Plumtree Restaurant Guide

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”.

This “great” Lace Market Hispanic of 15 years’ standing serves tapas with international influences – and impressed sweary chef Gordon Ramsay when he brought his family to celebrate his daughter’s graduation from Nottingham Uni last summer, declaring the food “XXXXing delicious”. Top Tip – “the express menu is a great option for a speedy lunch”.

“Excellent burgers in a vibrant environment” have made this Lace Market independent the stuff of local legend. Founder Anmarie Spaziano hails from Rhode Island, where US diner culture first took root, and serves a “great variety” of burgers – including the Lemmy, which comes with Jack Daniels-infused mustard and is named after the late Motörhead leader, who visited in Annie’s early days. An offshoot in Derby closed at the end of 2023.

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”.

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.

“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.

“The fantastic Sichuan food” at this Chinese venue near the Lace Market outclasses its “canteen-like service and atmosphere” – which is why some fans “choose to take-away (rather too regularly!)”.

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.

“An encouraging addition to the Nottingham restaurant scene” launched in 2022 in a canal-side location in the burgeoning Island Quarter. Launch chef Laurence Henry moved on in November 2023, and it is currently helmed by Himalayan-born chef Hira – a “smart venue with open kitchen” that turns out “well-executed and clever” (should that be cleaver?) food with “thankfully not a tasting menu in sight” – instead, a newly launched fixed evening menu (two courses £45/three courses £53) mirroring the format of lunch.

This “buzzy” darling of the Nottingham food scene has built up a huge army of fans since its 2018 opening thanks to its “exceptional” and “reasonably priced small plates with a Japanese influence”. The one bugbear was getting a table at this previously compact 33-seater, but in September 2024, they decamped from Cannon Court to a new location ten minutes away on Low Pavement, with Yokocho, the restaurant’s sister cocktail bar, also joining the party; here’s “hoping that they can maintain the standard” in the new premises! Top Menu Tips – “brilliant sushi” and “out-of-this world Prawn Toast!”

“A wonderful discovery (thanks to last year’s Harden‘s guide!)” – this two-year-old ramen bar is run by Pete Hewitt, a 2015 MasterChef finalist and the crew behind a local street-food operation (Homeboys). It offers “a very appetising selection of specials, ramens and small plates, in a modish setting served by too-cool-for-school staff”. (The Observer’s Jay Rayner was also “bowled over” by it in his February 2024 review: “The garlic tonkotsu is made with a creamy, collagen-rich stock that speaks of pork bones simmered for many hours and fretted over continuously. The noodles have bite. The egg yolk is indeed jammy. There is a pungent kick from the burnt garlic oil”).

2023 Review: “If you want pasta come here” – this “tiny local restaurant” is “good value and worth a visit”. Owner Edin Gondzic is a veteran of the Hockley food scene with a knack for memorable restaurant names: his stable includes Botti di Mamma and the now-closed Crazy Fish My Love.

The “excellent range of vegan dishes” are “all up to scratch” at this inventive venture from former Jamie’s Italian chef Ritchie Stainsby and his wife Lauren, who started out with a tiny café in Houndsgate before graduating to bigger premises five years ago. There are separate tasting and sharing-plates menus, with gluten- and nut-free options.