Nottingham 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.

“Fantastic Thai food, Thai people and decor give it the authentic feel of being down a side street in a city in Thailand” at this street-food offshoot from Ban Kaewkraikhot’s Sukhothai brand – “great value and super tasty, with a great atmosphere”.

Amita Sawhney’s “fantastic Indian restaurant has been around for ages, but doesn’t disappoint”. It’s “not the cheapest, but friendly service and fantastic food” have earned it a stellar reputation. Top Tip – “try the tandoori ostrich” (free-range, locally farmed, infused with garlic and red chilli).

This “simply amazing” and decidedly upmarket Indian (which opened in 2014) recreates the atmosphere of polo clubs under the Raj, with “delicious food” that is “not overpowering”, and “friendly, knowledgeable staff”.

The Anand’s “family-run restaurant serving utterly delicious food” has stood out on the Nottingham curry scene for 15 years. “The chutneys and sauces with poppadoms set the scene for a faultless performance both with food and level of service”. “The whole place has a real buzz – forget quiet conversation.” Top Tip – “the prawn Manchurian appetiser is absolutely spot-on”.

Near the castle, this long-serving stalwart occupies “comfortingly clubby surroundings” (seventeenth-century Newdigate House also hosts the Nottingham Club for the city’s business and professional community) and remains “a definite favourite” that “sometimes hits five stars”. Following the trend of over a decade, the kitchen is “wildly variable: some dishes can be wonderful, others poorly conceived and lacking in flavour”.

“High-quality and authentic” cuisine has earned regular inclusion in our guide for this Cantonese venue within walking distance of the Lace Market. There is the odd less-wowed report though: “I was expecting something special, but only just rated the food as good. The ambience only just got average…”

With “a truly dizzying number of very satisfying burgers to choose from” (more than 30 at a recent count), this Lace Market operation has become hugely popular: “the place is always packed”. Success has led to a branch in Derby. Founder Anmarie Spaziano grew up in Rhode Island, where the American diner apparently originated.

This “buzzy tapas bar”, in a “lovely vaulted-ceiling basement” in the Lace Market, serves “a tremendous variety” of “authentic Spanish dishes”. A “cheerful” fixture for more than 15 years, it’s “probably the first choice for tapas in the area” – and “you can have the menú del día for not much more than a tenner”. There is also a spin-off in Hockley.

“Mind-blowing experimental food and interesting wine pairings” continues the acclaim for Alex Bond’s “totally unique” five-year-old, which deserves the comparisons it sometimes attracts with that of his former employer, Sat Bains. It helps that it occupies an attractively converted former Victorian coach house on the Park Estate (just outside the city centre) with very atmospheric, brick-lined vaulted rooms. Tasting menus start at £95 for five courses, and there are also options for seven courses (£130) and 10 courses (£160 pairings). “Very friendly staff, who are very knowledgeable about the offering” complete the rosy picture painted in reports.

“Having wanted to visit for a long time, I was not disappointed despite the strange location!". – Amidst motorway flyovers, industrial estates, electricity pylons and the concrete banks of the River Trent, Sat & Amanda Bains’s converted motel remains one of the UK’s more offbeat gastronomic adventures and is entering its twentieth year as a flagship of Nottingham dining. Here, one of the most expensive and ambitious tasting menus is served in a “high-class” if low-key setting: “a stunning 10-course extravaganza” where regulars note “increasing use of subtle spice” and the continual introduction of “many new dishes”. For those who stay, there are “great rooms and a lovely breakfast too”. Having topped our Top 100 UK Restaurants last year, ratings slipped a fraction this year: some regulars noted (as they have at some other top places this year) both pressures on service (“I felt standards had dropped since pre-pandemic days”); and concerns over value (“I have been eating at Restaurant Sat Bains since 2006… prices nowadays are becoming astronomical”).

This “brilliant vegetarian place” from ex-Sat Bains chef Roya Bishop is “always popular, so book in advance”. “Every dish is exotic and exciting” as she looks to cuisines around the world for ideas. “A committed carnivore, I’m always heartily impressed by the vegetarian cooking here. Deciding what to order can be rather like Sophie’s Choice!”.

John Molnar’s “great fish restaurant and take-away in the hinterlands of Nottingham” wins our highest rating for “excellent quality food” – 20 varieties of fresh seafood, “all beautifully cooked before your eyes”: it’s “easy to see why it’s won so many awards”. And there’s “more to it than just fish ’n’ chips”: Sat Bains, the maestro behind the city’s world-famous fine-dining restaurant, has chipped in (with his mum) with recipes for a vegan samosa, chickpea curry and tamarind chutney that all appear on the menu under the ‘Momma Bains’ label. Launched in 2011, there are now four branches in the city and two more in Market Harborough and Birmingham.

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.”

“Outstanding cooking” – “impressive yet comforting” – is on the menu at this “well-loved country house – not too formal but everything just so” in a “beautiful rural setting” in the Belvoir Valley, with local produce including game from the nearby Belvoir estate well to the fore. Opened 40 years ago by the late Imogen Skirving in her family home, the hall’s regulars have ranged from Barbara Cartland to Jools Holland – and it’s “still quirky after Imogen’s passing (RIP)”, under her granddaughter Lila.

“Amazing Japanese tapas, packed full of flavour” are served at this “unique and creative” five-year-old which started out as a supper club. These days it “rivals places charging twice the amount” – and it’s “where all the top chefs go on their day off”. Jay Rayner of The Observer visited in October 2022 after a tip-off from a Nottingham-based pal, and declared it his “restaurant of the year”.

“An award-winning vegan restaurant in the city centre of Nottingham” whose website says it’s “changing the stigma of plant-based cuisine” [hopefully removing rather than just changing it? Ed]. Five years old now, it’s hosted in a brick-walled converted mill and offers a lunchtime ‘Classics’ menu of sharing plates, while in the evening there’s a 7-course tasting menu for £55 per person.