Traditional, Dudda's Tun Cheery Old Dudda, Ciderniks Dabhand, Moseley Cider Circle Dry, Virtual Orchards Hard Core, CJ's Cider Wench, Raglan Cider Mill Dry, Marchers Sweet Fanny Adams & Bartestree Breakwell Seedling. Another excellent selection.
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Second visit here and it didn't disappoint! Wonderful pub, best beer in choice in Brum and apart from maybe the Lords Clifden our favourite pub of our trip!
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We've just left this pub after the Aston Villa vs Leicester game and we feel we need to praise the manager for how he dealt with a group of troublesome fans.
After a large group of at least 15 men started loudly singing offensive chants, he came over and informed them to keep the noise down because there were other people in the pub to. After they swore and carried on singing he simply said you have till the count of 5 and proceeded to count down from 5 without batting an eyelid and as a result they offending group stop and apologised. This manager is either the hardest man i know or the biggest blagger in the UK! Either way the brewery need to give that man a pay rise!
Fantastic pub and wonderful staff! 10/10
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Excellent city centre pub. Good range of beers and excellent range of Ciders.
No food served but your welcome to bring your own. Cracking pub nicely tucked away.
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Another visit to this good pub with great beers, if you can get to the bar to see what they are. Clouded Stout was very good, it tasted a bit like Titanic Plum Porter.
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Excellent hidden gem, good range of beers with samples on the bar to see what you are ordering. 13 ciders too and a vast range of foreign bottles too. A pub as it should be.
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Many years ago this place was an M&B pub called the Royal Mail.
As far as I can see there has been no change to the interior apart from the removal of the carpets.
8 hand pulls so I tried a pint of the Salopian which was very nice and cost £3.40.
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This is a must visit pub at the end of any day out before catching my last train home. Never had a bad pint and always find something new. Highly recommend. :-)
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Ale was excellent and loads of choice. The staff are efficient and welcoming and the pub is neat and tidy. On my late Monday evening visit the clientele seemed to be a mixture of beer enthusiasts and gap year type students. Conversation seemed rather earnest and so there was a lack of 'pub' atmosphere. Definitely worth a visit but a bit 'serious' for me. 7/10.
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Basement bar with entrances on two streets. Lots of room downstairs. 4 ales on tap I think, loads of ciders also on tap and many foreign bottled beers. Walls lined with foreign beer bottles.
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Found this pub for the first time on Saturday night. I have completely fallen in love with it. As a cider drinker you can imagine my delight when I discovered they had 14 real ciders available. Will visit again this week to sample the ones I missed on Saturday.
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Big selection of Ciders and Ales - good service and quality of Salopian was excellent.
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Underground bar in the middle of the city centre, walked past it a couple of times before realizing what it was. As other reviewers have noted, there was an eclectic selection of real ales, complimented by the usual European suspects in bottles.
The interior is quite homely, although I can imagine it being a bit of a nightmare on a packed day or night. Full of trendies and students, which seems to be the clientele base for such an establishment. Beer was excellent, especially the Oracle from Salopian Brewery and service was curt but efficient.
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Good little cellar pub always has an interesting choice of ales mostly from micros or smaller brewers. Can get busy as not that big but certainly worth a visit off peak. Staff friendly and service good.
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The German market was outside - the streets were heaving. And this pub was a nice little refuge squeezed between big chain shops. Busy but not packed on this Saturday afternoon and we found a table. Good range of 7 independents - I tried and enjoyed the Brightside Darkside Stout.
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This is one pof the best pubs in town with a great range of beer and a terrific "subterranean" atmosphere. Friendly staff and as a result of it being so good is does get packed (it's not very big anyway!). I have only one gripe - please remove the bar stools when it's busy as I couldn't get to the bar for some oaf sitting on a bar stool with his laptop on the bar counter! Apart from that (a one-off I hope) this is a must visit bar.
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Got here just before the pub opened at 11am yesterday (Saturday). The side door was closed but unlatched. So we tried our luck and the friendly barmaid let us in. There is a further entrance on New Street itself. We've been in here on an early Saturday evening before now and found the place heaving. So it was nice to have the place to ourselves for all of 5 minutes. By the time we left, it was still fairly comfortable. But when crowded, being underground, it does feel a little claustrophobic. All 8 ales were on yesterday - Salopian Oracle, Hobsons Champion Mild, Riverhead Vlaamse Wheat, Late Knights Hop o'The Morning, Beowulf Beorma, Brew Company Autumnus, Elland Styrian Pale Ale & Naked Brewer Oracle. I though the idea of third pint glasses in front of each handpull was good. You could see what you were about to order. There are also 13 ciders/perries, fetched from the adjacent cool storage area - Hogans Vintage Perry, Picker's Passion, Hazy Daisy & Panking Pole, Wilce's Cider, Ross-on-Wye Oak, Green Valley Devon Farm, Ciderfect Brown Snout, Solway Perry & Kingston Black, Newtons Yarlington Mill & Gwynt y Ddraig Black Dragon & Farmhouse Scrumpy. In addition as others have mentioned, there is a fine bottled selection. For me, this is currently Birmingham's best boozer. Although the cider range certainly helps sway my opinion.
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Best Pub in Birmingham - Its down some stairs handy for New Street Station but I have stopped dropping in for a quick one as this normally drags out to a 3 hour visit - 8 Real Ales on at any time about 500+ bottled beers - The Bar Staff know their beer but you know the best thing there's always someone in who will have a chat with you - normally someone from Rugby or Shrewsbury who has come specifically to have a beer in the POV .... Like I said you have to be strong willed to drop in for a quick beer
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First visit on the 25th of June. Very impressed. Excellent beer choice. The landlord and staff made us very welcome. The foreign beer list is excellent.
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Apart from the size of the pub (very small) the place is a gem! A great selection of beer from all across the country & from abroad (Take a look at the pubs menu and it's enough to make you drool). Pub doesn't sell much in terms of food, but will allow all punters to bring in their own food. For a small pub I have never had a problem getting served, the staff seem very quick and always serve with a smile. I've been in there countless times already but if you pay Birmingham a visit, you have to pop in for a visit.
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Hugely enjoyable, shame it's so small. The Hobson's mild at 3.2% was suberb. Good mix of custom, pleasant staff, great pub.
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Popped in on Wednesday lunchtime during my tour of Brum. Pub was quiet, as per some of the others on my circuit. Three ales sampled , all in good condition.
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great little boozer tucked up round the corner from new st station, an absolutely superb pint of Beowulf Killer Stout, and at 7.2% was not named in error. Hugely enjoyable experience.
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Im currently sitting in this pub having missed a connecting train and all I can say is I'M AMAZED!
They have 8 real ales on hand pull (I'm currently drinking one from XT Brewery). But get this, they have over 330 different beers in bottles from around the world. I'm flicking through a menu and there are beers from Belgium, Germany, America, Holland, Austria, Australia and more.
I think I might be missing a few more trains and sampling some of these.
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A superb underground bar at the top end of New Street.
I came here at 10.30am on a Saturday before realising it doesn’t open until noon so I came back just before 7pm and it was heaving with a real nice mixed crowd
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As well as a really good range of ales on the pumps there is an extensive bottle selection that comes with it’s own menu to help you choose the right beer.
I had a pint of a local brew and as expected it was excellent.
Cracking little place that is definitely on my must re-visit list.
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It`s a mecca for a variety of alcohlic beverages but not the place to go if you fancy a bit of a lively one...it`s funny isn`t it..a pub selling hefty ales but punters who frown on anyone getting a bit merry!
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cant fault the beer, friendly service but atmosphere ruined on a sat lunch time by load of chanting pond life ie football fans so drunk up and left, but really do hope to come back again sometime
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What a pub! Best in Birmingham in my opinion.
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Can merely echo comments below. great little place, slight shame about the premises. IT really MUST be said however, that free-of-tie places in central Brum are rarer than hen's teeth, and it would be impossible to attempt this through a pubco (Ilooklikeme: this is probably why the prince of Wales, great pub that it could be, was not considered) Beer is always superb.
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Excellent place with very friendly staff.
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Visited after Birmingham Beer Festival. STill a really great place. Interesting selection of ales in good condition.
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Found this place completely by accident and I'm so glad I did. I've literally fallen in love with the Post Office Vaults. The sheer number of beer available in such a small bar beggars belief and the staff seem to truly enjoy their job. On my first visit about 3 weeks ago I was made to feel so welcome by the 2 guys that I ended up spending 5 hours in there (much to the displeasure of my wife). Been back several times since and it's been the same every time.
Get yourself there, talk about the beers and learn a thing or two about them while you are at it. You won't be disappointed.
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quirky little joint. very good service, very good beer. like it.
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I suspect that previous commenter MCRoyal was in town for the same reasons as me and I can only echo his comments as this place is a fabulous alternative to the always jammed Wellington. That said, the Vaults was also very busy on the occasion of our visit. The Hobsons Mild was described by the West Bromwich Albion fan who introduced me to the place as 'world class' and he wasn't wrong for tasty it was - as was a curious ginger and chilli ale. A terrific pub and a witty sign on the outside that lambasted Carlsberg also produced a thumbs up.
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First visit last Saturday - a single doorway leads to a staircase which takes you down to the cellar bar. It is "compact" and can get very busy and you may have to gently push your way to the bar. Don't let that put you off - it says a lot about the place as more and more customers "discover" the Vaults and its beer. We had Abbeydale Moonshine and Salopian Oracle - both excellent beers in very good nick. Pleasant and efficient bar staff so we didn't have to wait long to get served. Several draught ciders are available and there is a good range of bottled foreign beers (and some on draught as well). This is a great little addition to Brum's beer scene and is no distance from the Wellington; Briar Rose; Old Joint Stock and Shakespeare and a 10 min(max) walk from New Street station. Well worth a visit.
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Came here for one at end of June after many recommendations, ended up leaving after 3 pints from Weatheroak,Milestone,and Salopian, followed by 3 bottled ales from 3 different countries from their "bible" of bottled beer imports,I missed about 5 trains and ended up ruining a night out with a certain female so yeah mixed memories of the place!! 8/10
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Very impressive beer bar, different crowd from the Wellington (you judge whether for better or worse), with a lovely but not too big range of beers. Hobson Mild was good, but afraid I strayed to the Belgian on draft (Maredsous 10 I think) which wasn't wise. Staff very lovely indeed.
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cracking little pub had a lovely time when visited 10/6/12. two chaps that where working where friendly and very knowledgeable of there products. made myself and wife very welcome will defiantly be visiting again. keep up the good work guys
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PVO? Post Vaults Office? Please replace with POV. That's what you get for posting first and then reading back afterwards.
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One just has to welcome a new pub in Birmingham's city centre that places quality, interesting and varied real ale at the forefront of it's mission statement, backed up with an increasingly impressive reputation for stocking some highly sought after bottled beer. The PVO appeared suddenly before Christmas, and in keeping with it's older sister pub the Wellington is now on the must visit list of any central Birmingham crawl, as well as duplicating the no food (bring your own), no piped music policy seen as something of an innovation locally. But oh dear me what a space to choose! Formely an M&B house the Royal Mail, it couldn't be recommended to those prone to claustrophobia, being below street level and no window to look out of. To compound the problem it's pretty small, with an absurdly placed bar billiards table which swallows up spare gaps to stand when the potters elbows angle their way into you. And rather like the Wellington you can find yourself gulping for some semblance of fresh air after being overpowered by body odour and a fierce heating system. (How I wish that the management had been able to take over Cambridge Street's Prince of Wales when it was up for sale, great potential I would have thought. No doubt there are sound business reasons why this couldn't happen.) The Vaults' regular crowd are quite diverse, but just a little over represented by boorish Jarvis Cokerish beard sporting bar hogging tiny pullover and check shirt wearing professionals. (My work is undone if at least one poster doesn't take offence at the previous sentence.) The bar staff service is similarly adventurous, but thankfully you are more likely to encounter enthusiastic civility and efficiency rather than sulleness at being dragged away from conversation -which has happened on occasion. To be fair my criticisms are probably more appropriate to the Vaults' busy times, and calmer periods reveal a noticeable relaxed tone. However if it's quality of ale you want (and should want) then in that department the PVO is excellent, wisely dispensing a far less intimidating number of eight handpulls at any one time. And it is for this aspect alone that I urge you make the effort to navigate the narrow downward steps and sample it's fine product. So despite my reservations I applaud the PVO's ethic and let's be honest courage, extending a sincere wish to see it remain a sound choice for discerning drinkers.
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Unrivalled selection of beer in the city, if not the Midlands. They also stock my beloved Westmalle Tripel- the best beer ever brewed in my opinion. You have to have a look through their beer menu- its a sight to behold. 8 real ales which are always well kept and I think they have hobsons mild on permanently. By far the best new edition to the Birmingham pub scene in years and just what the city needed.
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Visited for the 1st time this week. Superb selection of bottled beers ( 265+), 14 draught ciders and 8 Real ales. Jointly owned by Nigel Barker from the Wellington. No food , but you can take your own in. Belgian and other foreign beer artifacts around the room. Approached from either New Street ( next to Greggs) or more obviously from Pinfold Street. Hobsons Mild and Salopian Oracle are permanents other 6 beers from far and near. Didn't see a draught beer list obviously displayed, and with the bar area being quite small and with the numbers of people around it, it can be difficult to see what real ales are on tap and their strengths. This is a real bonus to the Birmingham city centre beer scene and complements the Welly and the Anchor. If you have a spare �300 you can buy an 8 litre bottle of Belgian beer for you and a few of your mates to share.
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Great to see the Post Office Vaults finally on here, this is one of my new favourite places to drink in Brum due to the unbelievable range of beers on off, I think they now have over 200. Reminds me of the Euston Tap a bit. The pub isn't without it's faults- it gets very very busy during the weekend and due to the size of the pub it gets somewhat overcrowded, this does go to show though how popular the place is. Everytime I've visited the staff have been very friendly, chatty and especially the guys unrivalled on their knowledge of the beers- which is essential when trying to choose from their vast range. Would definity recommend to anyone visiting Birmingham.
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Great bar, but now closed.
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I came down to The Basement for my birthday as my friend is a regular and has been raving about the place! We only intended staying for a couple of drinks but ended up leaving at 3am. The atmosphere was amazing and the bar was rammed. DJs played a wicked mix of soul and blues- everybody was dancing (including the djs!). The barstaff were great. Really friendly. I was given a free tequila and they made sure I had a great birthday. I had an amazing night and have been back several times since. You should go for a drink or five. You're guaranteed fun times.
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After visiting New York many times it was a wonderful surprise to enter this Birmingham bar and be reminded of the rock n roll spirit of The Big Apple.. The bar is furnished exactly like you would find on the Lower Eastside, NYC.. A sleazy look in an underground bar go hand in hand and to be greeted with an amazing selection of whiskys and rums made me feel i would be visiting again.. I was made to feel welcome by the hospitable bar staff who greeted me with a smile and a warm welcome. To top this off there was a jukebox pumping out all the soul, garage and rock n roll favourites.. I heartily reccomend a visit and im sure like me the Basement staff will be calling you a cab in the early hours..
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