Plumtree Restaurant Guide

2019 Review: Formerly known as the Wilford Green, this May 2018 newcomer has received a major revamp to re-open as a contemporary gastropub, with steaks and burgers topping the menu.

“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 “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.

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.

2021 Review: “When all you want is an old-school burger”, these US-based arrivals of recent years really “hit the spot” – you can “build your own”, with “tons of accessories”; plus “seriously addictive fries”, “thick milkshakes”, and “more soda flavours than is reasonable”. “The eat-in experience is as depressing as McDonald’s”, though, in fact perhaps more so – “some branches have a strangely gloomy ambience” – but fans feel that “if you don’t mind 1980s-rock, a trip can still be surprisingly fun”.

2019 Review: This six-year-old tearoom in “lovely surroundings” (a cute brick building with a terrace, chequered tiles and vintage china cups) is “an oasis of calm”, with “always a tasty quiche or Welsh rarebit to be recommended”.

2021 Review: “Very reliable and reasonably priced (especially at lunch. or for the popular pre-theatre menú deli dia)” – Escabeche’s lively, city-centre spin-off provides “tasty tapas in a utilitarian but appealing setting”. On a nice day, nab one of the few tables outside.

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…”

2021 Review: Tom Brooke, launched this 70-seater in Nottingham in September 2019 by splitting his existing Red Dog Saloon site (sibling to the well PR’d one in Shoreditch, as well as three others around the country) into two. The all-day format will offer Indian small plates cooked on a charcoal BBQ, with influences from Middle Eastern countries such as Persia, Turkey and Lebanon.

2022 Review: In Spring 2022, former MasterChef winner Laurence Henry, is to be chef patron at this promising looking venue, which is part of The Island Quarter (a 36 acre, £1bn regeneration project) in the city centre. Spanning three storeys (and 2,000 sq m), Henry has been involved with the restaurant and bar space from the get go. Each level will be different: the ground floor will be a large open plan bar and grill overlooking the canal; the middle floor will be Henry’s ‘signature restaurant’; and there will be an events space at the top. Interiors are by design studio Macaulay Sinclair, the company behind Dishoom, Hawksmoor, and Caravan.

“Top ramen” scores solid marks for this popular yearling which opened in August 2022, and which serves a few other options like corn dogs or Thai chicken larb alongside the noodle dishes. We expect another location will be coming soon.

“If you want pasta come here” – this “tiny local restaurant” is “good value and worth a visit”. Owner Edin Gondzic is a veteran of the Hockley food scene with a knack for memorable restaurant names: his stable includes Botti di Mamma and the now-closed Crazy Fish My Love.

“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.