Asha's

Newhall Street and the Case for the Complete Indian Table

The dining room at 12–22 Newhall Street is, on most evenings, emphatically occupied. This is not the tentative hum of a restaurant still finding its footing; it is the specific energy of a place that has been at this long enough to know its audience and serve it with confidence. Newhall Street sits in Birmingham's business and civic core, a short walk from the financial district, and the crowd at Asha's reflects that geography: mid-week suits, weekend groups, family tables that span three generations. The decor carries the weight of its brand origins — Asha's is a small international group bearing the name of Indian singer and actress Asha Bhosle — and the room reads accordingly: warm, polished, and deliberate in its presentation rather than stripped back.

Birmingham's Indian restaurant offer is, by any fair reckoning, one of the strongest in the United Kingdom outside London. Opheem, Aktar Islam's flagship in the city, holds two Michelin stars and operates at ££££, with tasting menus that treat the subcontinent's spice vocabulary as material for fine dining construction. Asha's occupies a different register entirely: it is priced at £££, runs an extensive à la carte, and frames its offer around variety and accessibility to the full breadth of Indian regional cooking rather than a single auteur vision. That distinction matters for how you approach a meal here.

The Thali Logic: Variety as the Whole Point

There is a structural principle buried in the great Indian meal that the thali format makes explicit: no single dish is the point, the balance is. A well-composed thali places a pulse, a vegetable preparation, a protein, a bread, and a cooling element in conversation with each other, and the skill of the kitchen is measured in how those components cohere. Asha's does not serve a literal thali, but its extensive menu operates on the same philosophy. The offer spans most regions of the subcontinent , Mughal-influenced slow-cooked preparations, coastal spice notes, tandoor-roasted meats, and a strong vegetarian section that treats legumes and paneer as primary ingredients rather than afterthoughts.

Tandoori kebabs are the kitchen's stated speciality, and in a city with a long tradition of tandoor cooking, that is a claim tested by informed diners on every service. The live-fire technique produces the characteristic char-to-juice contrast that defines the format at its leading , exterior caramelisation, moisture retained within. The Muscat gosht, a slow-cooked meat preparation based on a recipe attributed to Asha Bhosle personally, stands as one of the menu's more specific anchors and speaks to the ambition the kitchen brings to the deeper Mughal canon. A dish like gosht cooked in Omani-influenced spice registers is not a standard addition to a commercial Indian menu; its presence indicates a kitchen willing to reach outside the familiar shortlist.

The vegetarian section is, by report, genuinely substantial rather than a concession to dietary requirements. This matters more than it sounds: in a restaurant operating across the regional spread of the subcontinent, a thin vegetarian menu signals a kitchen that views that tradition as secondary. Asha's does not make that mistake, and the breadth here reflects the actual diversity of the cuisine being referenced.

Where Asha's Sits in Birmingham's Dining Tier

Contextualising Asha's within Birmingham's wider restaurant scene requires a clear-eyed look at what the city now offers. Adam's and Simpsons both hold Michelin stars in the modern European register at ££££. 670 Grams operates at a creative, technically focused level, while Bayonet has built a reputation in a more informal seafood register. Asha's earns consecutive Michelin Plates in 2024 and 2025, a recognition that signals consistent quality in execution without the starred-kitchen framing. A Michelin Plate does not imply a lesser kitchen; it implies a different format , volume, variety, and democratic access to the menu, rather than the controlled tasting progression of a starred room.

At £££, Asha's prices above casual dining but below the city's tasting-menu tier. That positioning is coherent: the kitchen is doing more than assembling standard dishes, and the room and service investment show in the cover charge. For visitors placing this within a wider UK context, the reference points might be Amaya in London , another upscale Indian with a tandoor focus , or, at the more experimental end of global Indian cooking, Trèsind Studio in Dubai. Asha's does not share Trèsind's avant-garde framing, but it shares a commitment to sourcing from the full depth of the subcontinent's repertoire rather than defaulting to a Punjabi-anchored shortlist.

For those building a broader Birmingham trip, our full Birmingham restaurants guide maps the city's dining tiers. Practical planning across stays, bars, and experiences is covered in our Birmingham hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide. For comparison across the wider UK fine dining circuit, CORE by Clare Smyth, The Fat Duck, L'Enclume, Moor Hall, Gidleigh Park, and Hand and Flowers represent the broader tier against which serious UK restaurants are now measured.

Planning a Visit

Asha's is located at 12–22 Newhall St, Birmingham B3 3AS, in the heart of the city centre , walkable from New Street station and the main hotel belt. The restaurant runs at capacity on busy evenings, which makes a reservation the sensible approach rather than an optional precaution. The price range of £££ places a mid-size meal per head comfortably above the casual tier; factor in drinks and the total moves accordingly. The room is smart but not stiff: the dress code skews towards business-casual without enforcing it, and the atmosphere on a full evening carries genuine noise and movement rather than hushed formality.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Asha's formal or casual?

Asha's occupies the mid-tier of Birmingham's restaurant range , priced at £££ and holding consecutive Michelin Plates, it sits above the city's casual dining crowd but operates with none of the tasting-menu ceremony of the starred rooms. The room is polished and the service attentive, but the format is à la carte with a full table, which means the pace and tone are guest-led. Groups, business dinners, and family celebrations all coexist comfortably here. Smart-casual dress fits the room without overreach.

What do regulars order at Asha's?

Tandoori kebabs are the kitchen's acknowledged speciality, and in a city with a well-developed palate for tandoor cooking, that reputation is maintained against informed comparison. The Muscat gosht , a slow-cooked preparation attributed to Asha Bhosle's own recipe , is the menu item most frequently cited in Michelin recognition of the kitchen's range. The vegetarian section is broad enough to anchor a full meal rather than serve as a supplement, and the menu's span across the subcontinent's regions means that returning diners can cover different ground on successive visits.