Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Nottingham
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Nottingham restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 28 restaurants in Nottingham and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Nottingham restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Nottingham Restaurants
1. Kottaram
Indian restaurant in Nottingham City Centre
28 Maid Marian Way - NG1
As the name itself implies, “Kottaram“, means castle in one of the Indian languages- Malayalam.As per the Indian Classic epic “The Mahabharata” back in the 12th Century BC, there lived a pow...
2. Bar Gigi
Italian restaurant in Nottingham
15 Flying Horse Walk - NG1
On the first floor at the 14th-century Flying Horse Walk building, complete with beams and stained-glass windows, this offbeat venue was inspired by Milan’s Fashion Week, and imports Italian tapas into a space above Gigi Bottega boutique. It’s entering its third year of operation: too limited feedback for a full review but such as we have on its small plates and low-intervention wines is promising.
3. Hart’s Kitchen
British, Modern restaurant in Nottingham
Standard Hill, Park Row - NG1
When the original venue of this name opened in 1997 in a different location, it became a modern British icon (Times critic Jonathan Meades was a major fan) and there‘s a pool of goodwill towards Tim Hart’s (of Rutland’s Hambleton Hall) hotel brasserie, which relocated to his nearby boutique hotel in 2019. Fans say “it is heartening to see the place getting busier with each passing year since the downsizing, as service is impeccable and the kitchen can produce some lovely food”. Even they, though, can find the menu too “mainstream” or “frustratingly samey” nowadays or results “run of the mill”. But they say “nonetheless, this is a cherished neighbourhood option”.
4. French Living
French restaurant in Nottingham
27 King St - NG1
“A Nottingham lunch place of choice” – Corsican Stéphane Luiggi and local wife Louise’s relaxed city-centre Gallic fixture is a real local treasure; they “also do good dinners and speciality evenings” where you can explore a specific region of France through more elaborate six-course dinners with matching wines.
5. Zaap
Thai restaurant in Nottingham
Unit B, Bromley Place - NG1
“Fine food and a great atmosphere make you feel you’re in Bangkok” at this funky street-food operation from Thai chef Ban Kaewkraikhot, who launched her UK business with Sukhothai in Leeds 22 years ago. She now has six Zaap sites across the north.
6. MemSaab
Indian restaurant in Nottingham
12-14 Maid Marian Way - NG1
“A large restaurant near several other rival establishments” – Amita Sawhney’s 200-seater in the city centre has become one of the better-known venues in the city since it opened over 20 years ago, thanks to its “consistently good” standard of cooking.
7. Calcutta Club
Indian restaurant in Nottingham
8-10 Maid Marian Way - NG1
2023 Review: This “simply amazing” and decidedly upmarket Indian (which opened in 2014) recreates the atmosphere of polo clubs under the Raj, with “delicious food” that is “not overpowering”, and “friendly, knowledgeable staff”.
8. The Cumin
Indian restaurant in Nottingham
62-64 Maid Marian Way - NG1
This “stalwart of the Nottingham Indian restaurant scene” is now in its seventeenth year, and “continues to serve very tasty and well-spiced food”. It’s very much a family affair, with Sunny Anand and his wife Monika running the service with his cousin Shelley Anand taking charge of the kitchen.
9. Burra Khana
Indian restaurant in Nottingham
20 Victoria Street - NG1
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.
10. Baresca
Spanish restaurant in Nottingham
9 Byard Ln - NG1
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.
11. World Service
British, Modern restaurant in Nottingham
Newdigate House, Castlegate - NG1
“Always a real treat to visit” – this well-established local institution is to be found near the castle in the atmospheric surrounds of the seventeenth century Newdigate House (also home to networking haunt the Nottingham Club), and – especially in summer when its terrace comes into its own – provides “a calm escape from the city streets”. Its rather ambitious food has proved “consistently good” over many years (and even “fabulous” on a good night) and reports this year suggest that it has attained a more consistent standard of late.
12. Shanghai Shanghai
Chinese restaurant in Nottingham
15 Goose Gate - NG1
“Very authentic and reliable Sichuan cooking” gives this Chinese venture near the Lace Market an added string to its bow, that complements its large menu of more standard Cantonese fare. “The ma po bean curd is very moreish”.
13. Annie’s Burger Shack
Burgers, etc restaurant in Nottingham
5 Broadway - NG1
This 15-year-old Lace Market venue offers “a bewildering number and variety” of “very satisfying burgers to choose between”, inspired by founder Anmarie Spaziano’s childhood home in Rhode Island, where US diner culture began. She acquired a taste for the craft beer served alongside them here in the Midlands. There’s now a second branch in Derby.
14. Iberico
Spanish restaurant in Nottingham
The Shire Hall, High Pavement - NG1
This “fabulous Spanish cellar-bar” is a long-term attraction in the Lace Market with “quality cooking”, “vaulted ceilings and perfect service” which makes it “just right for special occasions”. A spinoff tapas bar in Hockley is not so highly regarded.
15. Alchemilla
British, Modern restaurant in Nottingham
192 Derby Road - NG7
“There is a real buzz to this serious foodie venue near central Nottingham” where an “energetic team of chefs deliver a top gastronomic experience” with a “high, Michelin-starred standard of innovation and flavour”. Occupying a converted former Victorian coach house on the Park Estate with brick-vaulted rooms: “once inside, it has a cellar-like vibe that certainly distinguishes it from other culinary destinations in the area”. Sat Bains alumnus Alex Bond focuses on a tasting menu format with five courses for £95 per person and seven courses for £120 per person: “the selection is long on interesting ingredients, and the wine pairings very diverse and excellent”.
16. Five Guys
Burgers, etc restaurant in Nottingham
Nottingham Showcase, Redfield Way - NG7
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”.
17. Restaurant Sat Bains
British, Modern restaurant in Nottingham
Lenton Lane - NG7
“Still at the top of its game” and “very much worth the trip” – Sat & Amanda Bains’s converted motel remains Nottingham’s flagship destination, even if its location leaves a little to be desired (just off a large dual carriageway, next to an industrial estate, beside a National Grid pylon and the concrete banks of the River Trent). Once inside, the stylish interior lives up to the high ambitions of the extensive tasting menus: either ten courses for £195 per person; or blow out with the 15-course option at £275 per person. In either case, reports say “the flavours are so well-crafted that you want to give each mouthful plenty of time, and before you know it you are well into your third hour”. One or two reporters find it hard to get over the “extortionate price tag”, but even they describe the cooking as “outstanding”. (Aside from the main dining room, which seats 28, other options for a meal include the Tasting Room for 4-6 diners, and the kitchen Tasting Bench for 4 people).
18. Cafe Roya
Vegetarian restaurant in Nottingham
130 Wollaton Rd - NG9
“Amazingly creative vegan and vegetarian food” continues to win raves for this fixture by chef Roya Bishop, who did time at Hansa’s restaurant in Leeds, before finessing her style alongside Michelin-starred chef Sat Bains; the food is so “deeply satisfying” that even non-veggies “never fail to be stunned” by a visit.
19. The Cod's Scallops
Fish & seafood restaurant in Wollaton
170 Bramcote Ln - NG8
“About as good as fish ’n’ chips gets” – some 20 varieties of catch come ‘baked, battered or naked’ at John Molnar’s award-winning restaurant and takeaway, now with five outposts across Nottingham and Birmingham; nor is the venue, launched in 2011, just a mere chippie either: alongside sashimi-grade tuna, the menu offers the vegetarian ‘Momma Bains’ menu of samosas and curries, conceived by local Michelin hero Sat Bains plus his ma (hence its name).
20. Victoria Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Nottingham
Dovecote Ln - NG9
2022 Review: A “long-standing favourite”, this “brisk and friendly” red-brick late-Victorian boozer serves a “splendid range of beers” and a solid food menu[e]. One great fan and regular, though, feels “the dining room feels utilitarian and a little underwhelming compared to the bar”.
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