Southwell, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

“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.

This “superb old-style country-house hotel” is “the best place in the area by a country mile”, and still at the top of its game under Lila Arora, whose late grandmother Imogen Skirving converted it from her family home. Exec chef Gary Booth oversees a “very good” menu with a focus on seasonal local produce from the nearby Belvoir estate – and “the private dining room is fantastic”.

Exceptional ratings were the norm this year in feedback on Alex Bond’s well-established foodie destination: “a beautiful, cavernous, low-lit” space occupying the Victorian brick-vaulted space that was once the coach house on the Park Estate. It’s “not cheap” of course, but provides a “brilliant night out” for which you can choose between a three-course à la carte menu at £75 per person or a seven-course tasting menu at £130 per person: “unusual flavours” but “fabulous food, and with the right level of interaction from staff”.

In an “unassuming location adjacent to the A1”, this is a “great little restaurant” (with rooms) where the victuals – from nostalgic classics like prawn cocktails to burgers and pizzas – are never less than “steady” (and sometimes “delicious”, say fans). Top Tip – “the special themed evenings are particularly great”, and might take in tapas or surprisingly upscale Japanese and Indian tasting-menu nights.

Things look cute and ivy-clad on the outside, and properly quirky on the inside (copper kettles hang from the eaves, there’s comedy taxidermy and, most dramatically, an 18 feet-deep well between the lounge and restaurant), at this gastroboozer in one of the villages on the outskirts of Lincoln. The British pub grub (steak and ale pies, Grimsby-landed haddock) is largely locally sourced and was soundly rated.

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”.

“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.