Sawley Restaurant Guide

2023 Review: With its untreated oak tables, black granite surfaces and antler candelabras, chef-patron Nick Gillespie’s unusual and “very quiet” venue makes an appropriate showcase for his distinctive modern British cooking, which provided some reporters’ best meal of the year. “Staff cannot do enough for you.”

2021 Review: An “extensive” and “interesting tapas menu” (plus a “very good-value lunch”) is the formula behind this relaxed but reliably busy spot.

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”.

“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.

“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).

“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).

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”.

“Great food served by very helpful staff” has attracted a busy crowd for more than 20 years to Naveed Khaliq’s flagship, a stylishly converted former picture palace with a gilded vaulted ceiling. A well-known name for good-quality Indian cuisine in the north Midlands, it now has offshoots in Nottingham and Burton.

“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”.

“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.

“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.

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”.

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.

“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.