Bar Opus is the newborn child of the Opus family of restaurants that include Opus on Cornwall Street and Cafe Opus at the Ikon Gallery. Both firm favourites of mine 🙂

This week Ruth and I were kindly invited by Ann and David of Opus to attend one of their pre launch evenings to sample the ‘after 5’ sharing plates and some of the drinks.

Bar Opus is at No’ 1 Snow hill, Birmingham City centre, a new complex behind Snowhill Station. That it resides in such a nice location is a positive for the bar with a clutch of through foot traffic, local businesses and the new Midland Metro tram line nearby when it’s complete.

Bar Opus has an inviting terrace area for those Alfresco lazy summer days and evenings which I can imagine will be a real sun trap and will provide the Birmingham with a continental type atmosphere.

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On arrival we were greeted with two glasses of Champagne and were straight away impressed with the light and modern decor which is a mix of Cafe Opus decor and a continental inspired light openness.

The bar was busy, with a lovely atmosphere. The bar area is split into a long bar, an open kitchen, some seating in the windows around tables for eating on and some bar stools and tables.

Near the bar is an impressive Musee d’Orsay (art gallery in Paris, if you haven’t been go) clock (see photos above) which gives
Bar Opus a real iconic central image that invites the eye. A real symbol of the bar and its continental leanings.

As a vegetarian I have always loved the Opus food, whether the formal Opus restaurant or the laid back cafe in Brindley Place with its fab terrace and Meat Free Monday menu.

The ‘After 5’ sharing plates were what we had come to sample. The premise is that from the open kitchen the chefs will serve up a variety of dishes from £4.50 onto plates where the colour indicates the price. The waiter will at the end count the plates you’ve had and produce your Bill.
The plates include meat, fish and vegetarian a whole plate is £10.50.

Ruth tried the meat and fish options that were handed round and loved the complex flavours and in some cases simplicity of the dishes, they were presented in a delicious looking way.

My vegetarian options were plentiful. The ones that stand out are the confit tomato & mozzarella croquettes, which were delicious, real Italian creamy mozzarella, which complemented a complex and lovely tomato texture. The other I enjoyed was the Daylesford organic cheddar rarebit which was the best cheese on toast ever.

They reminded me of the type of food that you find in Aperitivo hour in Italy which is a very relaxed thing to do with friends and family..try it with a Aperol or Campari Spritz or Negroni.

The food I tried at Bar Opus in conclusion was made with the same high quality ingredients as at the other two venues and I was impressed with the vegetarian selection on all the menus. The all day menu includes four different options which is superb.

To add I also enjoyed a lovely Negroni Cocktail which was well made and probably the best I’ve had in Birmingham.

Bar Opus has a lengthy cocktail list, a good wine menu and also stocks craft beer and their very own Opus lager. A lot of the menu has local gin makers Langley’s on it, the Negroni was made with Langley’s gin.

Bar Opus is a superb addition to Birmingham’s food and bar scene. As an all day venue from breakfast until evening it’s going to be a very popular and exciting place to go.

I can’t wait to visit properly and try out their all day menu and ‘After 5’ options in full.

Bar Opus is a bar redefined.

Thanks to Ann and David for their invites. The food and first two drinks were on the house and our glasses of wine hereafter were paid in full by me. I was not required to write a post for my blog.

All opinions are honest and my own.

Bar Opus
1 Snowhill piazza
Birmingham
B4 6GH

0121 289 3939

Open from

7am-11pm Monday to Friday
10am-11pm Saturday

@baropus

http://www.baropus.co.uk