Botanical Birmingham

Advantages: Plenty to see, a relaxing escape from the city.
Disadvantages: Expensive for a one-off visit. Disappointing restaurant.

...Every city need its green spaces. The architecture may be spectacular and the shops fantastic, but finding a place to escape the traffic and bustle is a necessity for most city dwellers. Picture Birmingham and what do you see? The Bullring, New Street Station and Spaghetti Junction would be the first things that come to my mind. Although I've never lived in Birmingham itself, I worked there for several years. During that time I went to the Botanical Gardens regularly, but for the purposes of this review I will focus on my most recent visit which was August 2008. A Brief History Celebrity gardeners are not a new phenomenon. In the nineteenth century J.C Loudon was an influential writer on gardening and became part of London's high society. He designed the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in 1830 to provide a place where keen...

JoannaPiano 31.10.2008 (02.11.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Birmingham Botanical Gardens

  Harvester Restaurants

Advantages: Always one close by, quick turn out, children are welcome and catered for.
Disadvantages: Toilets can be quite disturbing, not all dishes taste as good they are described.

...Harvester Restaurants Restaurant Reviewed: Stag and Hounds Winchester Road Basingstoke Hampshire (next to Comet and Home Base) The Harvester chain of Restaurants have over 2000 outlets across the United Kingdom and owned and operated by Mitchells and Butlers, who claim to be the UK's leading operator of managed pubs, bars and restaurants. Harvester claim to offer healthy eating, drinking and entertainment in one reasonably priced outlet. **** Parking and Getting a Table ***** As with most of the Harvester's I have visited, there is usually ample free parking at the rear of the establishment. However on Saturday evenings and Sunday lunch times these places are heaving with customers, so avoid the crowds, go early and if possible ring and reserve a table. The Stag and Hounds is no exception but fortunately...

mrsmopples 27.02.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Harvester Restaurants

Birmingham International Airport - 2008

Advantages: Big enough to get the destinations, small enough to care
Disadvantages: Complex road system to get there

..., toiletries, booze, fags and electrical stuff. They have a nice selection of tempting Radley handbags as well. There's a newsagent, a camera shop, I think there's an Austin Reed and that's about it for shops. There's a coffee bar, a Wetherspoons restaurant, a sandwich bar, a slot machine area and if there's anything else, then it's not made enough impact for me to remember. Going to the Gates *************** Gates seldom open more than 30 mins before departure - sometimes less. They don't make boarding calls (unless you are about to be offloaded) so you need to keep an eye on the monitors. At most of the gates you'll find free newspapers but they tend to be local Birmingham or Coventry dailies or obscure magazines you've never heard of before. A lot of the airlines in T2 use quite small planes that can be boarded very quickly - indeed it...

koshkha 11.02.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Birmingham (BHX)

Ze Restaurant!

Advantages: Good show, interesting
Disadvantages: Slightly worse than last year`s

...The Restaurant is a TV programme shown on BBC 2 on Thursday nights! The show is a reality TV show and is similar to something like the Apprentice but a food version. This show is obviously based on the concept and success of many other TV shows like the Apprentice, food shows like Masterchef and all the other shows like Dragon`s Den, X Factor e.t.c The idea of the show is for world famous chef Raymond Blanc to find a couple to help him run a restaurant and the couples are gradually knocked out week by week until they have the winning couple. It is in its third season and seems to have got a bit worse. I still enjoy it but felt it used to be more exciting and interesting. There used to be two shows with one of them being a challenge but they seem to have got rid of this which is a shame! Raymond has help from his two assistants e...

mariofan123 23.11.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of BBC2 - The Restaurant

The Seafood Restaurant

Advantages: Great fish, sides
Disadvantages: None

...Rick Stein - The Seafood Restaurant On a recent trip to Padstow, Cornwall we decided to go to Rick Steins famous fish restaurant, The Seafood Restaurant. Rick Stein is an English chef, restauranter and television presenter. He now specialises in fish cookery. He opened his first restaurant in Padstow in 1974 and now runs quite a few businesses in the town including a cake shop, cookery school and a fish and chip shop. The Seafood Restaurant is his upper class restaurant in the town and is known for it's fabulous fish. It really is in the best location for fish. Padstow is a historic fishing port and so receives fresh fish every day. The restaurant is right at one end of town by the harbour and so is perfectly place to recieve all the best catches of the day. It's quite hard to get a reservation in the restaurant. I think I booked...

Spottydog11 02.06.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Seafood Restaurant, Padstow

A bridge too far in Birmingham

Advantages: Now unique in the UK - the only representative of the Hyatt
Disadvantages: Very average compared against the standards of this chain

...We had the occasion to spend a couple of nights in Birmingham recently. As Gold Passport members, our natural choice was the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the centre of Birmingham. Billed as the premier hotel venue in Britain?s second city, this is now the only remaining representative of the upscale American chain in the UK ? the Carlton Tower and the Lowndes Hotels in London having been sold about three years ago. The Hyatt brand started on the west coast of America in the early 1960s with a mission statement to be large, open plan and generously accommodating. New buildings were often constructed around multi-floor atriums lavishly decorated with marble, glass and fountains. They led the way in providing ?extras? for the discerning traveller. This has been formalised in the Regency Club. Several floors are set aside for guests wishing to...

Newfloridian 14.09.2003 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Hyatt Regency, Birmingham

Etap Birmingham Centre, Birmingham

Advantages: cheap, clean, friendly staff
Disadvantages: quite a walk from town centre

...Etap Hotels are another budget hotel chain created by Accor, the creators of hotel giants Ibis. This 250 room complex is situtaed in the centre of Birmingham and all rooms cost £35, whether its a weekday or the weekend. But for this price, don't expect luxury acommodation, as luxury is probably the worst word to describe this hotel. The rooms are clean and modern and sleep up to 3 people. In most cases, this is either a double or twin beds with a single bunk on top - not very glamourous but good for the money. You do get a television (complete with an array of English and European channels), but I can't guarantee that you'll get coffee and tea making facilities, as some rooms seem to be missing these. There is also no hairdryer or anything like that, but you can get one if pay a £10 deposit at reception - you will get this returned to...

jdeacon_162 11.11.2006 (12.11.2006) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Etap Birmingham Centre, Birmingham

The University of Birmingham

Advantages: Great teaching, facilities, opportunites and social life
Disadvantages: i am only here for 3 years, wish it could be more.

...I am a student at the University of Birmingham in my first year of the popular course; Sports and Exercise Sciences. Although it is a difficult university to get in to, there are hundreds of different courses to choose from if you are not accepted on your favoured course. Also, they are quite lenient with grades as I did not achieve the expected marks but still got in... shhh! So what made Birmingham my number one choice? As soon as I arrived at the open day and got a walk around the campus I knew this was the place for me. Not only is it one of the leading universities in the UK for my course it is a beautiful place to study with its landmark clock tower, luscious all weather pitches and modern redbrick buildings. I felt right at home here and could picture myself studying here for the future. The Campus is located in Selly Oak...

Greenyman 19.02.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Birmingham University

Fantastic food and plenty of it!

Advantages: Great food, plenty of it, good prices, good atmosphere
Disadvantages: We live in llandudno and it is in Birmingham!

...A few weeks ago a good friend of ours asked us to join him and his family to celebrate his birthday at Buffet Island in Birmingham. He sent us a link to a web site where we could find out a bit about the place as he guessed, quite rightly, that we would not have heard of it! The restaurant is situated just off Spaghetti Junction, or to give it its proper name The Gravelly Hill Interchange! I won't try and direct you to it as it is a bit fiddly and my sense of direction is none too good (it's a good job I don't drive then!). Steev, our friend, directed Dave with the aid of a map printed from Google and we found it easily. The address is: Buffet Island 475 Tyburn Rd Erdington, Birmingham, B24 8DX 0121 382 8382 They don't have a web site but there are plenty of web sites with reviews of restaurants which have many reviews...

SusanLesley 16.04.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Buffet Island Chinese Restaurant, Birmingham

My favourite Turkish restaurant on Green Lanes

Advantages: Great food, quick, friendly service, inexpensive
Disadvantages: Can be crowded and noisy on weekend nights

... INTRODUCTION Diyarbakir is a Turkish Restaurant on Green Lanes (A10), in the borough of Haringey, North London, a 7-8 minute walk from Manor House Tube station and practically seconds away from Harringay Green Lanes rail entrance. Undoubtedly, the densest Turkish restaurant population in London, if not, the whole planet, including Istanbul itself. I moved to this area in 2005 and my decision was mainly down to the great value restauration and the Mediterranean (Turkish - Cypriot - Greek - Middles Eastern) groceries having grown up on the stuff. THE RESTAURANT You can spot the trays of lovely, colourful daily stews from the street as they are displayed in the window. As you enter, the long chilled counter is on your left with a huge menu board overhead. The decor is simple, now repainted a warm yellow and red. Unlike...

lillamarta 29.10.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Diyarbakir Turkish Restaurant