11 Afternoon tea Restaurants near Birmingham

With its Bullring (the country’s most-visited shopping centre), three Michelin-starred restaurants, numerous football clubs and balti restaurants galore, Birmingham has all that you might expect from the UK’s second-biggest city. Once known as ‘the concrete jungle’, its look has certainly been changed for the better, with the arrival of stylish contemporary landmarks such as the Selfridges building – part of the Big City Plan to regenerate the centre – and more on the horizon. The Mailbox is a converted sorting office that’s home to Harvey Nichols and upmarket bars and eateries such as Bar Epernay and The Oriental Bar and Restaurant. Broad Street is the go-to place for bars and clubs, with more in Brindleyplace. For curry houses, head to the famed ‘balti triangle’ of three areas of the city: Sparkhill, Balsall Heath and Moseley. For top-end restaurants in Birmingham, try Purnell’s in Cornwall Street, Simpsons in Edgbaston or Turners in Harborne.