Five Rivers

Places like this give me hope for my hometown, and I spent much of the meal in disbelief that we were still in Walsall! The cavernous stone interior and white tablecloths wouldn’t have been out of place in a much more prestigious location.
We were a large group and seated on the mezzanine, which judging from the even larger group up there is reserved for the bigger (/​rowdier?!) parties. With 16 of us they suggested the group set menu would be easiest, and given I’m a fan of variety and the selection of dishes sounded pretty good, I agreed.
The food is where they nail it, which is perhaps most important. I’ve tried their catering at events and parties before, so their reputation preceeded them. It all tastes of good quality ingredients, nicely flavoured, and with a good selection of accompaniments. Veg Manchurian is the starter not to be missed, whilst the award-​winning saag lives up to the hype (ask them to tell you the story behind it).
The service is polite and well-​mannered, and were happy to bring out a birthday cake for us (albeit on a massive silver plinth from the kitchen that was bigger than the cake!). However I did feel like they were pushing the upselling a fair bit — as bday girl everyone let me take charge of the wine, which the waiters seemed extremely quick to pour out and kept asking if I wanted the next 2 bottles at a time. They also suggested extras throughout the meal, such as coming to ask me if I wanted welcome cocktails for everyone at the start, or later a bottle of (v pricey) champers for the table when my cake arrived. If you manage to keep politely declining these as I did, then you should end up with a very reasonably priced meal — the group menu in particular was very good value and we didn’t even manage to finish everything.
They’re certainly going for an upmarket, classy feel here, which I should mention was slightly blighted by the group of ten guys at the table opposite doing a waterfall of jaegerbombs towards the end of the meal. I *think* my mum was joking when she suggested we do the same…
Keep the standards up guys, and ease off the hard-​sell a little — your food speaks for itself! I’ll defo be back :)

Great food and very nice surrounding, you will forget you are in Walsall!
These guys have won numerous awards and are experts in Indian catering, also lots if cocktails on offer to compliment your food.
This was supposed to be a place we went for a treat but instead has became a regular eating place for us!

This is the best Indian restaurant I’ve ever been to in Walsall edging out Shimla peppers. Agree with the Qype review that parking isn’t great which is problematic as the surrounding area is quiet at night.
Set back from the road the restaurant is really sophisticated, exposed brick, low lighting and white table cloths, probably not what you expect from a curry house in WS1.
The menu is small but filled with delicious sounding meat curries (chicken, lamb, seafood) and a proportionally large selection of vegetarian dishes. All three of the main courses and side dishes (paratha, Bombay aloo) were really tasty and came in generous portions. Felt like value for money despite being at a higher price point than the average balti place.
The only slight negative was that the waiting staff don’t receive the obligatory service charge and they are pretty full on with the up selling (would you like some water means mineral water).
Overall a great meal in a really nice surrounding. Really positive for a restaurant in Walsall.

Tempted by a favourable review in the press, I thought I would like to try the new and upmarket Five Rivers restaurant. My birthday provided the ideal excuse to blow the anticipated extra pounds than normal. Unfortunately the 22^nd April fell on a Sunday, I would have preferred a Saturday but at least it meant I could use the 10% discount voucher from the Best of Walsall website.
Although a Sunday we decided to book and I must say I was impressed by their telephone manner. We arrived 7.15 Sunday night, parking isn’t great but as you approach the outside does have a wow factor. Inside it has very smart décor, elegant seating and table settings complete with stained glass windows. Strangely for a large seating area the arrangement felt cramped to me.
Our table was near the corridor to the kitchen and we were also unfortunate to be sitting close to the table of a young family and the cry of mom every two minutes did spoil the atmosphere. I would have asked to be moved if there was another table available but it was quite busy due to some large parties of Asian families who appeared to be enquiring about holding a celebration or something similar there. The reason why I noticed this was because the smart lady with a clip board who took our order came from one of these tables and then returned after which seemed strange at the time.
You are offered an array of food and drinks menus but me I would have preferred just the one. I feel the menu contains a limited choice and although the usual suspects are available there wasn’t anything I would class as special.
The quality and taste of the food is always in the eye of the beholder and whilst I enjoyed mine we did have some niggles. The silly miniature dip pots that accompany the poppadoms; the sheek kebab was one of the hottest I have ever had (and I’ve had a few); my wife’s dish had a very peppery after taste and the children didn’t like their korma. The sundries were very good albeit there are no chips, snobbery? The meals may well be as intended but I think the dish characteristics should be described in more detail in the menu.
Service was pleasant but it seemed to me to be slightly lacking in warmth and professionalism. The drinks were pushed and our table was slow to be cleared. Finally we had to wait 10 minutes for our bill as the smart lady appeared to be the only one who knew how to apply the discount voucher.
We thought the prices although expectedly more than average were appropriate for the meal and surroundings.
Our experience was perhaps unfortunate and on another day with a different choice off the menu I am sure it would have been more enjoyable however I feel there is a bit more work to do before it could be regarded as fine dining or 5 Star.