 A couple of the regulars 
The Best Thing About Baby Clinic!
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Recommendation added: 04/11/2007 00:00
By: dewberry (YSUK rating +1061)dewberry has been thanked 6 times for this contribution
"As luck would have it, Hollies baby clinic is located just across the road from one of the friendliest pubs in our area. The Kingfisher is a nice place for a quiet drink and has an interesting menu for both daytime and evening meals. Because baby clinic falls slap bang in the middle of lunchtime, me and Mark will often pop in afterwards for a bite to eat.
The pub itself is a large stand-alone building which is separated into a decent sized bar and large lounge. The bar has plenty of seating by way of comfortable benches along the walls and sturdy chairs and stools arranged around the tables. Tables are laid out to give plenty of room in the middle of the bar and this gives a nice feeling of space and that you're sitting in a much larger room than you actually are. It's not posh or pretentious in any way; The Kingfisher is where local people stop to have a drink and where workmen have a crafty pint with their lunch.
That's one of the things I love about The Kingfisher, not having to care that I'm not wearing full make up as basically no-one else is! The large TV's are usually tuned to the racing channel during the day and music channels are shown in the evening. If there aren't many people in in the day then the staff behind the bar will sometimes put the music on, although there is a well stocked jukebox which is available at all times if you fancy something a bit more stimulating than watching a horse race!
Food is kinda hit and miss at The Kingfisher. When I say that, I don't mean that it's sometimes bad as 100% of the food I've eaten here has been excellent, but sometimes food just isn't available for no apparent reason. To be honest this can be a bit of a bummer if I'm starving and looking forward to a nice meal, but it's not a problem really as I'm now aware of the food availability troubles so tend to look on it as a bonus now if I *do* manage to get something to eat!
On the whole I find food in The Kingfisher to be fantastic. They serve good old pub grub at very reasonable prices. I love their Burger Meal which is a large meaty homemade burger in a bun served with a generous portion of thick chips and a tasty mixed salad. All food in The Kingfisher is of the highest quality and beautifully cooked, meals are also attractively presented which for me always makes it seem that little bit more special.
If Mark is working in the area he'll often pop in here for a baguette for his lunch, I've personally never eaten one of these but Mark reckons The Kingfisher serves the best baguettes ever – and as a typical bloke he's very difficult to please so they must be good! The baguettes come from the 'Light Meals' menu and are generally priced around the £3 mark, also available are wraps (the Chinese Chicken one is delicious), cobs and bog standard sandwiches. The menu in The Kingfisher isn't the most extensive I've ever seen, but what they lack in quantity they definitely make up for in quality.
The Fish & Chips and Steak meals are also very good, for around £4 you get very generous portion sizes and can also go for a jacket potato instead of chips in a nod towards healthy eating.
I find the lounge to be an altogether nicer place to eat my meal as it's carpeted (the bar floor is tiled) and seating and tables are arranged to be more conductive to a comfy dining experience. There's lots of floor space in the lounge and large double doors open out onto the pretty beer garden at the back of the pub.
This beer garden has been nicely revamped since the smoking ban came in, with tables and benches attractively arranged under large umbrellas to keep us smokers safe from the elements. There's also a decent sized grassy area where the kids' can safely play while we eat our meals and chill out with a glass of wine or two. There's a wonderful glass slope where the kids' can zoom down on their Heeleys or scooters – providing none of the staff are looking that is as health and safety regulations mean this area of the beer garden is supposed to be out of bounds. Spoilsports.
When the weather is nice, the beer garden is a lovely environment in which to eat your food as The Kingfisher has provided good quality, attractive tubs of well looked after outdoor plants.
The bar in The Kingfisher is well stocked and you have plenty of choice of both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, including a very tasty cup of tea which will be brought to you at your table. All the top brand spirits, lagers and ciders are available and this is one of those pubs where I'm always pleasantly surprised at how cheap each round of drinks at the bar is. They seem to have very good promotions on everyday drinks, not some obscure brand of stout that I've never heard of! Another thing I like about the promotions in The Kingfisher is the fact that they are usually in the form of actual cheaper booze – no messing about with complicated three-for-two drinks promotions where I can never quite work out if I've actually gotten anything any cheaper.
When Mark and I visit on our own we can usually get a pint of lager for Mark and an Archers and pineapple juice for moi for round about £4. This is around a quid cheaper than other pubs we use and the saving really shows at the end of the night – on the days when I'm not picky about the spirits I drink I can often find some promotion or other to get myself a double for the price of a single or a free mixer.
On the (very rare) occasion that I'm driving, I'm more than happy with the selection of soft drinks, J20's and juices available. Again, prices for these non-alcoholic drinks are very reasonable and are nicely served in a tall glass (always scrupulously clean) with the option of ice and a slice.
I'd definitely recommend The Kingfisher as an all round good boozer. The atmosphere is great at any time of day; at lunchtime you'll see an older crowd who are coming in for a quick pint with the dog, but it gets livelier in the evening when the younger drinkers start filing in. The lounge can get packed but it's a really friendly pub so the busyness just enhances the atmosphere for me. Children are allowed in The Kingfisher but you have to sit in the lounge with them as the bar tends to be kept as adults only – saying that, when we pop in after baby clinic we can sit in the bar as Hollie is safely ensconced in her car seat and isn't running around like older children. To be fair to the pub, kids' are better off in the lounge as there's more room for them to play and the beer garden is accessible from this part of the pub.
The staff in The Kingfisher are helpful and polite, they'll spend time chatting with customers if the pub isn't too busy and are more than happy to draw your attention to new promotions and give advice on food options. Whenever we visit with the kids, the staff will always take the time to speak to them – especially when Hollie is with us as everyone loves a baby to munch!
Disabled access to this pub is fine. There are slopes instead of steps and the fact that seating is around the walls means there's plenty of room for visitors using wheelchairs or disabled scooters to get around once inside. Although there isn't a designated disabled toilet, the ladies (and presumably the gents) is definitely large enough to accommodate a wheelchair and the sinks are fairly low so there shouldn't be a problem when using the loo.
It's really hard to explain how to get to The Kingfisher, so I won't bother as I guarantee you won't be able to make head or tail of my directions! I've included the postcode below so the best thing to do is use a website to get directions or (better again) plug the address into the sat nav and off you go. It's in Great Barr but is easily accessible from most of North Brum thanks to the major A-roads which run through this area from all directions.
The Kingfisher
Birdbrook Road
Great Barr
Birmingham
B44 9TS
Tel: 0121 325 2921"
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