The 15 Best International Restaurants In Birmingham

Here are three very different takes on Japanese cooking that sit within a short walk of each other in Bullring:

Wagamama

Location: Lower level, Bullring, St Martin's Square, B5 4QL.

The canteen layout at Wagamama in Bullring means food lands fast, hot, and roughly in the order it's ready.

Perhaps this is why this place fills up as quickly as it empties.

The menu tracks through the greatest hits: from katsu curry and teppanyaki to deep bowls of ramen served straight to the long benches, cooked and plated in the time it takes to settle in.

Dietary picks are woven in rather than tacked on, which means vegan, gluten-free, and lighter-calorie diners don't end up stuck with a sad side dish.

Solo lunches and mid-shop family refuels get treated with the same ease.

Location: Dining Terrace, Grand Central, New Street, B2 4XJ.

This one's for the ramen purists who also think that ramen is always a good idea.

The homemade noodles at Tonkotsu get exactly 32 seconds in the pot before they hit the bowl, which is what pulls them to the right texture without tipping into overcooked.

The signature tonkotsu bowl does the heavy lifting: a long-reduced pork and lardo broth, with roast pork belly, a soy-soaked egg, bamboo shoots, and a drizzle of burnt garlic oil pulling it together.

If ramen isn't your thing, a chilli chicken version, a vegan miso mushroom option, gyozas, and a handful of chilled noodle plates keep the menu broader than the name suggests.

YO!

Location: Grand Central, B2 4BQ.

YO! leans into the theatrical side of sushi by sending plates round the room on a rotating belt, and half the fun is grabbing something before it passes.

The menu reaches well beyond raw fish, too, with ramen, katsu curry, and a handful of fusion plates that skew more modern than traditional.

For groups who can never agree on a single order, the format solves the problem a small plate at a time.

Highchairs and a proper kids' menu make it one of the easier stops for a family refuel mid-shop.

Not all Thai restaurants wear their style the same way.

Bullring has two that prove the point: one leans grand and formal, the other goes street-food-meets-cocktail-bar.

Chaophraya

Location: Lower & Middle level, Bullring, St Martin's Square, B5 4BW.

Chaophraya sits right across from St Martin's Church, and the interior does its best to transport you a few thousand miles east the moment you step in.

The kitchen works its way through Thai mainstays and its own creations, from punchy salads to deeply spiced curries and puddings worth the extra belt notch.

Plenty of dishes are vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, or nut-free, and the bar leans hard into cocktails alongside a tight wine and beer list.

So you can pair your meal with one of their handcrafted cocktails, chilled beers, or a glass of wine.

And, if the weather allows, you can also explore their spacious alfresco terrace.

Banana Tree

Location: Upper level, Bullring, B5 4BG.

Banana Tree in Bullring takes the greatest-hits approach to Pan-Asian cooking, pulling recipes from across Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and beyond into one menu that keeps everyone happy.

You should expect pad Thai, a broad katsu lineup, and big bowls of noodles that don't need fancy introductions.

The 2-for-1 drinks deal runs all day, which makes it a magnet for groups heading in after work, and the weekend brunch sends that further with bottomless pouring.

There's a build-your-own option for kids, too, which cuts down the usual haggling with smaller diners.

Mezze is less a dish than a dining style, made for long meals and even longer conversation. Bullring's Lebanese offering does the format proud:

Comptoir Libanais

Location: Grand Central, Central Street, B2 4BF.

When you step inside Comptoir Libanais, the first thing you’ll notice is its extraordinary interior: patterned tiles, lantern-soft light, and a welcome that sounds like it's been rehearsed.

The cooking draws right across the Middle East and North Africa, with everything from slow-braised tagines and rice bowls to stacked small-plate spreads and the baklawa worth saving room for.

A lot of the menu can be made vegan or gluten-free, which helps when dietary needs are a patchwork around the table.

If the options feel overwhelming, the mezze platter is the shortcut to sampling the kitchen's range in a single order.

Calling British cooking "international" might raise an eyebrow, but the modern brasserie plate pulls influence from just about everywhere.

Two Bullring spots show how that lands in practice:

Brown's Bar and Brasserie

Location: St Martin's Square, 7 Spiceal Street, B5 4BH.

Brown's on Spiceal Street serves up the kind of brasserie dining that knows how to dress up without getting stiff about it.

Weekend brunches, long lunches, and full dinners all get the same care from the kitchen, and the cocktail list is deeper than you expect.

It’s a bit fancy, so it's worth saving it for when a night out calls for a bit more polish.

Bill's Restaurant and Bar

Location: Middle level, Bullring, B5 4BE.

Bill's is the kind of place that you can visit at every point of the day: early breakfast, drawn-out lunch, or a quick sit-down before another lap of the shops.

The menu will most likely surprise you with its truffle chicken, duck curry, those famously tall burgers, and rotating specials that change often enough to justify return visits.

Gluten-free and vegetarian options aren't hidden at the bottom of the page either.

Between the rotating specials, plates to pass around, and a room that never feels rushed, visits often end up going longer than planned (we’re guilty too).

Italian food in Bullring covers two very different moods. One pours by the glass between shops; the other asks you to look out over the city while you eat.

Frizzenti

Location: 68A East Mews, Grand Central, B2 4XJ.

Source of image.

Hidden inside Grand Central, Frizzenti (you'll also see it trading as the Fizz! Bar) is the place to kill twenty minutes in style, whether that's after shopping or before a train.

Sparkling wines pour straight from the tap, with Prosecco and cocktails filling out the drinks side, alongside coffee for anyone skipping the alcohol.

Light Italian plates and pastries play the supporting role, and they're easy to order when a proper meal feels like overkill.

It hits the spot whether you're catching up with someone or just giving yourself a half-hour off.

FUMO - Selfridges

Location: Upper level, Selfridges, Bullring, B5 4BP.

Four floors up inside Selfridges, FUMO pairs Italian regional cooking with a view you don't usually associate with shopping-centre dining.

The menu is structured around sharing, with regional plates moving between diners and a bar that treats cocktails with the seriousness the kitchen gives the food.

The styling walks the line between impressive and relaxed, which is why it quietly picks up date nights, anniversaries, and slightly-bigger-deal dinners without tipping into formal.

Hotpot works on a simple principle: the food isn't ready until you cook it yourself, which turns every dinner into an event.

Bullring has a restaurant that pulls the format off with serious style.

Haidilao Hotpot

Location: Lower level, Bullring, St Martin's Square, B5 4BA.

Haidilao treats dinner like theatre, and the Bullring restaurant gives Birmingham the full show.

You pick your broth base, mix your own dips at the sauce station, and order ingredients to drop into the boiling pot as you go, with robot servers doing laps and little snacks keeping you busy in the meantime.

First-timers get walked through the order of play by a team who are clearly used to the question.

It sits somewhere between dinner, a night out, and a small event, which is exactly why it ends up on so many birthday plans.

There's a version of Indian food that isn't about the takeaway menu you know by heart, and Bullring has it:

Mowgli

Location: Grand Central, Central Street, B2 4BF.

Mowgli trades in the food Indian families actually cook at home, which means the menu looks a lot less like the neighbourhood takeaway and a lot more like someone's auntie's kitchen.

Expect treacle tamarind fries, chat bombs, lunchbox-style tiffin tins, and a run of small plates made to travel round the table.

The room does its own heavy lifting on atmosphere, with swings in place of some chairs and strings of soft lighting that make the whole space feel a bit otherworldly.

Between the veggie, vegan, gluten-free, and Halal-certified picks, most tables can order without anyone getting left out.

Vietnamese cooking rewards restraint more than spectacle, which might be why it translates so well to both quick lunch and long dinner. Two Bullring spots show the range:

Pho

Location: Grand Central, B2 4BQ.

Pho names itself after its main event, and the broth gets the respect the name implies: twelve hours on the bone before it reaches a bowl.

Around that headline act, the kitchen turns out salads with a proper herb kick, stir-fried noodles, rice bowls, and curry-style soups made from scratch every morning.

The dietary coverage is unusually broad, with most of the menu adaptable for vegans and anyone avoiding gluten, dairy, or nuts.

It switches comfortably between a ten-minute solo lunch and a slower dinner with drinks, which is why it ends up on a lot of weekday rotations.

Vietnamese Street Kitchen

Location: Bullring, St Martin’s Square, B5 4BW.

Vietnamese Street Kitchen leans into proper family cooking rather than the tweaked-for-export versions you'll find at chain restaurants.

Plates arrive with the warmth and aromatic edge the country's food is known for, such as a fragrant bowl of broth.

It's a natural pick when you've actually got the time to taste what you're eating.

Fast Mexican food has come a long way from service-station lunches. Bullring has a place doing it quickly, generously, and with a charitable edge:

Zambrero

Location: Grand Central, Central Street, B5 4BU.

Zambrero runs under the Feel Good Mex banner and lives up to both halves of the name.

Order a burrito, bowl, taco, or quesadilla, and it gets assembled for you on the spot, with marinades and sauces doing the flavour work and vegan or vegetarian variants available across the board.

What separates it from most fast-food neighbours is Plate 4 Plate: for every burrito or bowl that leaves the counter, the company donates a meal somewhere it's needed.

It's a lunch that punches above its price bracket in more ways than one. You can see their menu here.