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Sian Victoria © - Aloft Birmingham Eastside Hotel

Aloft Birmingham Eastside Hotel Review

Birmingham city centre has a luxury new boutique hotel. Created by the iconic Marriott hotels. Located on the Eastside near Birmingham City University, trendy Digbeth and soon to be HS2. The 4 star Aloft Birmingham Eastside is a vibrant, contemporary urban-inspired tech-hotel that’s perfect for the modern traveller and their furry companions.

The pet-friendly accommodation is brilliant for families too. On request, rooms can be transformed into Camp Aloft with a mini gazebo and special bedding to provide a fun experience for young explorers. You’re pets receive the A-list treatment too with a special bed, bowl and complimentary treats.

To get the full Aloft hotel experience. They kindly invited my partner and me to enjoy a complimentary overnight stay in an Urban King Room, with a three-course meal in Tempo! restaurant, accompanied by cocktails at WXYZ bar and a buffet breakfast. Plus, an early and late check-out to get a real feel for this newly built hotel in the city.

Lobby & Re: Fuel snack bar

Aloft has 190 hotels worldwide, with just four in the UK. Making Aloft Birmingham a unique experience not to be missed.

Upon entering the vibrant hotel you’ll find a 24/7 Re: Fuel snack bar. So, you won’t have to stroll far from your hotel room if you get the midnight munchies. Among the stylish furniture, soft furnishings and fixtures and fittings you’ll find a workstation equipped with a printer and desktop in case you need access to one during your travels.

Besides the gorgeous interior design featuring a variety of colours, prints, textures, and materials. My favourite element had to be the use of lighting. Compromising of low hanging lights and neon signs and the use of digital art installations around the hotel and restaurant. As digital artists, we were pleased to see this.

Urban King Room

After checking in we made our way up the lift using our key card to access the fourth floor to enter 436, an Urban King Room.

The Urban King Room has a floor to ceiling window with a view of Eastside, Birmingham. As well as a clean white tiled bathroom with chrome finishes and a spacious walk-in shower with a rainfall showerhead.

After carrying an excessively overpacked night bag around on a hot summer’s day in the city I couldn’t wait to jump in the shower. The bubbling mineral body wash and shampoo provided were lovely to use and made me feel super refreshed ahead of our evening dining at the hotel.

Next to the door is where you’ll find an iron, ironing board, hairdryer, safe, mini-fridge and best of all a coffee maker with pods. Plus, a selection of tea bags and cups for either taking away or for enjoying a hot drink in the comfort of the hotel room.

The cosy kingsize bed with crisp white sheets and the choice of firm or soft pillows and easy to use air conditioning ensured we had the perfect night’s sleep. While above a spacious desk is a large 42” LCD TV with cable/satellite that kept us entertained before heading out for food & drinks.

Hidden away behind a sliding door next to the bathroom is plenty of wardrobe space and is where you’ll find soft white robes and slippers. There are also lots of plugs around the room, located in all the right places such as either side of the bed, by the desk and below the full-length mirror.

Fitness centre

Something we said we would use but never did, as we chose to eat far too much food instead, is the 24/7 gym located on the first floor. The fitness centre is well equipped and is light and spacious with air conditioning, floor to ceiling windows and a mirrored wall. Perfect for checking out your booty during a squatting session.

You’ll find a great selection of Matrix equipment. Such as dumbells, kettlebells, exercise balls, cross-trainers and running machines as well as many other pieces of equipment that will help you keep your fitness regime on track while travelling.

Tempo! Restaurant & WXYZ bar

Sian Victoria © - Aloft Birmingham Eastside Hotel, WXYZ Bar

After a refreshing shower, we headed out for the evening. But we didn’t have far to go for delicious food and drink. Located on the ground floor of Aloft Hotel we enjoyed a three-course meal at Tempo! Restaurant and cocktails at WXYZ bar.

The Tempo! menu is limited for vegans which is sad to see. So, you may struggle if you are plant-based or Lactose intolerant as the veggie options are mostly vegetarian. However, when we made our reservations a few days before visiting we let them know of our dietary requirements and they went above and beyond to accommodate us.

There were also a few more vegan options on the separate ‘specials’ menu and they were happy to customise our dessert.

Sian Victoria © - Aloft Birmingham Eastside Hotel, Tempo! Restaurant & WXYZ Bar

To begin the evening we started with cocktails, ordering a classic Mojito (£9.50) and Pornstar Martini (£10.00). For starters, we enjoyed a Charred Bruschetta (£6.50) topped with vine tomatoes, pardon peppers, olive oil, basil, and mint on focaccia bread. This was light and flavoursome; I especially enjoyed the juicy mix of tomatoes.

For our main, we both opted to indulge in the Smoked Tofu Burger (£12.50). This consisted of a brioche bun layered with smashed avocado, gem lettuce, pickled red onion and tofu seasoned in smoked paprika aioli with a side of the most delicious crunchy chips. Although it was tasty, I wasn’t overly keen on the tofu ‘patty’ as it was soft like the bun so it would have been a lot more enjoyable if it was extra-firm to have a burger-like consistency.

Sian Victoria © - Aloft Birmingham Eastside Hotel, Tempo! Restaurant

No evening is complete without something sweet. So, we asked to customise the dessert by having a chocolate brownie, with soaked cherries and vegan ice cream. This was gorgeous.

We would have been so tempted to order another round of desserts if the wonderful Aloft team hadn’t of came out with a surprise vegan Birthday cake for my belated 30th that I couldn’t celebrate during the lockdown. This sweet gesture by the team made the perfect ending to our first night at Aloft Hotels.

Buffet breakfast

In the morning we dragged ourselves out of the cosy bed to indulge in a buffet breakfast. Served from 6 am to 10 am it's ideal for early risers and night owls. We started with orange juice and coffee, opting for a latte made with oat milk.

Choosing what to have from the buffet breakfast was easy once we spotted the ‘full English vegan breakfast’ on the menu. This came with plant-based sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, cute hash brown squares, scrambled tofu and a pot of baked beans.

After indulging in a full English our friendly server tempted us with the special’s menu. Of course, it was rude to say no. So, we stuffed our faces with a nutty caramelised banana bagel topped with strawberries before heading back to the room and reluctantly checking out of Aloft Birmingham Eastside Hotel.

To conclude

We’d like to thank everyone involved in making our first Aloft (and Marriott) hotel experience extra special. The new Eastside hotel located within walking distance of Birmingham’s best attractions is undoubtedly one of the best modern hotels in the city, especially if you’re looking for tech-savvy boutique-style accommodation that’s pet and child friendly with a place to sleep, eat, drink, work-remotely and work-out all under one roof.

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