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De La Vie’s is a new addition to the Bearwood dining scene that has recently opened.  It occupies the site previously used by the Ruby Chinese restaurant on Barnsley Road, just off Hagley Road, Edgbaston.  There’s some parking on site in their car park plus free, on street parking too.  The new proprietors have clearly done a lot of work on the decor of the restaurant and whilst the basic layout remains the same, the finish and feel is very upmarket. Seating is a mix of bench seating, or tables with cosy velvet chairs, plus some larger tables for groups. There is also a pleasant bar seating area.

De La Vie’s is a grill restaurant specialising in steaks and meat dishes, but vegetarian options are available.  It describes itself as a dry aged steakhouse and lounge bar. They aim to serve the finest Hampshire beef, cuts including fillet, rib-eye, T-bone and tomahawk. Obviously quality steaks aren’t cheap, so this might be a destination restaurant for a birthday or anniversary celebration, indeed the decor and the feel of the restaurant lends itself to this sort of occasion.

A wide range of drinks were available: there’s a champagne list, a reasonably extensive wine list and cocktails, plus a wide range of spirits.  For beers there’s a good selection of lagers (both on tap and bottled), a couple of pale ales, but no Guinness, stout, bitter or cider.

We decided to go straight to the main event and have something from the grill.  Whilst we were waiting for our meal we were served complimentary olives.  I think a rib-eye is the one of the tastiest steak cuts and a good test of a restaurant’s ability to cook steaks well.  I picked the smaller of the two steaks on offer, the 12oz which is large enough for most people, even those like me who have a healthy appetite.  It was cooked as I requested (medium), and the grill flavour complemented the good quality beef.  As I expected it was a lovely piece of beef, with no waste or sinewy bits.  My steak arrived cut into strips which certainly made it easier to tackle.  No specific steak knives were provided, but to be honest it wasn’t necessary.  The steak came with chips and was served with a chimichuri sauce.  I loved the chips: they were crisp on the outside and fluffy inside.  The sauce wasn’t my thing and I don’t think you really need a sauce with steak if the steak is good enough (and it was).  One point to note is that there is nothing else served with the steak, no garnish or vegetables, apart from the chips and the sauce, so we ordered the grilled vegetables as a side order.

The grilled vegetables were very tasty and the grill certainly adds extra flavour.  I did think it slightly odd that underneath the hot vegetables was a bed of lettuce (mostly rocket).  I think I’d have rather just had more of the vegetables.
My companion picked out the Koobideh from the Kebab section of the grill menu.  It’s described as a delicious chef’s special with ground dry edge beef and lamb, combined with the chef’s specially selected herbs and onion.  Again it’s grilled on charcoal which adds to the flavour.  As you can see this does come with a fairly extensive salad garnish, as well as the grilled tomatoes.  If you chose this meal I think you could do without any sides. This was a lovely, flavoursome kebab meal, but it probably doesn’t feel as special as having a steak and seems a bit pricey for what it is.

After all that meat we were quite full, but wanted to try out one of the puddings so we had one to share.  They only had three of the six puddings on the night we went, so there was a limited choice.  We picked out the 7 Veli Chocolate, which is made of layers of chocolate and hazelnut covered with chocolate ganache.  It came served with chocolate ice cream.  This was a delicious end to the meal and the portion size was perfect for sharing.

The service was friendly and attentive.  We did have a small issue with the bill, but it was quickly sorted out.  Often the mark of a good restaurant is how they handle any problems, and on this account De La Vie’s did well.

I can see me returning to De La Vie’s for a bit of a treat or a special occasion, or if I just fancy a charcoal grilled, quality steak.

If you want to try other restaurants in Bearwood, read my review on BrazilPortu, A La Mexicana and The Old Dresser.

Update 2026: I’ve been to De La Vie’s a number of times since this review.  I’ve also spoken to a number of people about the restaurant.  Every time the steak has been very tender and can easily be cut with an ordinary knife rather than a steak knife.  Everyone I’ve spoken to rates the restaurant.  It is a bit pricey unless you can get a deal (worth looking for one), but it’s a very nice place to go for a special meal.

BrazilPortu is tucked away further down the Bearwood Road away from the main high street area.  It’s part of a row of independent shops and businesses, plus this part of Bearwood is on the up with lots of specialist shops and eateries opening up in recent years.  BrazilPortu is a bit deceptive from the outside as its their shop that fronts the street and you need to walk through this to get to the restaurant section.  The shop is an intriguing looking place and it stocks lots of speciality products, so it’s well worth a visit if you want to recreate Brazilian food at home.

Some of my most memorable dining experiences have been in South American restaurants, I think in part because beef has always been my favourite meat and steak in particular.  So I was keen to try out BrazilPortu.  The restaurant is colourfully furnished and decorated, but it’s not too busy either, so it’s a relaxing place to spend time.  The waiter was friendly, knowledgeable and attentive.

Our waiter suggested we have the Special Grill for One, but scaled up for two people.  This meant we could pick out a couple of steaks and have them with a range of sides. We decided this would give us the chance to try a range of dishes from the menu.

We chose the Picanha Na Chapa (a rump steak) and the Contra Filé  Na Chapa (a sirlion).  You pick whether you want your steak well done, medium or rare and we both went for medium.  I preferred the rump to the sirlion, but that’s a personal preference as I find it tastier.  As you can see from the pictures, the steak came served on sizzling cast iron platters and with a bed of fried onions.  The steaks were cooked as requested and were great quality pieces of meat – very enjoyable. The portions are generous and most meat eaters will be very happy with the serving size.  We didn’t get any steak knives to eat with and when we asked for them we were told they had none, but they were looking to get some soon.  Steak knives would have made eating easier, but that’s not to suggest that the steaks were poor quality, because they were very tender.

Between us we were able to have chips(twice because you can never have enough chips), salad, rice, black beans and tropeiro. The tropeiro is a mixture of spring greens, mixed beans, egg and smoked sausage. The chips were nicely crisp and the salad and rice were fairly standard.  The tropeiro was an interesting, tasty dish and I’d certainly order it again.  I wasn’t so keen on the black beans and I’d probably try a different side on a return visit.

We’ll certainly be going back.  It was a lovely welcoming restaurant with a good range of dishes on the menu apart from the more obvious steaks.  I’d be interested in trying out the salted cod or the peri-peri chicken another time.

Update 2/2026: We did a return visit as part of our regular dining club.  We had a Mixed Grill for 2 between four of us.  It came with 3 sides (we could choose from a range) and we had an extra side as extra.  This was fine and left room for a pudding too.  Steak knives are now in evidence, which is good.  The shop is worth a visit because it is so interesting in its own right.  We were very happy with our meal, it was reasonable value between the four of us too because there was loads of meat.

Other local eateries to try include Hengata in Harborne, A La Mexicana in Bearwood, De La Vie’s and The Old Dresser also in Bearwood.

It’s always nice to try out something new in the dessert aisle. Life can get a bit boring with the same dessert options, so I was up for trying something new.

We’ve all heard of Mochi, but now the London Dough Company, Doughlicious, has come up with something entirely new for frozen sweet snack lovers: Dough-Chi, the delicious new cookie dough covered ice cream treat – ‘cookie dough with an ice cream soul’.

Available in Ocado now, Dough-Chi is an exciting new range that will appeal to those that want a delicious, bite-size sweet snack that can be enjoyed straight from the freezer.  Dough-chi comes in five delicious and exciting flavours: Dulce De Leche, Chocolate Truffle, Blueberry Yoghurt Cheesecake, Birthday Cake and Chocolate Chip, with two being vegan: Chocolate Truffle and Chocolate Chip. The whole range is also gluten free.

I found that it was best to allow Dough-Chi to have a few minutes out of the freezer before serving.  It’s easy to serve up as much or as little as you want as each ball is separated within the packaging.  This means Dough-Chi is really easy to use and serve.  We found that 3 balls were the perfect serving for us (anymore was a bit much in one serving) and that meant a box served 2 people each time.   If you love cookie dough, then this is the dessert for you.

The Birthday Cake variety is the obvious choice for a celebration.  The decadent almond flavoured cookie dough is coated in birthday sprinkles.  Inside there’s vanilla ice cream for that perfect sweet treat. After the doughy outside, the fresh texture and taste of the ice cream inside provides the perfect contrast.

Another favourite of ours was the Blueberry Frozen Yoghurt Dough-Chi.   The fabulous frozen blueberry yoghurt is really moreish and it all comes wrapped in blueberry cheesecake flavoured cookie dough.

I found them really handy to have in the freezer as you have a great dessert at hand to serve at the end of a meal or simply as a treat.

Disclosure: I was sent samples for the purposes of this review.