Bunny, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“Exquisite cooking” using “quality ingredients” are the watchwords at this “thoroughly professional outfit” – a converted village forge from former Savoy chef Danny Jimminson and his wife Sandra. (This year’s biggest complaint? “We left feeling uncomfortably full. We think it‘s our age. The cooking is exquisite but for younger folks with bigger appetites!”)

Sat & Amanda Bains’s converted motel sits on the fringes of the city, down a lane by the Trent amidst railway flyovers, electricity pylons and a small industrial estate. It’s not the lead-up you would expect to one of the nine restaurants outside of London with two Michelin stars. For an evening meal, choose either ten courses for £199 per person; or 15 for £275 per person; or, you can now book a shorter three-course experience at £145 per person in the Tasting Room or at The Kitchen Bench, rather than in the main dining room. Feedback here is overwhelmingly positive, accrediting the experience as “very inventive…”, “top-notch” and “with charming service front and back of house”. But while gripes about the prices are surprisingly few, the same could also be said about the number of diners reporting this as their best meal of the year, even while it is almost universally hailed as “exceptional all round”.