Went to Crystal Rivers on a Friday night, started the evening with some fantastic cocktails would recommend the Cosmopolitan definitely the best I've had in a very long time. The food itself was amazing the salmon starter was amazing, and the prawn main was fantastic. The meal was followed by more cocktails in the bar afterwards, and a very reasonable bill. The evening was fantastic with great food and drinks in what has got to be one of the most beautiful restaurants in Birmingham the decor is unbelievable.

Don't listen to all these bad reviews! Crystal Rivers is amazing! The decor inside is gorgeous! Really sets it off! The lighting is amazing too, its dimly lit for a romantic meal! The cocktails are amazing and there's a big choice! And the food is gorgeous! You get a small amount but its absolutely beautiful, I cant pick a fault! I've been to Crystal Rivers twice and I will definitely be going back very soon! Thanks Crystal Rivers for a gorgeous meal!

Great restaurant with stunning interior design! Pleasant staff whom ensured our evening went smooth. We came to Birmingham to visit from Germany and easyjet inflight magazine recommended this restaurant to us. We must thank Crystal Rivers for their superior hospitality. Well recommended.

Thank you to all the staff at Crystal rivers that made our evening very enjoyable. We were humbled by the attentiveness of the staff and manager. I love the venue which hosts parties to celebrities and we felt like celebrities during our visit. The food was freshly cooked and the cocktails were amazing, esp the flaming lamborghini!!

We went to Crystal Rivers as a works outing and strangely the place was almost empty even though it was nearly Christmas. Now I know why. The food is tasteless, bland and sometimes laughable (the vegetarian option main course consisted of a few steamed vegetables - cauliflower, carrot, courgette and potato - plonked in a bowl - I kid you not!). Chicken Tikka Masala was completely lacking spice and tasted like Patak's, Lamb Bhuna was a sorry, oversauced affair, the Kebabs as bland as a Walls' sausage. I've eaten ten times better Asian food in cheap restaurants on Birmingham's Balti Belt. The only thing to commend Crystal Rivers is the decor, which is excellent. On the other hand, if you enjoy good food, give Crystal Rivers a wide berth.

******do not be fooled by the nice decor******i wish I had read the reviews before going here. This is the worst food establishment I have ever been to. On arrival we were seated by a member of staff and on first impressions the place looked very impressive but it was unusually quiet for a Friday night. We ordered our drinks and were then handed the menus. How embarrassing! The menu was printed on some flimsy card that a 5 year old made in his it class. Alot of blank space on the menu and a lack of choice. Then to top it off, all the menus were stained with food and drink. The starters were around the £6 mark and main meals were at the £15 mark. Eventually we decided on what to order and waited 30 minutes for the starters to arrive. It looked well presented and didn't taste too bad. We then waited another 30 minutes for the mains to arrive. When it eventually arrived, what a disappointment! The vegetarian option of Aubergine was a large aubergine cooked, sliced and dropped on a plate with overcooked brocolli, cauliflour and new potatoes. It was when the Karai Gosht arrived. There was no attempt in it's presentation and was literally dolloped onto a plate. It was garnished with dried herbs, probably bought from Tesco next door. The lamb was under cooked and tasteless, as though it had been cooked seperately and the sauce tasted like patak's curry sauce. At around £25-28 per head, I felt like I had been robbed and was about to dial 999. In summary, nice venue, nasty food, expensive and I would not recommend it.

Excellent choice of restaurant, most restaurants in the mailbox are high st chain restaurants. This place is absolutely fantastic in many respects, great food (tk massalla!! ), amazing cocktails and fabulous private dining room where we enjoyed our small party! Wasnt keen on the unisex toilets though!

Worst meal in Birmingham bar none. If I could give no stars, I would. Spaghetti in warm water, one dried piece of crabmeat and 3 wilted cherry tomatoes sold as "linguini with hand picked Cornish crab and slow roasted tomatoes" was laughable. Frozen fish topped with oily Paxo stuffing and an appalling bottle of wine. And they wanted £60+ for it.

Having tried most restaurants in the mailbox, i thought i would give this restaurant in the corner a try and was very amazed at the venue. A most impressive restaurant visually as you can tell there is a lot of attention to detail. The cocktails list was very extensive and though the food menu was quite small, there was definitely a presence of quality and freshly cooked ingredients on the plate. Excellent music and ambience!

We brought a group on voucher to try this place out and received impeccable food and service for a saturday evening! The place was very busy and the ambience attracted a very nice crowd of drinkers and diners! We shall be back soon!

just tried crystal rivers and from the website, the place seems nicely decorated and modern style.
however food was probably the worse meal i have ever tried.
food tasted bland and portions were disgustingly small.

the place tries to attract you by its decor but don't be fooled.
if you want a good night out, don't start with this place and don't eat the food. it is a complete waste of money and time.

I’ve never eaten in a worse establishment, what a disappointment. The décor is nice, let down by the food and service. We were a party of over 10, and so had pre-ordered our food. It was a Saturday night, and while the place was busy it still took an hour to receive our starters. When they arrived, the majority were not what was described on the menu – for example the paneer pakora on a bed of tomato and basil turned out to be deep fried blocks of paneer served on limp rocket leaves.

Having been disappointed by our starters, we then had to wait another hour and a half to get our mains. When these arrived (though not at the same time!), most of them where cold and had to be sent back.

Having been sat for two and a half hours and been served disappointing food we cancelled our deserts, only to be informed they were to be offered free of charge. Having asked to have the cost of the mains removed from the bill, we were eventually told we would get 50% off our bill for the starters and mains.

Whilst the gentleman that appeared to be the owner showed no interest, the manager was constantly busy and did not deal with our complaints quickly, which only added to our frustration.

If as Mikey Bourne stats below Crystal Rivers is improving, I would have hated to experience it a year ago. Overall, the worst restaurant experience I’ve ever had.

I agree, do not go to Crystal Rivers. My experience there has been a very bad one. The decor is lovely but the service is terribly slow, the staff are very arrogant and rude. Despite this I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and made this my meeting place for my hen night. I made a reservation for 25 female friends, and told the staff we were a classy party, no tacky fancy dress just a nice veil for myself and headbands for my friends. They said this was fine and made the reservation. However when I arrived they said we were not allowed in with our headdress' on and we cheapened the place. The two girls on the door are rude and very derogatory towards us. So they missed out on our custom and I will never go their again.

At first the place seems really nice, funky decor, the presentation is really really nice, unfortunately the substance does not live up to the expectations. I went there with my girl friend for diner, we were sat down, the tables are in lines, put very close together, so your conversation is almost with the tables to either side, but still it promised to be a good night, menue looked good, the waiters were polite. However half the menue was off, it took about 40 minutes for the starters to arrive, and not far off that for the mains afterwards. And when it arrived, it was the wrong order, so we finied off eatting one after the other not together and was really not very good, the fish had bones in it, and we found something very stange in the seafood.

We asked to see the manager, they said he would be round shortly. Half an hour later we asked again, and in hearing distance it could be clearly hear him saying that we could 'fuck off, he was busy with his friends'. All in all a vile experience, and would certainly not advise it to anyone. And whilst the staff were all very nice and understanding the middleaged manager really does not do any favours for the establishment!

My wife and I went to Crystal Rivers for my birthday, we had a couple of cocktails at the bar which were ok, then decided to have lunch here as well as the atmosphere felt great, the waiter forgot to give us our menus and we had to wait, we were sitting down going through the menu, and there was only one waiter running around trying to deal with everyone even though it wasn't that busy people still had to wait a long time and they were getting frustrated. When the waiter finally came to take our order he started to give us a long list of items which were not available on their small menu, but luckily the things we wanted were still available.

We ordered our food, the starter arrived after about 30mins, the garlic bread twirl, looked more like a bread with cheese on, but tasted nice, the chicken was also ok, it would have been better if accompanied with some sort of sauce as it was very dry. Our mains arrived after about 30mins, we had ordered some pasta with a side of fries, we had asked for some extra vegetables in our pasta and the waiter wasn't very helpful as he looked like he had got a bit peed off, they seem very controlling and up them selves, at the end of the day he is just a waiter and we are paying customers.

When our mains arrived we asked him for a dip for the fries, he said the chef doesn't allow us to give dips in the restaurant, which I found quite strange, as all you could taste from the fries was oil and salt, we hardly touched them, as they were too dry, oily and salty. The pasta was very oily and bland, all you could taste was oil, lucky we had asked for those extra vegetables, or we would have had a bowl of pasta and oil. We tried to force down as much as we could but we were defeated and gave up.

We asked the waiter for the bill, which took ages, then went off to get the card machine and didn't come back, when he came back his breath stank of cigarettes, which made us feel even sick, and is very unprofessiona

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one who found that this restaurant was absolutely awful. All style over substance. We said that we would be out by 6.45 pm, and had arrived at 5.30 pm, so it was still early. However, they were very slow to take our order.We decided to share the antipasta of bread with dips. Admittedly, it was for one, but all that came was 3 slices of baguette, and 3 very small bowls (looked like egg-cups), one with hummus which was not too bad, a basil pesto, (ok) and a very disgusting, slimy, tasteless aubergine. I ordered chicken with choritzo farce, but was told that they had run out. So I then decided to go for sea bass with a crab and herb crust. My friend wanted the Moroccan Lamb Tagine, but that had also sold out (at 5.30 pm???) so she had the goat tarltet. I was persuaded to have a "side" so went for a salad.

My meal, when it eventually arrived after about 30 minutes (and the place was not busy by any means), had uncooked new potatoes, and the "herb crust" was nothing of the sort. It was like a dry dusting of very stale commercial breadcrumbs with a few, very tiny pieces of dried herbs. Definitely no crab! My side salad consisted of one miniature cherry tomato, 4 very thin slices of Parmesan, about 10 rocket leaves. Some very reduced Balsamic vinegar, so thick it was like tar, was also on the plate. I asked for some olive oil, and the waitress had to take my plate away for it to be put on in the kitchen!I complained about the potatoes, and our waitress brought out another (cold) bowl with cooked, but cold potatoes in it!

By this time, as we were so hungry, we decided to tuck in.After complaining, the manager came over and apologised for kitchen staff dealing with a "new menu". That is no excuse! My son is a chef in Italy and he would not serve anything like this!! My meal was deducted from the total bill.Overall, an awful night out. The table next to us also complained, so were were not in the minority

Do not go to Crystal Rivers! I booked a weekend away in the Mailbox for my Husband's birthday. From reading what we thought to be an impressive menu we decided to go in. It took a while for someone to actually come to take our order. We ordered starters and a main meal each. Our starters came about 45 minutes later and were very dissapointing - I ordered the scallops which were just ok for £7.45 and my Husband ordered the marinated chicken which was very bad! We had to ask the waitress three times for a jug of water too.

Nearly an hour after our starters there was no sign of our main course, even though we had asked the waitress several times to check up on it! We were then told that the kitchen had messed up the tickets and we would not be able to have our main meals - all the waitress said to us was "don't worry you will not be charged for them" - we very very shocked to hear this. In any other restaurant they would have brought us over a drink and said that the kitchen would get our meals out straight away!

At no point during the night did the manager come over to us to appologise and explain what was going on! I wouldn't take my worst Enemy to this very dissapointing restaurant!

I suggested this venue for a meet up with two of my girlfriends, I made a BIG mistake! it was awful. Its all very pretty and the menu is pretty impressive (to read!) To start with I ordered a House selection of dips served with a variety of freshly baked bread. (£4.50) what I actually got was a teaspoon of humous, a teaspoon of a grey disguting tasteless slime and two slices of plain baggette.I placed a side order for roast potatoes (£3.95) I also placed an order for pan fried sardines. Can you belive I got a single sardine! smaller than my little finger! served on a bed of lettuce.(£4.95) I felt cheated! one tiny weeny sardine flattened out. Never again, and if this is how they operate then i don t see them around for long!....... Bl**dy awful!

The quality and quantity of food at this restaurant are well below what one would expect from this location.

The waitress did her best, but could not keep up with the number of complaints being raised by nearly every table.

The manager was conspicuous by his absence and the table next to us walked out without paying, having waited over an hour for their meal to arrive.

Possibly the worst restaurant that I have eaten in. I hope that it does not tarnish the reputation of good food that the Mailbox has worked hard to achieve.

I went to Crystal Rivers on the 08/08/2009 for a very special occasion and unfortunately left feeling completely let down and disheartened with the place.

The interior is gorgeous and the food was good but the management of the place is extremely poor.

Initially we had to make a complaint about the drinks charges. Every time we went to the bar to order the same round of drinks, we were overcharged. They then ran out of two types of wine we wanted, vodka and coke.

We had requested the VIP room which is advertised as being fully air-conditioned, however when we arrived the air-con was broken and we just had two fans to keep a group of 22 people cool.

No apology was made and we were not given a choice to sit in an alternative place. By the time we had finished our starters we were extremely uncomfortable and so we took it upon ourselves to move.

This caused all sorts of problems for the kitchen which resulted in our main courses being served 10 minutes before our sides were served.

They claimed that as we had moved they had to re-distribute the side dishes as we now had 6 tables instead of four. By the time we received our side dishes our mains were going cold and we did not get everything we were supposed to get.

At no point when we complained did the manager come to see us which was shocking. Instead he sent some poor lad to try and sort it out which only increased our poor view of the place and the management.

In general I am not one to complain as I find it very embarrassing but the experience we had at Crystal Rivers was so poor that something needed to be said.

I feel extremely sorry for the staff who work at the restaurant and do think they tried their best but you can only do so much if the place is poorly managed.

We were also not the only people to complain as when we were waiting to talk to someone there were two other parties also complainin

Last week I went out for dinner with my wife to Crystal Rivers.

This is lovely luxurious restaurant situated in the Mailbox in Birmingham. We were impressed by the Mediterranean cuisine there.

The menu had a range of delicious Mediterranean dishes such as: Fillet of beef & wild mushroom consume - Best quality local beef fillet grilled to your taste and smothered in mouth watering wild mushroom and demiglace sauce; Moroccan lamb tagine - slow cooked lamb in mild Moroccan spice, prunes, preserved lemons & coriander s/w vibrant herb couscous.

I took the last one and It was delicious!! I think the price range for the starters was between £3.15 to £7.45 whereas main courses range from £6.75 to £16.95.

Restaurant style and decor: The stunning decor is intimate yet can accommodate up to 160 people with seating on the Mezz floor that overlooks the restaurant.

Glass bead curtains and low lighting work well to create a relaxing environment. There are also a number of tables outside for Al Fresco dining in the warmer months.

After the dinner we decided to drink one of the tasty cocktails on the extensive cocktail list.

I can strongly recommend the Champagne Cocktail...All in all it is a lovely place and you should go there. It is worth it!!