All You Can Eat - And More Besides!
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Recommendation added: 28/05/2006 00:51
By: dewberry (YSUK rating +704)dewberry has been thanked 28 times for this contribution
"A few weeks ago I wrote about that fact that I'd possibly found the cheapest carvery in Birmingham, with The Three Crowns in Walsall costing just £2.99 for a huge meal. Now I think I've found the SECOND cheapest carvery in Birmingham!
Located in the Great Barr area of Brum, The Malt Shovel is easily accessible from both Birmingham and the Black Country. When you arrive, you'll see the car park is huge and well laid out with a good amount of disabled spaces near the entrance to the restaurant.
Upon entering The Malt Shovel you wait to be seated depending on the size of your party. Tables range in size from cosy tables for two to large circular tables which seat between six and eight. All tables have plenty of room around them, so there's no having to apologise to the person sitting behind you each time you push your chair back. This space also makes The Malt Shovel ideal for wheelchair users because every table is accessible, this is also great for customers with babies as there's adequate room for a pushchair or pram alongside most tables.
As I mentioned earlier, this is a carvery so if you're expecting something more adventurous than meat and two veg then go elsewhere. But if you're in the market for a filling English roast then come here and get ready for a belly busting meal.
As usual for a carvery, the meats on offer are freshly cooked and carved to your specific requirements on a hot serving counter. Gammon, beef and turkey are the meats which are available and you can have these in any combination you like. I don't eat much red meat so I'll ask for a very thin sliver of beef, but my plate will then automatically be topped up with the gammon and turkey. One thing which makes The Malt Shovel stand out is the amount of meat you get on your plate, I've actually had to tell the chef to stop carving so I'd still have room for my vegetables! This is great, however, because usually carveries will give you one or two slices of each meat and no amount of begging will get you an extra slice added.
The meats are all cooked to perfection; the gammon and beef are tender and well cooked, while the buttery turkey just mounts in your mouth. You can ask for the chef to carve your meat with no fat or skin – alternatively you can stuff the diet and pig out (excuse the pun) on gooey melting gammon fat!
After your meat has been served out, you move along the counter to choose your veg. As with the meats, the vegetables are all beautifully cooked and retain all their natural flavours. Typical examples of the vegetables on offer are green beans, peas, carrots, cauliflower cheese and boiled and roast spuds. The boiled potatoes are absolutely delicious; new potatoes cooked in their skins with a herby butter drizzled over them. The roasters are equally good, crunchy on the outside yet wonderfully fluffy once soaked in gravy. You can, of course, have as much or as little veg as possible but even the faddiest eater won't find any excuse to leave any of it on the side of the plate.
Moving along, I hope you've left room on your plate for Yorkshire puddings and stuffing balls. Usually in a carvery the chef will limit you to one of each, but at The Malt Shovel you can help yourself to as many as you like. My daughter's love the fact that they can literally fill their plates with Yorkshire puddings – being their favourite food in the world, this definitely makes The Malt Shovel stand head and shoulders above any other carvery we've visited! On this counter is also a choice of gravies and sauces; the peppered gravy is delicious, although a bit too hot sometimes, I usually stick with the rich (unpeppered) meaty gravy. A good selection of condiments are available including cranberry, mint and horseradish sauce.
Service in The Malt Shovel is nothing short of superb. I always get the feeling that the staff are bending over backwards to make my visit as comfortable as possible. All staff I've met have been polite and helpful; little touches like popping back during my meal to see if I wanted another drink or the waitress who arranged for my children to share a meal but on separate plates. It all makes dining out as a family much less stressful when you feel the kids are being taken care of too.
The restaurant area of The Malt Shovel is totally non smoking, so if you want a fag you'll need to go into the adjacent bar. This is a spacious room, with very little actual seating which again makes it easy for disabled visitors to manoeuvre around the bar. It is possible to take your meal through and eat it at the bar, but I'd rather eat my food in the cosy ambience of the restaurant than in a smoky bar. The Malt Shovel serves a wide variety of lagers, spirits and wines including Carling Cold, Budweiser, Kronenberg and all the big name spirit brands. Drinks are of an average price, costing around £3.50 for a pint and a half of lager and the wines being priced at roughly £9 for a bottle of wine.
You can also buy your drinks at the small bar inside the restaurant room, but this gets very busy so it's sometimes quicker to walk through to the bar and back again with your drink. Personally, I prefer the fruit juices in The Malt Shovel. They do some fantastic concoctions, including a gorgeous summery Mango & Orange mix which is poured over crushed ice. Even my healthy drink loathing partner loved this – quite a shocker as the only thing he usually considers drinking in a pub is beer!
The best thing about the Malt Shovel is the price. A carvery meal costs a bargain £3.95 and this is literally an all you can eat meal, hugely filling and absolutely delicious. We usually eat at The Malt Shovel at lunchtime without the kids, and we can honestly spend as little as £12 between two of us on meals and a drink. Even when we take the kids, the bill is very rarely more than £20 – which is cheap at half the price in Birmingham these days! Prices are marginally more expensive after 6pm and on Sundays, but even then a meal only costs £4.95 and this is still most definitely a bargain.
The Malt Shovel is primarily somewhere to eat a good meal rather than a place to go on a booze up, and this is reflected in the customers inside. It's good for all ages, although is particularly popular with families and older couples. It has a very quiet atmosphere and a nice calming décor is conductive to a very relaxing meal. Desserts are also available, if you've got room, and are based around favourites such as ice cream and apple pie.
To find The Malt Shovel by car, you need to travel through to North Birmingham from the City Centre and get onto the A4041 Queslett Road heading towards Great Barr. This will lead you directly past a huge Asda, where the road will lead onto Newton Road, carry on down this road for a couple of miles and look out on the right for the pub sign. Alternatively you can catch the 451 West Midlands bus which will drop you directly outside, the returning bus stop being located opposite. But believe me, after stuffing yourself with all that fabulous food you really won't feel like busing it home…
The Malt Shovel
1 Newton Road
Great Barr
Birmingham
B43 6HN
Tel – 0121 357 1148"
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