Nottingham's food scene has never looked stronger - from Michelin class food to award-winning fish and chip shops. Earlier this week the Michelin Guide for Great Britain and Ireland revealed the 2023 stars and it was good news for the city's top restaurants and others across the East Midlands that all retained their accolades.
As well as first-rate food, there's a chance to splurge on matching wines for a full-blown gastronomic experience - and one even has a cigar hut. If your budget doesn't stretch to the costly evening extravaganza, lunchtime is a less expensive affair.
Many also have the added benefit of luxury rooms for an overnight stay, which is useful when you've had cocktails, wine flights and after-dinner drinks.
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Gwendal Poullennec, international director of the Michelin Guides, said: "Great Britain and Ireland continues to impress with the sheer variety of its Michelin stars. Whether diners are looking for somewhere formal or casual, historic or new, there is a Michelin-starred establishment for them. In every region of Great Britain and Ireland, you can now find hugely talented chefs calling out to gourmets with their exquisite and accomplished cuisine."
Here's a round-up of the region's culinary gems
Restaurant Sat Bains
The region's top restaurant, it is the only one in the East Midlands to have two stars, defined by Michelin as excellent cooking that's worth a detour. The menu starts and concludes with a bite-size morsels of all the different tastes - umami, sweet, sour, salty and bitter.
As well as the ten-course evening menu, a seven-course lunch menu is served on Saturdays. Chef patron Sat Bains does offer an alternative vegetarian menu, but not vegan.
To add another level to the experience, a specially designed cigar hut with a built-in log burner allows guests to have a smoke and a digestif overlooking the gardens. And for anyone wanting to push the boat out, the restaurant has luxury bedrooms for an overnight stay.
The restaurant is also the only one locally to have a green star for its approach to sustainability. A closed-loop composter turns food waste into fertiliser for the kitchen garden. Honey comes from its beehives, they collect rainwater, and solar panels provide power.
The guide says: "Being in the shadow of a flyover might not be its best feature, but this restaurant has become quite the operation, what with their main dining room, Tasting Room, Kitchen Bench, bedrooms, garden and even their own bees. Sat Bains’ commitment to sustainability informs his well balanced ten-course menu, which uses plenty of produce from their garden and greenhouse, including honey from those bees, as well as carefully sourced ingredients from the British Isles.
"The dishes are as punchy as they are good looking. Stylish bedrooms provide the perfect excuse to go for their wine pairings."
Sample dishes: Scallop XO; veal sweetbread, pickled cucumber, lentil velouté; Cornish crab, brown butter ice cream; our honey, spring 2022 crème fraîche pollen, grains.
Price: Lunch £145, dinner £195.
Location: Lenton Lane, Nottingham, NG7 2SA
Alchemilla
The restaurant has held a star since 2020. Chef patron Alex Bond offers a variety of tasting menus, with five, seven and ten courses and for different tastes too, including pescatarians and vegan.
An an open kitchen within the old Victorian building provides an atmospheric setting. In summer, the restaurant has a pretty floral roof garden for a pre or post dinner tipple - a glass of English sparkling wine or one of the restaurant's unique cocktails.
The guide says: "Alchemilla occupies the red-brick vaulted arches of a Victorian carriage house, yet despite its rustic first impression, it’s a modern place. A living wall and roof garden set the scene for inspired, exciting cooking, and Head Chef Alex Bond has an admirable attitude towards sourcing ingredients which are sustainable and ethically produced.
"As well as injecting plenty of his own personality into the dishes, he has an innate skill for bringing together sweet, sour, salty and citrus elements in wonderful harmony, and arranging the highly original combinations of flavours and textures into layers. The esoteric wine list has a bias towards natural wines."
Sample dishes: Lobster, chanterelle, burnt lemon, brown butter (truffle supplement £15); smoked eel, cep, scallop dashi, liquorice; apple, buttermilk, sorrel.
Price: Five courses £85, seven courses, £110, ten courses £130.
Location: 192 Derby Road, Nottingham, NG7 1NF
Hambleton Hall
The restaurant is the proud owner of the UK’s longest-retained Michelin star, dating back four decades. The dining room attracts discerning guests with an appetite for British cuisine delivered with flair. The menu is seasonal and classic.
As well as the à la carte lunch and dinner menus, Sunday is the day for a three-course lunch with roast beef, guinea fowl or seabream.
The dress code states: "Our restaurant is elegant and the vast majority of our clients are smartly dressed." As well as dining, guests can stay in one of the hall's luxuriously furnished bedrooms or even the Croquet Suite, which has views of Rutland Water from its own private terrace.
The guide says: "When it comes to the great country house hotels of England, this was certainly one of the first. When it opened in 1980 it was considered ground-breaking, and a feeling of luxury still pervades today. The traditionally styled interior with its antique furnishings, rich fabrics and antique oil portraits is a thing of beauty and its tranquil setting on the shore of Rutland Water is nothing short of idyllic. Don’t miss drinks on the terrace if the weather allows!
"Aaron Patterson has headed up the stoves since 1992 and there’s a dependability to the cooking here; accomplished seasonal dishes have a classical base with distinct flavours and plenty of modern touches. Bread comes from their own artisan bakery and the 400-bin wine list is a real labour of love. Smooth, old-school service completes the picture."
Sample dishes: Slow cooked octopus, chorizo, lemon and ginger sauce, squid ink pasta; rib eye of Red Hill Farm pork, braised kohlrabi, apple and crackling; black fig tart tatin, fig leaf ice cream.
Price: Three-course lunch or dinner £115, lunch for less menu with two courses £54, Sunday lunch £84.
Location: Ketton Road, Oakham, LE15 8TH
John's House
John's House is Leicestershire's only Michelin-starred restaurant. Chef John Duffin returned to the family farm in Mountsorrel, after many years working in some of the country's top Michelin-starred restaurants, to open the fine dining restaurant that has kept its star this year.
He showcases the best of seasonal produce from Stonehurst Farm. A three-course menu is served at lunchtime, or there's the option for tasting menus at lunch and dinner.
For anyone who wants to take full advantage of the wine pairings, the restaurant has recently launched a number of luxury cottages. Alternatively if you want John's House to come to your house, the chefs will serve a bespoke seven-course tasting menu for a minimum of six guests.
The guide says: "You can’t get more ‘farm to table’ than this. The eponymous John was born here and now does the cooking, while his brother Tom runs the 400-acre farm that surrounds this 16th century farmhouse. From herbs, vegetables and fruits to beef, pork and lamb – their natural and organic produce informs and inspires the tasting menus; and John has the consummate skill to allow these wonderful flavours to shine.
"You start with drinks on the ground floor and are then shown upstairs to the rustic restaurant, where everyone is made to feel genuinely welcomed and no one is rushed."
Sample dishes: Truffle pudding, wild garlic and Beauvale blue; ox tartare, pumpkin seed, charcoal, grilled cream; rhubarb, hazelnut, sweet cheese, anise.
Price: Tasting menu seven courses £115, three course lunch £45.
Location: 139-141 Loughborough Road, Mountsorrel, Loughborough, Leicestershire, LE12 7AR
Winteringham Fields
OK, we admit it takes longer than an hour to get to the Lincolnshire restaurant (more like one hour 40 minutes) but we couldn't leave it out of the East Midlands round-up. The county's only Michelin-starred restaurant for the past five years promises diners a unique experience and the "ideal getaway".
Chef patron Colin McGurran and head chef Gareth Bartram (who you might have seen on Great British Menu) champion local produce for the modern British menu. As a destination restaurant in the quiet north Lincolnshire village, there's rooms for anyone wanting to stay over in the 16th century main house and the courtyard with all of life's little luxuries.
The guide says: "This 16th century former farmhouse sits in a sleepy village close to the Humber Estuary. It’s an area rich in agriculture, so it’s no surprise to find local ingredients to the fore on the menus here, be they from regional producers, nearby farms or the long-standing owners’ smallholding where they rear animals and grow veg.
"Menus take on a surprise tasting format and the deceptively unfussy-looking dishes belie the creativity and skill that has gone into crafting them. Flavours are punchy; there are great contrasts in texture; and the accompanying wine flights include some pairings from their local vineyard. The room itself has a lovely intimate feel and the staff are welcoming and attentive. Sumptuous bedrooms mix classic character with modern comforts."
Sample dishes: Lincolnshire Poacher tartlet; Longhorn beef, radish, umeboshi, kimchi; Thirkleby duck, broccoli, sesame, brasicas; chocolate delice, hazelnut, raspberry ripple.
Prices: Six course lunchtime tasting menu £99, dinner £170.
Location: 1 Silver Street, Winteringham, Lincolnshire, DN15 9ND
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