It’s a rarified world we foodies live in. With GBM on the telly every year and reams of print on the topic of food it’s easy to forget. But we stopped tonight at the Premier Inn less than two miles from Nottingham’s only Michelin-starred restaurant, the 2 star
Restaurant Sat Bains. Asked the receptionist for a taxi. “To where? Never heard of it. Is it far?” He spoke to the taxi company. They’d never heard of it either. Langton Lane, we offered. Oh, must be near the casino. Right-o.
I’m glad the taxi driver found the right spot (just off the dual carriageway, a narrow farm track on the edge of the industrial estate, sheltered in the lee of electric pylons) because we sat down to my favourite meal of the year so far. Over ten courses we enjoyed an array of strong flavours confidently combined with scarcely a missed step among them. I’ll just punch up some highlights…
The crab salad was epic. White meat combined with enough brown to pack it full of flavour, on a salty peanut sauce with flakes of crispy peanut brittle, topped with shredded pickled mooli. Really confidently banging the drum for sweet, salty, sour.
I’ve had baked onion before, but this one was baked to gooey, sweet, don’t-need-a-knife perfection and served with thyme granita. I’ve had thyme granita before; it’s nice and whispers thyme gently across your tongue. This granita belted out thyme like a marching band.
Oh, and I must shout out the duck liver. Who would have thought apricot puree, slivers of green bean and pickled cranberries would be such a hit with nitrogen-frozen duck liver shards? Green bean and duck liver. That was enlightening all by itself. The granola on top added a simple crunchy sweetness.
I’ve been saving myself for the main course. It was pressed lamb, what must have been a fairly fatty piece of meat but with the fat cooked out through the meat so totally that only the wonderfully deep lamb-y taste remained. And this was such a light main, with a goat cheese mousse, a lamb consomme and slices of pickled radish and sweet onion. Summer on a plate. I could have been romping across the grassy hills taking bites out of the gamboling lambs around me. Or something.
The most brilliant pud was the first: sweet “curry”. It’s a brave chef that uses cumin confidently in a dessert, and salt. But that’s what made the mango sorbet and fruits so marvelous. Its only in the French tradition that sweet is invariably the dominant flavour in a dessert, with sour (citrus) and bitter (caramel) the lone combatants against the sugar. Great to find chefs bringing clear eastern influence to the sweets.
I did like the last pud too. It’s easy to mess about with strawberries and screw up one of the few foods that nature gives us in its essentially unimproveable form. In this case the strawbs are pretty much left to themselves, but partnered with a frisky wood sorrel granita to cleanse the taste buds. I’m familiar with the wood sorrel leaves scattered over lamb or seafood for a citric edge, but this is the first time I’ve seen them step into the pudding world and it was lovely.
This was a confidently inventive £85 tasting menu, a real eye-opener with plenty to talk about. And it was faultless. Despite the surprising location, the restaurant itself is modern and welcoming, set in converted red-brick farm buildings. Service was up to 2-star Michelin standards (although of course Michelin stars are only about the food, of course), the wine list was good and our sommelier very helpful, but there’s nothing at the cheaper end. I’m not saying anything new when I conclude that Restaurant Sat Bains is definitely one of the UK’s best destination restaurants. Go, go!
