Restaurant Sat Bains (British, Modern Restaurant)

“Sat is a genius”, and the “edgy” and “amazingly executed” cuisine at his fringe-of-Nottingham HQ can be “beyond delicious”, both within the main dining room, or – if you want to push the boat out further – at ‘Nucleus’, a new six-seater chef’s table within his development kitchen. True “it is difficult to get away from the fact that it is a ’70s, brick, motel-like structure, in an industrial setting” amidst pylons and “under a ring road”, but for most reporters the “exceptional food more than compensates for the bizarre location”. Other niggles this year? – that it is “so expensive” seemed to grate a little more, and service – on most accounts “hugely professional” – also showed instances of being “a little automated”, or in the odd case even dictatorial.

“You have to add this to your bucket list!” – Sat Bains’s famous restaurant-with-rooms won the No. 1 slot this year in our listing of Top-100 UK Restaurants. It certainly doesn’t win its accolades for its location – on the edge of a city-fringe industrial estate, surrounded by fly-overs and pylons (once memorably described by the chef himself as ‘like finding a diamond in a piece of turd’). But in culinary terms, “it’s an experience from start to finish”, delivering “out-of-this-world, quirky and offbeat” dishes, with “amazing flavours”. A seat at the chef’s table provides a particularly good trip, and – for those in search of something even more ‘experiential’ – in June 2015 Sat Bains opened Nucleus, a ‘restaurant within-a-restaurant’ with just 6 seats and its own dedicated kitchen.

The “strange” city-fringe location is a bit “Crossroads Motel”… but “once you’re inside you can’t see the flyover and pylons”, from Sat Bains’s famous restaurant-with-rooms; “you’re here for the kitchen”, and the food is indeed “incredible” – just like the prices!