Food lovers travel from far and wide to savour the exquisite gastronomy at Nottingham's Michelin-starred restaurants.
The city is home to two of the UK's most highly rated dining spots - Restaurant Sat Bains, in Lenton Lane, and Alchemilla, in Derby Road, near Canning Circus.
Earlier this week the Michelin Guide announced that both restaurants had retained their prestigious stars.
Eating and drinking at a Michelin-starred restaurant is like no other and, if it's a special occasion, will make it even more memorable.
Diners can't just rock up on a whim - it's essential to book months in advance.
It's expensive but it is an experience you'll never forget.
The steady flow of stellar dishes can take several hours. Tasting menu plates are small but finely balanced so diners should feel full but not fit to burst.
It isn't just Michelin, the revered food bible, that holds Nottingham's best restaurants in high esteem.
Restaurant Sat Bains was recently crowned the UK's number one restaurant by elite restaurant guide Harden's and this week was named Gourmet Bolthole of the Year by readers of Food and Travel.
Alchemilla came 14th in Harden's Top 100, making Nottingham the only city outside London to have two restaurants in the Top 20.
Restaurant Sat Bains
Cost
The two Michelin-starred restaurant, run by Sat and Amanda Bains, charges £195 per head for the 10-course tasting menu.
That is just the start. Add in a cocktail, G&T or beer before the meal, wine during dinner, and a coffee or port afterwards and the price racks up.
The innovative dishes on the menu have taken weeks, sometimes two to three months, in development, are delivered by a "world-class" team, are are made using ingredients from some of the UK's best producers.
Some of the techniques used to create different elements on the plate include pickling, foraging, pureeing, chilling, curing, steaming, sowing, barbecuing, fermenting, roasting, searing and instant freezing with liquid nitrogen.
The food is served with relaxed professionalism in the 36-seater restaurant.
For a more up close and personal experience diners can sit at the chefs' table or kitchen bench, right in the thick of the action.
A team of sommeliers have tasted and researched the world's wines, sake, spirits and non-alcoholic drinks to create the perfect marriage for the unique tasting menu.
Wine pairings (nine wines to go with the tasting menu) bump up the cost to a further £155 for each person. For an even more exclusive experience with next level wines the cost rises to £275 a head.
The menu
- The culinary journey starts with "the introduction" of bite-sized morsels of all the different tastes - salty, sweet, sour, bitter and unami.
- Smoked eel, dashi, apple, turnip
- Veal sweetbread, celeriac, vinaigrette, truffle, sauce Robert
- From the embers, new potato, hollandaise, N25 caviar
- Chawanmushi, crab, fennel
- Either Anjou pigeon, tagine spices, chicory, pear, BBQ sauce or monkfish teriyaki, truffle, brassicas, sauce nero
- The crossover from savoury to dessert rice pudding with sake
- White chocolate, spruce, miso, thyme, white pepper
- Our honey, spring 2021, pollen, grains
- The conclusion", again focusing on the five tastes
New this year is 'a taste of the garden' served in the greenhouse.
If you've still space, there's scope for more. Cheeses from the Vale of Belvoir or a cheese souffle with Beauvale Blue are an additional £15.
Wait for a table
The restaurant is open Wednesday to Friday, with dinner reservations from 5pm to 7.30pm (remember the experience takes several hours).
Lunch is available from 2pm on Saturdays.
But don't expect to go next week or even next month.
The restaurant is more or less fully booked until the end of April. Just a few slots remain.
Instead of diners booking way into the dim and distant future, the diary opens monthly when the phones are usually red hot.
Reservations for May open on Friday, February 25, and, for June, on Friday, March 25.
However, it's worth keeping an eye out for a last-minute cancellation on the restaurant's social media.
What diners say
"A fantastic evening! The whole experience was brilliant from start to finish. We were on the kitchen bench and WOW every member of staff was so welcoming and polite, even got to meet Sat himself. The chefs were extremely knowledgeable and took time to listen and answer our questions. We will 100% be going back and hopefully be back on the kitchen table. Yes it is expensive, but what do you expect from a 2 Michelin star? Thank you from four very happy customers!"
"WOW. Me and the boyfriend absolutely LOVE this place. The food is amazing and the taster menu is just perfect. You get to have 10 small courses of absolutely amazing and very beautifully made and plated food. It is quite expensive but well worth the price. Sat is a culinary genius!"
Anything else?
The restaurant also has rooms - each individual and stylishly decorated - so guests who have travelled from afar can stay over and indulge in the luxury of a king-sized bed and all mod-cons including a smart TV, air conditioning and a tea tray with homemade biscuits.
Breakfast is as much a treat as dinner - and, if they're on the menu, chorizo eggs are a must.
Alchemilla
Cost
Alchemilla boasts one Michelin star. The unique setting, a Victorian redbrick property, is where carriages where once stored for the coach house behind.
Chef Alex Bond and his team create unique tasting menus, with a strong focus on making plant-based ingredients the star of the show.
There's a number of different options. Five courses cost £85 and, if you go for wine pairings, it's a further £55 a head.
Seven courses are £110 (£75 for wine) and 10 courses £130 (wine £95).
As well as the standard menu, there's alternative pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan menus, which are all the same price.
As from April the restaurant will only be serving the five-course menu for Saturday lunch.
The menu
This is what diners can expect from the ten-course menu.
- Amuse bouche to start with: Mackerel, escabeche, chamomile/Nori, fermented mushroom caramel, aged parmesan/Hash brown, bone marrow, miso BBQ sauce/Chicken skin, artichoke, IP8
- Lobster, chanterelle, burnt lemon, brown butter (truffle supplement £15)
- Roasted scallop, coffee koji butter sauce, kaluga hybrid caviar
- Mussel, pink fir, seaweed relish
- Smoked eel, cep, scallop dashi, liquorice
- Celeriac cooked in whey, squid, black garlic, green olive
- Aged beef, burnt aubergine, smoked egg yolk
- Pigeon, caramelised hay cream, pickled walnut
- Optional cheese course
- Blackcurrant wood ice cream sandwich
- Douglas fir, beetroot, pine
- Chocolate, chicory, artichoke
- Apple, buttermilk, sorrel
Wait for a table
The booking system opens every three months and has recently opened to make reservations from April 6 until the end of June.
Again it's worth looking out for any cancellations posted on social media.
Bookings can be made for dinner Wednesday to Friday from 5pm to 7.30pm and Saturdays from 6pm to 8pm.
Lunch on Saturdays is available from noon to 1.30pm.
What diners say
"Exceeded our expectations, and they were high to start with. Lovely venue, excellent service and exceptional food. Highly recommended, can't wait to visit again. Dining here was a stunning experience from start to finish. Uniquely characterful venue that has been lovingly converted (ask to see their photo book) and now sports an open kitchen and series of seating areas under the old brick arches, plenty of natural light from above, and a tranquil roof garden for drinks."
"Staff were incredibly friendly yet professional throughout. Alchemilla offer a few different sizes of tasting menu; we went for the full 10 plus cheese plus pairings, which took a pretty magical four hours or so to tackle. Every course was different, creative and deliciously memorable. Well worth it, and would go back again in a heartbeat."
Anything else?
Food critic Grace Dent visited Alchemilla within its first year of opening, describing it as "a refreshing experience".
She added it was "compelling, Japanese-influenced, semi-fine dining that tests the boundaries of Nottingham’s eating out scene".
Alchemilla has a picturesque roof terrace designed by Lady Bay artist Wolfgang Buttress - a celebrated designer best known for The Hive at Kew Gardens.
Diners can enjoy handpicked wines, cocktails and English sparkling wine before the main event gets underway.
The restaurant doesn't have rooms for an overnight stay but the city centre's hotels are close by.
To read all the biggest and best stories first sign up to read our newsletters here.
