The best street food in Birmingham
Digbeth Dining Club started out the back of a Digbeth bar in 2012 and changed how Birmingham eats. Here is where the city's street food lives now: a food hall in the Quarter, two big yards, and the traders who graduated to their own kitchens.
By Only Birmingham Editorial
For street food in Birmingham on any night from Wednesday to Sunday, go to Saint Paul's Market at 4 Mary Ann Street in the Quarter, B3, just off Saint Paul's Square. Eight independent kitchens, a bar and table service by QR code. At the weekend, Digbeth Dining Club runs its big yards in Rednal and Brierley Hill. And the traders who made their names on the circuit now have kitchens of their own, in Digbeth and on Church Street. Here is where to go and what to order.
How Digbeth Dining Club changed things
Birmingham's street food story starts in Digbeth in 2012, when Digbeth Dining Club ran its first night out the back of a bar called Spotlight, the room now known as Mama Roux's on Lower Trinity Street. It ran three days a week, all year, and was named Best Street Food Event in the UK in 2014, for the second year running. From there it went out on the road, with pop-ups across the Midlands, then its own venues. A lot of the city's best casual kitchens came through its yards on the way.
Saint Paul's Market, 4 Mary Ann Street
The best single stop for street food in the city centre is a food hall in the Quarter. Saint Paul's Market has eight traders under one roof, and you order from any of them from your table:
- Corner Shop Pizza: Detroit-style, square and crisp at the edges.
- Colbeh: Persian meats cooked over fire, with dips and naans.
- Soi: Thai barbecue small plates, curries and wok dishes.
- Tiger Bites Pig: bao and barbecue small plates; get the char siu bao.
- Original Patty Men: American-style burgers and loaded fries.
- Indian Cafe Racers: street food from Bombay, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.
- Oak & Roll for cinnamon rolls and LA-POP for gelato popsicles and milkshakes, for afters.
It opens Wednesday and Thursday from noon to 10pm, Friday and Saturday to 11pm, and Sunday to 9pm; kitchens close an hour or so earlier. It is cashless. Walk in and there is no time limit; book and you pay a £5 a head deposit. If you drive, the NCP on Newhall Street is a minute away.
Digbeth Dining Club now: Herberts Yard and the Waterfront
Digbeth Dining Club's weekly street food has moved out to the edges of the city. Herberts Yard at 59 Austin Way in Rednal, B31, by Longbridge, has up to eight traders on rotation every weekend, two bars and a big outdoor beer garden. It opens Thursday from 4pm to 10pm, Friday and Saturday from noon to 11pm and Sunday from noon to 8pm. Dogs are welcome, and under-18s can stay until 10pm. Over in the Black Country, Dockworks Waterfront in Brierley Hill runs Friday to Sunday. The trader list rotates; recent names include South Birmingham Curry Club, Beef on the Block, Only Jerkin, Yardbirds, Patty Freaks and Kebab Cartel. Check who is on before you travel.
Original Patty Men, Shaws Passage, Digbeth
Original Patty Men toured the Midlands street food circuit before settling at 9 Shaws Passage in Digbeth, B5, a home it has now held for ten years. It is American-style burgers, loaded fries and comfort food. It opens Wednesday and Thursday evenings, from noon on Friday to Sunday. Get a drink first at Kilder, its bar two doors along at number 5. There is a second kitchen at The British Oak on the Pershore Road in Stirchley.
Tiger Bites Pig, 30 Church Street
Tiger Bites Pig opened in the city centre in 2018 with bao inspired by Taiwanese street food, hand-rolled and steamed in-house every day. On Church Street, B3, the menu adds rice bowls with a Sichuan lean: red braised pork belly, braised beef shin and mapo tofu. It opens from noon, and the kitchen closes at 9pm.
Street food with a roof: Grand Central and the Balti Triangle
Two more for when you want a booking and a proper chair. Mowgli, on the upper level of Grand Central above New Street, does Indian street food as small plates that arrive when they are ready: fenugreek fries, ghee-brushed roti and a mixed grill for two. The swing seats cannot be booked. Out in the Balti Triangle, Shahi Nan Kebab House on Stratford Road has been a Pakistani street food specialist since 1974; order kebabs off the grill.
Know before you go
Saint Paul's Market is closed on Monday and Tuesday, and Digbeth Dining Club's yards are weekend operations, so plan the back end of the week. Bring a card, not cash. And when a trader you liked at a yard has a kitchen of its own, go and find it: that is how Birmingham's street food grew up.
