1847 Birmingham

1847 is a really delightful independent restaurant in the Great Western Arcade, which serves exclusively vegetarian food. The restaurant itself is a little cramped, and the seating makes it feel more like a café than fine-​dining, but once you’ve got over this point, the food is definitely worth it.
One of my favourite things about this place is the presentation. It is always absolutely perfect and really stylish. The flavour combinations are always very creative, and out of a three course dinner for two, there was only really one dish where we weren’t sure it entirely worked (earl grey tea and beetroot in a dessert!). I can highly recommend the battered haloumi and chips — it is absolutely incredible and the crushed peas gave it that classic ‘fish and chips’ feel.
The service was fantastic throughout the evening. The owner Damien is keen to invest in young people and the two young girls on the night really were fantastic — very friendly but not too intrusive. They also didn’t laugh at my attempts to pronounce certain things on the menu, which I always appreciate!
1847 has an awful lot of potential, and though you couldn’t help but feel it could really do with a bigger space, the quality of the food made sure that’s not what you came away thinking about! It is also very reasonably priced for fine-​dining, and the menu is constantly updated to reflect seasonal ingredients, so be sure to make more than one visit throughout the year!

We went here with my boyfriends mum&dad as she’s a vegetarian and had never been.
We’re all meat lovers so weren’t sure what to expect even though we’d heard good reviews. There was four of us and we were seated down for lunch and poured cucumber water which was a first, even though it was really nice.
I had the halloumi fish and chips, it was really really good but was meant to be served with pea purée which I never got and only a few chips. Everyone enjoyed their food as we all weren’t sure what to expect beforehand, we all had starters, main &dessert. What I remember the most though is one of the drinks I had it was an apple pie cocktail. As soon as we got home that night we were straight into concocting our own version. It was delicious! It tasted just like apple pie. I remember some of the beers being priced quite expensively I think a small Duvel Belgian beer was £7/​8, when normally they are a quarter of that, but apart from that the food was brilliant and the woman who served is was lovely.

I find eating out with vegetarians is sometimes a daunting task, however I heard that there was a Veggie restaurant open in the Great Western Arcade. A very cute little restaurant, and on Mondays they have 50% off if you quote Meat free Monday when you book. The food was presented well and I enjoyed the halloumi and chips, though three deep fried battered halloumis was a bit too rich for my liking. My pudding of Crème Brulee was OK, I’ve had better. Overall, anice meal and the price was reasonable, my vegetarian friend was amazed by the amount of choice on the menu.

Lovely presented well cooked food.
Flavoured and seasonal.
The coconutty winter veggies each piece perfectly ‘al dente’.
Loved my starter of crispy egg and bulgar wheat.

So thrilled I finally had the opportunity to check out 1847. Went with my husband for dinner. Neither of us are vegetarian but we still agreed this is one of the best meals we’ve had in Birmingham in a while.
Prices are really reasonable for the quality of produce and presentation. For a starter I had the mushroom pâté and as my main the seasonal vegetables with coconut. My husband ordered the ‘Fish’ and Chips, which were fried halloumi balls and they were SO good I kept stealing them off his plate!
Attentive but not overbearing service. The atmosphere of the place is simplistic and I think that’s a good thing. Cosy but manages not to feel too cramped, even when full.
The menu is seasonal so I’m excited to go back and see what they have planned for the spring!

Oo-​ee this is indeed a very classy vegetarian restaurant.
The décor is modern, simple and stylish — shades of white and grey, nice white table linen, with a few tables downstairs, and more upstairs on the mezzanine level. There’s a large window looking on to the arcade, which is great for watching people come and go.
The food was fantastic. It’s a fixed price menu, at £19 for two courses, and £25 for three. There’s also a pricier tasting menu — the couple sitting next to me had chosen that option, and were really enjoying it.
To start, I had the puy lentils, with roasted carrot, spring onions and garlic tofu. The tofu was done as a silky sauce — I’d never had tofu prepared in that way, and I thought it was really delicious. For main course, I chose the bell pepper ragu, with polenta. Again this was superb, with the polenta served as crisp little triangles on top.
Both my courses were gluten free, as well as vegan, and their menu is very clear to understand. It feels like the sort of place you can completely trust to get things right.
Service was quick and friendly, and there was a nice atmosphere, with other diners just quietly enjoying their meals just as much as I was.
I’ll definitely be back here next time in Birmingham, and I’ll look out for their restaurants in other cities too.

Now don’t be confused by this check in I am 100% not changing to vegetarianism! I can however appreciate a well-​cooked plate of food, and 1847 is serving up some outstanding dishes.
The food we had tonight was packed full of freshness and looked fantastic on the plates. The highlight has the be the falafel starter, I am a big fan of falafel and this has to be one of the best I have ever experienced.
I have to say I did not miss the meat from my dishes tonight. I would say to any meat eaters thinking about trying this place to give it a go. A peaceful and pleasant dining experience, that encourages you to try something new can never be a bad thing.
My only negative is portion sizes, don’t arrive after not eating all day or you may be stopping off at a takeaway on the way home!

First things first, I am not a vegetarian but this is my second visit to Bistro 1847 and as lovely as it was last visit it is even better now. The menu has changed for summer and the food really is a delight.
The 3 pre starters were pea purée in a pastry case, mushroom and chargrilled cucumber, beetroot soup. The beetroot soup was lovely, perfectly seasoned with a pepperyness cutting through the earthiness of the beet.
Starter was poached egg and asparagus, I hate over cooked eggs and this egg was perfection. I certainly didn’t envy the chef trying to plate up 40 or so perfectly poached eggs but he managed and he still looked calm as a chargrilled cucumber when explaining the meal. Main was ratatouille with red pepper jus, burnt aubergine purée and polenta hash brown. A colourful and tasty plate that was bursting with sunny flavours. Pre dessert of poppy seed and banana, peach and rhubarb. Another little taste explosion, followed by dessert proper of apricot and thyme jam with tofu almond cream. The food this time was bright, vibrant, sunny and moorish, the cool interior still suits the menu, service is enthusiastic as well as friendly and the chefs and owners passion for great food is obvious.
This is only a small venue so id recommend booking but I really do recommend that you try the food here. You don’t have to be a vegetarian to appreciate great meat free food, locally sourced as much as possible, served with a genuine smile in lovely contemporary surroundings.

Posh vegetarian food in a small but interesting space in an arcade. I enjoyed the small plates of food and managed the cheese plate as a dessert. Just enough and all interesting flavours.

I was invited down to the Kickstarter launch at Bistro 1847 and I didn’t know what to expect. From start to finish the night was brilliant. I turned up early but was warmly welcomed by Damien, the owner, and asked to take a seat wherever I wanted. I chose upstairs so I could get a full view of the restaurant. Very quickly a nice glass of wine appeared in front of me and to be honest, I was happy with just that!
One the rest of the crowd had turned up, we started on the food. The pre-​starter was a collection of three canapes. There was pea purée, jam and grapefruit in a pastry case, pickled mushroom and cucumber and beetroot soup with coconut and chocolate. Each one was amazing and I was pleasantly surprised by the soup, I have never had it before but I definitely will now! The starter was a poached egg (cooked to a perfect 63 degrees), char grilled asparagus and salted baby turnip. Beautiful! The egg was perfection and if possible, I’m going to try and recreate it at home but I think I’ll just leave it to the professionals.
The main course was Ratatouille. I’ve never seen it presented so well before! Each mouthful was amazing, from the pepper jus to the hash brown to the tomato to the aubergine purée, each taste was new and exquisite. If you think there was going to be just a desert, you’d be wrong, after all this amazing food we were then treated to a pre-​desert AND a desert! The pre-​desert consisted of a poppy seat base with banana custard with peach rhubarb and micro coriander. I loved the crunch of the poppy seed and the sweet bitter taste of the rhubarb. The main desert was an apricot and thyme jam with almond crème and strawberries. Again, it was amazing.
Each portion was beautifully put together and well thought-​out. The service was excellent. We were talked through each course and our glasses topped up throughout. But whatever I write, it won’t do it justice, you’ll just have to go and check it out for yourself!

Very good vegetarian restaurant that manages to tempt my meat eating friends here as much as my vegetarian ones. It’s quite simplistic, and stripped back inside. There is seating upstairs too.
The menu offering now includes a tasting menu, in addition to their a la carte. I find that the food here is well thought out. It’s never any trouble to vary dishes for dietary requirements too. So vegan, dairy free, gluten free etc can be catered for.
I’ve never left feeling hungry, or that the meal was missing anything. We always enjoy our meals here, and the presentation of each dish is lovely. Very Instagram worthy sometimes.
Such a shame that their drinks menu is quite limited. Otherwise it would have been top marks.

My favourite restaurant in Birmingham. It challenges the stereotypical view of vegetarian food and creates such gems! The beer battered halloumi is my personal favourite, I have it every time I visit. The food is always beautifully presented and incredibly yummy.

Veggie restaurant Bistro 1847 is just about to reach its first birthday, and when we heard the menu was changing we thought it was definitely time to go back and review again.
Most people when thinking of veggie food conjure images of stuffed peppers and mushrooms or meat replacement products like tofu. You’ll not find any of that here. The food is original and vibrant, and very very tasty. It’s also considerably achieved in terms of technique.
From his small kitchen Chef Alex Claridge (a dead ringer in face and public persona to Jack Whitehall) summons molecular cookery and classic techniques to bring you dishes such as garden pea mousse, with black sesame crisps, broad bean, and Yorkshire fettle; or pickled candy beet, spiced honey & smoked yoghurt, salt baked beetroot, rosehip, and beet falafel; and desserts such as the Allotment aero (the best bubbly minty creamy chocolate you’ll ever have). Alex’s excitement about the food is absolutely visible in every dish.
The new menu is a departure from the strictly à la carte offering they used to have. Now it is split between smaller plates, sort of like veggie tapas for sharing, larger versions of the smaller plates if you want a good feed and don’t do sharing (à la «Joey DOESN’T share» from friends), and also a set taster menu. The small plates average around £6.50, with the larger versions around £13. There are two taster menus, £27 for 6 courses Monday to Thursday and Friday and Saturday lunches, or for that special Friday or Saturday night dinner £40 for 8 courses. They call these «first date» menus — I think anyone would be dead chuffed to be taken on a date here.
Bistro 1847 is one of my favourite restaurants in Birmingham. It may seem fairly casual, but the plates of food are more like something you’ll find in the considerably more expensive fine dining establishments. Great value, great food.

I was very lucky enough to be invited to try out the new menu at this great little vegetarian restaurant in The Great Western Arcade.
The venue is clean and bright, though simply decorated. We sat upstairs, which I have found to be quite a nice space as long as there is a group of you.
One of the pre-​starters was Beetroot soup, which I’d never had before-​it was delicious! Our main course was ratatouille, which was so colourful, I couldn’t wait to tuck in! Something else I’d never had before– a pre-​dessert, consisting of poppy seed, banana custard, peach rhubarb and micro coriander — I wanted more!
Alongside this we had accompanying red and white wines. I didn’t especially like the white, a bit sharp for me, but the reds were quite fruity and went well with our menu.
I can’t wait to go back again — the guys that run it are so lovely!

Having walked past here a number of times and seeing what looked to be an intereating menu we decided to make a booking for a Monday afternoon late lunch, we would have preferred an evening slot but on Mondays they only offer the lunchtime dining until 5.
Presented with the lunch menu (a couple of light bites and then the reduced a la carte menu) we opted for the 3 courses with a glass of house for £18pp and it was worth it. We had ordered the cheddar crème brûlée with onion chutney and toast soldiers & tempura vegetables for starters, followed by the halloumi fish and chips and panko fried soft boiled egg with new potatoes and whiskey cream for mains and topped it all off with a ginger nut meringue with fresh raspberries and caramelised banana & a rum cake brownie.
The experimental nature of the food gave a taste sensation that we weren’t quite expecting, but in a good way, you could tell that parts of the menu had been adapted by Alex (head food honcho) following his departure from running the previous incarnation of the warehouse café, it was also a nice surprise to bump into him when we booked the table.
The service was fantastic and choosing not to dine between 12 and 2 gave us pick of the seats, the only 2 things we could comment on were the limited lunch menu (3 items per course instead of the usual 5 or 6) but that was due to us booking when we did and the fact that they had been having plumbing problems (which are hopefully now sorted) which meant we had to use the arcades facilities, though they were more than happy to allow this and give access to us.
Fantastic all round, great service with a smile and definitely looking to go back to have a go at the larger evening menu!

Really interesting recipes and all vege or vegan is a kind of novelty for myself. But in all the meal here was satisfying and service was great. I had the mushrooms for a starter, great tasting but a tad heavy on the batter. The spiced pumpkin wrap for a main was nice. The place could do with a few pieces of art on the walls and such.
All in all though I’d highly recommend the place if you’re in for vege fodder :)

A chic, minimalist vegetarian and vegan restaurant, Bistro 1847 is a great restaurant for Brum. In the fabulous Great Western Arcade, 1847 has a slightly minimalist French grey chic look, with cool condiment containers (it’s like being in a little lab).
Food has been created with a lot of care and attention– if you’re a meat die-​hard then it isn’t for you, but as a meat water I didn’t miss it at all. Some of the food has been locally foraged, too, which is a great feature of the menu.
Service is friendly and attentive– they serve tea by the cup, but our waitress made sure to bring up extra hot water as she said she herself always likes to have more than that. I was particularly impressed that they were able to do a both gluten free and vegan version of the ‘fish and chips’ (battered halloumi or tofu), although you might have to ask for that in advance.
You can get a two course or three course set menu, which aren’t that cheap, but not too bad. The two course would be perfect for lunch, but at a normal level of hungry I think I’d have to go for the three course as the portions aren’t that big.
This time I had the parsnip curry to start and the blue cheese and pearl barley as a main, both lovely and quite simple– the flavours tend to be subtle rather than rich and in your face.
Anyway, it’s very cool, service is great and I’ll be back soon I’m sure!

A very impressive event organised by non other than Victoria O. Being a predominant carnivore i had high expectations for this fine dining vegetarian restaurant and the food, service and surroundings did not fail to deliver. Bistro 1847 is a small yet sophisticated restaurant with excellent service, elegant and pleasant surroundings and delicious vegetarian food you can write home about. I had the beer battered halloumi with triple cooked chips, pea mayo and lemon curd. The portion size and presentation was spot on. My dessert of sticky toffee pudding with smoked ice cream and chestnut praline was heavenly. The food was very delicious and it was a pleasure to dine with Unilocal elites. Wine was provided with our meal. Located in Great Western Arcade, opposite Snow Hill Station. Great venue. Great event. I’m ready to go again.

Hmmm, Ok!
So how to assess a delicious meal that cost me just £20, including three courses, a glass of red and a very nice tip, but which would have normally cost me around £35?
And so it’s January and times are tough for folks running small indi places. The punters have splashed the credit cards on more junk at Christmas, so the wallets and purses are firmly clamped shut; the wannabee keep fit types are sat at home with the Ryvitas while watching their new Benny Hill does Pilates DVD! What’s a poor Bistro to do?
Well one solution (maybe?) is to stay with the regular, well reviewed quality, but cut prices 50% to attract us all out of hibernation. It worked with me at least. Until the end January you can bag 50% off your food bill here making Bistro 1847 about the biggest bang for your buck in Brum!
Had I gone in without the 50% off I’m not sure I’d offer a full 5*****. I loved the food, the service was attentive, the environment nice enough, and the presentation throughout was absolutely solid. But drilling down beneath the overall look and feel of my individual plates I’m not entirely sold on the bang for pound ratio.
We have the now entirely necessary ‘smears’ of stuff on the plates, the careful placement of grub objects and the spartan amounts. Everything hangs together nicely but there is a vague ‘facsimile’ about things. It’s what one might expect in a high end place like this and there’s no surprise here. And herein lies the quandary. For £35 I’d have wanted a tad more … something?! Be it inspiration, flair, flavour, complexity, presentation. I dunno. I missed something. It’s my bad I can’t put my finger on it. It could even have been vibe … when I was there it was empty most of the time, so just chef and waiting person being very polite.
But let’s not get carried away. This is really good for £20. I mean really good! The desert, something all white choc and crème fraîche, was perhaps one of the best desserts I’d ever eaten. It worked beautifully, all the components meshed perfectly. Nothing jarred or tasted out of place. High five (stars!) on that one. The crumbed mushroom starter was nice enough; overall happy with the choice. The main of battered halloumi with three times fried chip railway sleepers pretty damn nice, but I could have done with a bit of extra ‘smear’ — it ended up just a bit on the dry side when I ran out. I could have done with a bit of tart vinegar too #pleb
The only mild irritants were the ‘cool’ salt and pepper pots, neither of which worked that easily, and the very average Spanish red … such a small glass for £4.10! The glass of water with cucumber was a nice to have.
Would I go again? Yeah, I would for sure, but I’d be careful about what I order to ensure best value and, some of the plates of food are pretty small, to fill my tummy enough that I don’t immediately need to pop into the newsagents for a snack after.
Highly recommended!

How can I put it? I DO love everything about Great Western arcade. Yes, if I could I would shop every day there. Well, not every day but there is something about this place that makes me passing by there now and then.
And Bistro 1847 was one of theses places that I wanted to visit at Great Western, for ageeeees. I managed to have a quite bite some weeks ago, but i definitely will visit again for the full meal experience.
Yes, a modern Vegetarian bistro. Well said. A beautiful one, I should say. The menu is tempting. From the starter to the dessert. And for a quick bite looking by the window people coming and going in the arcade, it‘s a very cool way of spending a nice afternoon.
My gorgeous aubergine panini was really nice and yes, I never ate an aubergine in a bread before so I was more curious about it than anything. It worked and the presentation is really spot on.
From the vegetarian restaurants in Birmingham, it’s a very trendy one. With a very clean (not simple) décor. How not being tempted to try a meal that is name like this: «Oh I do like to be beside the seaside». Creativity is synonymous of good food as well!
And I have to say that I LOVE the bar display. I can’t take my eyes off it and It’s definitely an invitation to have some drinks there.
Bistro 1847 is a small restaurant and I noticed that it’s a good idea booking tables before passing by. The service is really friendly and welcoming.
I definitely will visit soon and treat my husband with a nice vegetarian meal. And I have to say that am very, VERY MUCH intrigued by the Gary Lineker‘s style Tempura. So it‘s more than obligated to visit Bistro 1847 again!