Nottingham, French Restaurant Guide

“A stalwart of the Nottingham restaurant scene” for almost 30 years, “it can feel like you are eating in France” at this city-centre outfit with a “constantly changing menu, strong on unfamiliar but interesting dishes”. It’s still run by its founders, Corsican Stéphane Luiggi and his Notts-born wife, Louise.

With its untreated oak tables, black granite surfaces and antler candelabras, chef-patron Nick Gillespie’s unusual and “very quiet” venue makes an appropriate showcase for his distinctive modern British cooking, which provided some reporters’ best meal of the year. “Staff cannot do enough for you.”