Every so often I find myself slipping into some off-piste hostelry and wondering why it took me so long. So it was this week with Yamas, the meze and tapas parlour in Thurland Street.
The thoroughfare was once best known for the work of Nottingham’s two superstars of Victorian architecture: Watson Fothergill’s extravagant Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Bank (early 1880s) and the symmetrical Corn Exchange created a few decades earlier by TC Hine.
Both buildings have been put to other uses in a street now better known for its manicurists. Nail bars and portable telephone emporia are to retail neighbourhoods what banks and building societies were in the 1980s and 1990s … only I suspect they are bagging more lolly.
Yamas lies opposite the Corn Exchange. If its interior lacks anything, it is daylight, for the dining room is rather dark.
However it was not short of atmosphere, even during a midweek luncheon service, for most tables were taken, the front-of-house team were constantly on their toes and there was plenty of laughter to compete with music from a long way south-east of Broadstairs.
Yamas specialises in tuck from both ends of the Mediterranean: tapas from Spain and plenty of goodies from Greece.
I opted for the eastern alternative, and for several reasons. First, because of the music. Secondly because Yamas is a Greek word (it translates, roughly, as “Cheers, old boy, down the hatch, bottoms up and here’s mud in your eye!”). Thirdly, because the other day saw the 195th anniversary of local boy Lord Byron karking it in Missolonghi while generously serving the cause Greek independence.
Were it not for the time of day I’d have raised a glass of ouzo in the wordsmith’s honour. I made do instead with a bottle of Bremen-brewed Becks Blue, a very rare example of an alcohol-free lager that is actually fit for drinking.
You get an outstanding luncheon offer at Yamas: three small dishes, normally £4.50 apiece, for £8.95.
I ordered the dolmades, the salata me revithia (which you will already have identified as chickpea salad), and the spanakopita … the last-mentioned mainly because I like saying the word. Like taramasalata, or the beef stew known as stiffado, there is something satisfying in the utterance.
It all looked far too healthy, so I ordered a portion of patatas tiganites. Chips, I hear you shout.
Well, not bad at all. The lamb and rice in the tender vine leaves made for subtle dolmades – three of the things, garnished with tomato – and the filo parcels of spanakopita, packed with cheese and spinach, were lovely.
The star turn, however, was the delightful chickpea salad: a bowl of perfectly-cooked pulses, very well dressed and mixed with a nice balance of chopped black olives, onion and red pepper. My heart usually sinks when I see the chickpea recipes in my diabetes cookbook, but I could eat this job every day.
The service was excellent, and something must be going right for Yamas because the chap at the back bar, presumably the ouzo, Metaxa and retsina prefect, spent the whole session talking bookings on the phone.
By the way, I assented to the optional 99p donation which allows Yamas to fund the planting of carbon-busting fruit trees in the developing world. I always said more greenery would benefit Derby.
The essentials:
Yamas Meze & Tapas, 5 Thurland Street, Nottingham NG1 3DR. Tel 0115 950 1000. yamas.co.uk
I had … Dolmades, spanakopita, chickpea salad, three-dish lunch price, £8.95; chips, £1.80; Becks Blue, £3.10. Total (inc VAT and tree-planting donation), £14.84
Star rating (out of 10): 7
Plate rating (out of 10): 10. Everything served in proper receptacles, no daft slates, planks, etc.
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