Fumo - Birmingham

First time visiting this Fumo for husband and I (normally use Selfridges, but thought we would like a change of scenery). We were greeted by a lovely lady at reception, who took our jackets, and then seated…….right in the middle of the restaurant. It was chaos from therein! We absolutely appreciate it was Christmas season and expected it to be busy, but this was absolutely manic with tables pushed way too close together for people to pass. Twice things were knocked off our table by people passing and the noise was simply unbearable (to be fair there was a table of women screaming and shouting like they’d never been let out before). They should have been told by staff to calm down incredibly immature. Starters arrived, and were very tasty. Mains arrived shortly afterward, so timings were all ok, again very tasty, but we had to chase twice two side dishes, by which time we had finished the main part of the meal……pretty frustrating. I will say, there was one particular young waitress who was very good and she was trying so hard for us as she could see our tables was just in an appalling position with people constantly rushing back and forth.. Drinks were nice and arrived pretty quickly. On leaving, I asked for my jacket (you’re given a ticket thing for your coat hook). Waited and a lady came out to say she couldn’t find it and could I look in the cloakroom to identify! I found it on the floor!! It appears people can just enter the cloakroom and collect their coats! Not ideal whatsoever as I had an expensive jacket on luckily it was found …. In a nutshell, food and drink was tasty, timings for food and drink was fine, but the ambience was way too loud and manic for me for a restaurant setting and would put me off booking again.

Our experience started well communication prior to our visit was great and the restaurant were very accommodating with timings. It was a special occasion and on arrival, we were greeted warmly and escorted through a very busy bar to 2 seats to enjoy a pre dinner drink. Waited 20 mins at the bar for a drink the bar staff lacked energy and urgency considering how many people were waiting. The drinks, when we got them, were lovely. We were then taken to our dining table and sat tightly, at our table amongst loads of other tables we couldn’t hear each other, let alone the waitress. We understand there are midweek Christmas parties but this was ridiculous. Seems the restaurant are more concerned with quantity and squeezing customers in, than the customer experience. We were informed that all the dishes were of “medium size”, and it was recommended that we ordered 5 to 6 between us to suffice a meal. The waitress looked less than amused, and got defensive when we questioned the process That would mean spending over £200 on just the entree! We finished our drinks and left to go to the sister restaurant next door at San Carlo check out my review of that place too!

Excellent service and perfect small portions. The selection suited us. We didn’t want huge plateful. The flavours were lovely.

I have been visiting fumo for 10 years, as a family and with friends we have always enjoyed it. Last night I had a terrible and upsetting experience. To start with we had to navigate through the terrible city Christmas traffic so we called to say we would be late, we were told no problem. Upon arrival we had to wait in a long queue to be seated which added more time only to then be told our table had been given away to a walk in. We were then found a table in the bar and told we could have it for one hour. No one offered to take our coats as they usually do, they started taking our plates away before we had finished eating and not once asked if everything was ok. We spent over £200 and this is how we were treated! In addition to this the noise was ridiculous and the toilets absolutely disgusting! We refused to pay the service charge and the bill was snatched out of my friends hand by the manager with long black hair and a beard (not sure of his name). He then out of spite charged an extra £200 to my friends card which she will not get back in to her account for 5 days. He stomped off when we said this needed to be resolved. We then asked to speak to the main manager, this person also spoke down to us, would not listen to our concerns and kept talking over us. At this point the other manager walked past and swore at us! We felt intimidated as a group of women and I have been left feeling upset by the whole experience. This was once a classy establishment and one of the nicest restaurants in town, I don’t know what has happened but I have read other negative reviews about the restaurant and this particular person so clearly there has been a change of managers.. the service has always been 5 star but things have rapidly gone downhill here. After enjoyed fumo for many years, I will not be returning.

We had a booking here and when we came there was no access for a pram so had to carry up the stairs. On arrival we were asked ‘do you need space for a pram?’ Yes we do since we have a pram with us. Lady says she’ll be back. After a long couple minutes she comes back saying there’s no room for the pram and that we can’t eat there. We were shocked that they didn’t accommodate for a normal size pram and I just walked out. There were people waiting who were also shocked we were turned away because of our pram. We went to Riva Blu and told them what happened and asked if we could dine without a booking. They were shocked and said Fumo should’ve accommodated. Riva Blu found us a table straight away despite it being a busy Saturday in December. That’s what real customer service is. Fumo is a disgusting place won’t ever come here again! Should’ve known better when I saw there was no access for a pram to get upstairs nor a wheelchair besides some dingy looking motor chair. Awful!!