It's a bit dingy and it sits in no-man’s land between the gay village and theatreland but as the Dragon is a Wetherspoons pub this makes little difference to the atmosphere.

The Venue
The Dragon is caught between a rock and a hard place (you can decide which is which), straddling theatreland and the gay village. It’s also very dark inside which isn’t really that inviting. It has a stone terrace outside with at least ten chunky wood tables for al fresco drinking and for smokers.

Inside the flooring is both tiled and wood and elsewhere there’s a patterned blue carpet. It’s a spacious old place and goes back a long way. It has a low, cream-coloured ceiling and the lighting is, to put it mildly, subdued - too dim certainly in the daylight hours.

The walls are painted light blue and are adorned in places with classy light grey and silver wallpaper. There are plenty of screens and fruit machines to keep punters occupied and there’s an area with exposed brickwork and a fireplace filled with logs. There’s a second bar in the big back room.

The People
The Dragon is probably the least busy Wetherspoons in the city due to its location. It does pull in some of the theatre crowd and a few groups who nip in for a few cheap drinks before making their into town on a Friday and Saturday night. It keeps a very low profile in the day.

The Food and Drink
On tap there’s Stella, Heineken, John Smith’s, Strongbow, Guinness, Foster’s and Coors - they also do a decent range of real ales including Hobgoblin, Robinson’s and Pure Gold from Purity and Abbott Ale to name but a few. You can get breakfast for £2.59 and fish and chips for £3.10 in the afternoon otherwise there’s a cheap range of sandwiches, salads, pasta dishes and burgers on offer and there’s a kids’ menu too.

The Last Word
Wetherspoon’s pubs are nearly always massive which is great when they’re busy but not so impressive if they’re not.

venue information venue map view birmingham review user reviews (1)