I’m sure I don’t have to tell anyone that lately its been hotter than satan’s under-boob and trust me, I've moaned. You might think you would find me in a beer garden somewhere but I'm actually more the scurrying around in the shadows seeking out decent air-con and ice cold drinks type. Well... I managed to find both of which at dirty martini.
Thanks to the ‘eat out to help out scheme’ Wednesday is the new Saturday, however, upsetting as it is, it obviously doesn’t work on cocktails. I know what you're thinking, how can life be this unfair, but there is a bit of a silver lining… the life hack we all need and definitely deserve… some places are halving the price of the food proportion of your bottomless brunch, so if like me, your mainly there for the drinks anyway, your midweek martinis are cheaper. Brunch at dirty martini will cost you £30 at the weekend but using the discount from the scheme its only £22.50. A big thank you to Bozza and the boys. They have also introduced brunch sessions on Mondays and Tuesdays so praise the lord, every day is now a potential brunch day and even more chance to get a bargain.
Since venues have started to re-open I’ve really tried to support the industry as much as I can and I will definitely say I haven’t been anywhere that takes covid 19 safety as seriously as dirty martini do. There are hand sanitising stations absolutely everywhere and so much space inside for social distancing. We were greeted at the door and shown to our table and it was table service from then on so people moving around was kept to a minimum.
I can’t stress enough how much I LOVE BRUNCH. Even saying I’m going for brunch makes me feel like a fancy grown up or like I'm about to read about myself on 'gossip girl'. This whole 2020 mess had meant I hadn’t been able to go for ages and weekends in Birmingham city centre at the moment are pretty much an online scrum for table bookings so most Saturdays and Sundays have been fully booked. My favourite brunch partner had a Wednesday off work so we decided “treat yo’self” and start making up for some of the brunch’s that got away.
First thing I have to say about dirty martini is how stunning the venue is.
The décor is amazing, all really well thought-out, on brand and would make any ‘most instagrammable’ list. It’s definitely one of the nicest bars in Birmingham and considering it was a million degrees outside it was really cool and comfortable. The brunch itself is sharing plates served in a cute birdcage that’s just asking to be on insta. You get a decent amount of food including beef and cheese sliders, chicken hirata buns, spring rolls, chorizo and fries and the food was really nice. Everything is small finger food, great for picking at while you have a catch up.
Now for the all important alcohol… A lot of bottomless brunch places don’t have a massive choice of drinks, most are pretty much just prosecco but dirty martini have got quite a good selection of drinks it includes. You can have prosecco, pink gin, blood orange gin and a choice of three of their martinis. I love a cocktail so that’s a big bonus for me. The drinks are as strong as they normally make them and if you have the gin they give you a double. They don’t mess about when it comes to your drinks, when they say bottomless they mean bottomless. The staff are constantly whizzing around making sure your glass is not empty. Now cocktails in Birmingham city centre don’t come cheap, you get an hour and a half of unlimited drinks which makes it really good value for money, especially if you drink like a fish. I had a couple of gins and then mainly stuck to the passionfruit martini because it was so nice and by the end of the hour and a half I was more than a bit tipsy.
As bottomless brunch venues go, I’m going to hereby proclaim dirty martini the king. The food, drinks quality, drink selection and service were all excellent. Its definitely the best bottomless brunch I’ve been to and I can’t wait to go back.
