Nottingham Restaurant Guide

“You feel you could actually be in France when eating here” at this Nottingham fixture, established in 1994, with “excellent food and an unchanging French ambience”. (Stéphane Luiggi, its Corsican founder, and his team made a lot of new friends as the city’s “star performer for takeaway food during lockdown”.)

This casual offshoot of Ban Kaewkraikhot’s Thai fine-dining brand Sukhothai wins solid ratings across the board for its “good-quality” street food and atmospheric evocation of bustling Bangkok.

2019 Review: “Not your average Asian venue” and totally not what you would expect off the foyer of a boring-looking business hotel – “amazing” fusion cuisine and “sushi to die for” have earned consistently high ratings for a number of years at this unexpected modern Pan-Asian mashup. Unfortunately there is another constant: service is often “hit and miss”.

Amita Sawhney’s buzzy and capacious city-centre fixture is often touted as a leading light among Nottingham’s Indian restaurants, even on a par with London stars such as Benares and Cinnamon Club. The “excellent cooking” earns consistent and unanimous plaudits (if in relatively limited numbers this year), with dishes ranging from the traditional to the contemporary, at a good variety of price points – including a bargain early evening two-course set meal at just £15.95.

This gourmet Indian, inspired by the exclusive polo clubs of the Raj, wins high ratings in every chukka for its “very good” food and service. Consistent success since its opening in 2014 paved the way for a second outlet from the same team, the two-year-old Maharaja’s Retreat just along Maid Marian Way.

2021 Review: “Freshly cooked food to a high standard” and “really excellent service from Monika and Sunny” make the Anand family’s Punjabi specialist stand out from the crowd on Nottingham’s ‘Madras Mile’ of curryhouses.

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.

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.

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”.

Near the castle – and with a courtyard garden – this locally famous venue owes its “quite formal but elegant” premises to ‘The Nottingham Club’ which it partly inhabits (a private members’ club for men and women of the local professional and business community). The food has tended to split opinion in the past but this year was deemed “very inventive” to “exceptional” (albeit “quite expensive”).

A monster menu that claims to include 250 dishes – ranging from some “authentic Sichuan dishes” to dozens of “really good” Cantonese classics – draws an appreciative crowd to this basic Lace Market venue, including a reassuring number of Chinese customers.

It’s “always a fun visit to Annie’s, for its great atmosphere and great burgers from an extensive menu” – which features no fewer than 35 combinations with 10 different sauces. Flipping ‘Rhode Island-style’ burgers in Nottingham’s Lace Market since 2009, it now has a Derby spin-off, although the branch in Worcester closed in 2020.

2018 Review: This trendy boutique hotel dining room on the Lace Market is something of an enigma. On the downside despite having an interior originally designed by the late David Collins, it never seems to generate a huge amount of buzz. On the plus side its “interesting” cooking is consistently well-rated and praised for its “good value”.

“London-quality tapas in a really atmospheric setting” makes this buzzy and well-priced Lace Market cellar “a real gem” when you’re in the market for a “creative, inventive” meal. The more casual Carlton Street spin-off is also lauded for its “great value” and (appropriately) speedy ‘Menu Rapido’.

“Sat Bains's protégé has done good” – having taken over this “modish” Victorian coach house on the Park Estate (just outside the city centre) in 2017, chef Alex Bond's “wonderful natural and plant-focused eatery” rates mention alongside that of his former mentor nowadays and again receives raves for its “fabulous” food (showcased through five-, seven- or ten-course tasting menus).

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: 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.

“Just outstanding in every way.” It is testament to Sat Bains and wife Amanda’s hospitality that they have created one of the country’s best-rated gastronomic destinations in a former motel, on the outskirts of an industrial estate, amidst the flyovers on the edge of the city (near the banks of the Trent). “Once you find it, you will keep going back for more” on all the accounts we received this year, thanks to its “superb cuisine and a correspondingly varied wine list, full of surprises”. In 2022, they will be presenting a ten-course tasting menu at £195 per person or you can eat at the Chef’s Table and/or the Kitchen Bench at £225 each. There’s also a development kitchen – ‘Nucleus’ – although its future direction has not yet been announced.