Which of Birmingham’s Michelin tables is worth your money?

Two courses of Aktar Islam’s cooking at Opheem cost £75 at a Friday or Saturday lunch. The ten-course tasting menu at dinner costs £195. That gap, between the price of the big night and the price of getting in the door, runs through every starred and Bib Gourmand table in Birmingham, and it decides which one you should book. Opheem is the city’s only two-star restaurant; three more rooms hold a star or a Bib, and two of those Bibs sit out in the suburbs.

How we chose: every Birmingham restaurant with a Michelin star or Bib Gourmand in the 2026 guide, priced from each restaurant’s own menu.

Two stars

Opheem

Book the Friday or Saturday lunch, which includes snacks and the bread course, and you get the kitchen that the National Restaurant Awards placed in the national top 20 this year for £75 or £95. The full ten courses at dinner are £195, with a matching wine flight at the same again; a five-course menu at £145 runs every night except Friday and Saturday. The dishes keep their Indian names on the menu: Kekda is the soft-shell crab, Laal Maas the Herdwick lamb. One practical warning sits on the menu page itself. The kitchen cannot cook for anyone allergic to tomato, onion, garlic, dairy or ginger, because those make up the base of its sauces. This is the birthday table.

Summer Row, city centre · lunch from £75 · Wed–Sat only · book

One star

Adam’s

Adam and Natasha Stokes started Adam’s in 2013 as a pop-up in a former sandwich shop, and it now fills a room on Waterloo Street that inspectors describe as art deco crossed with retro, with a cocktail bar. The cheapest way in this season is the festive tasting menu, £90 a head through November and December for tables of up to six. Before that, on 22 October, a five-course wine dinner with the South African estate Rickety Bridge costs £150 all in. It suits a work dinner that has to go smoothly.

Waterloo Street, city centre · festive tasting £90 (Nov–Dec) · Tue–Sat · book

The Wilderness

Alex Claridge has run The Wilderness on Warstone Lane since 2015, and the February 2026 guide finally gave it a star. There is one tasting menu, served to rock, punk and heavy metal, and it costs £145 in October; the price moves between £145 and £175 and is reset on the first of each month. Claridge went back into the kitchen full time in May 2025, he told Restaurant magazine. The kitchen will do vegetarian, pescatarian and gluten-free menus with 48 hours’ notice, but not vegan, dairy-free or egg-free ones. Bring the friend who would rather hear guitars than a string quartet.

Warstone Lane, Jewellery Quarter · tasting menu £145 (Oct) · book on Tock

The other Birmingham star in the 2026 edition belonged to Simpsons in Edgbaston, which closed in May after 32 years, starred since 1999.

Bib Gourmand

Tropea

Harborne’s Calabrian-led restaurant has held a Bib in both 2025 and 2026, and its pasta comes in half and full portions, which is how a tight budget eats here. The autumn menu has spaghetti carbonara at £12 or £23 and pappardelle with guinea fowl ragù at £14 or £27. Two half plates and a fried courgette flower (£5.80 each) come to £31.80 before drinks. It opened on Lordswood Road in 2021.

Lordswood Road, Harborne · half pasta from £12 · dinner Tue–Sat, lunch Fri–Sat · book on SevenRooms

Riverine Rabbit

Getting a seat is the hard part: Ash and Erin Valenzuela-Heeger release tables three months ahead at 5pm on the first of each month, and the restaurant says it is booked solid until December. There are twelve counter seats on Pershore Road, so Ash cooks for twelve people a night, and a menu that changes almost daily. The restaurant began in Cape Town, came back to life through a year of UK pop-ups, and won its Bib in 2025, the same year Ash was named the guide’s Young Chef of the Year. Inspectors point to flavours running from South Africa to tom yum and furikake. There are two menu lengths; the shorter one is the better value. Children and dogs are both welcome, and there is a small menu for children.

Pershore Road, Stirchley · menu prices not published · Wed–Fri dinner · book online only

The one to book first

For a first visit, take the Friday lunch at Opheem. At £75 it costs less than The Wilderness’s cheapest dinner and puts you in front of the city’s only two-star kitchen. Set a reminder for 5pm on the first of the month and try for Riverine Rabbit next.

Checked October 2026.