Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms — Restaurant in Nottingham

Calm but social atmosphere, with piano covers of famous music playing in the background and dimly lit but stylish surroundings such as a statue made of cutlery and tables finished with deer hide. We began the night sitting in the lounge bar for an aperitif before the meal. In my opinion it felt a bit awkward, the main dining areas are much more pleasant. Let's be honest, you come here for the food, you want to get straight to it! My wife is pregnant, 2nd trimester, which we notified the week before. To our delight they had researched the NHS guidance and modified the menu to suit her. There were options though; Seeing my menu, my wife did insist on the lamb, her favourite, for one of the dishes. Where we were sat down in the main restaurant, I could see the kitchen and would often see Sat Bains himself applying the finishing touches, no doubt a delight for the chef table experience in a slightly different area a few meters away. The first course (of 10) swiftly came and was aptly named "Introduction". It had all 5 tastes in a convenient isolated form. These 5 tastes are what shapes all courses in Sat Bains; salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. I personally loved the gougerre pumpkin and parmesan - a pure bite of umami! There were some surprise courses too, and the whole affair was expertly carried out to precision, demonstrating a level of experience and expertise you could only find in a place like this. Sometimes it did feel a bit systematic from the majority of staff, but one in particular brought lots of character and charm making us feel at ease (I think her name was Janice). She complimented my wife on wearing heels while pregnant and offered anecdotes throughout the night. Wearing masks, it was difficult to hear and understand some of the staff, but she was loud and clear which we appreciated.

Back to the food and, while me and my wife have eaten at Michelin star and other quality restaurants before, the food here is in another league. We came here 6 years ago and were blown away. I'm happy to report that Sat has not become complacent and the food is still the best I've ever tasted. Without going into too much detail and spoiling the surprise of hearing the carefully crafted descriptions, the dishes we had were: Parmesan quiche with slow cooked onions, lovage mousse and home grown herbs. Black treacle bun, sliced sourdough, Lincoln butter slightly salted. Hand dived scallop cooked in foaming butter with caviar and seaweed emulsion. Jersey royal finished on the embers of a wood stove, terriyaki eel, nettle pesto, hollandaise sauce. Veal sweetbread basted in butter covered in sauce Robert finished with a horseradish cream. For my wife, a mushroom kiev with truffle butter. Japanese truffle custard with 60 month parmesan peppered with cauliflower shards. Monkfish tikka with mango butter curry sauce. Sauteed raspberries, sweet rice crispies, iced saki. Rocky road style dessert based off the road the restaurant is situated, aerated chocolate covered with 70% chocolate mousse and honeycombe pieces. Home grown elderflower wafer covering vanilla ice cream with strawberry pieces.

To bring us full circle we then finished with the "Conclusion" which was a dish of 5 tastes similar to the Introduction but with a sweeter kick. To end, we opted for green tea, which came with 5 leaves of indulgant chocolate styled in a variety of flavours with digestive properties; camomile, matcha green tea, chai, rose and fennel. The last one I had to forego as it left a harsh spicy aftertaste, although I was absolutely stuffed at this point! Overall, we were there for almost 5 hours! This may sound long but it actually felt like a dream and I was gutted...

Firstly, I want to apologise to Sat Bains and the lovely people who looked after us when we visited as I've taken so long to submit this review. I went on 5th July for my 50th birthday and my husband and I were treated like nobility! We splashed out for the occasion and had the full 15 course menu with wine match and stayed the night in one of their rooms.

When we first arrived, a passing chef stopped what he was doing to help us with our bags! We were greeted by a lovely chap on reception who made us feel like we were very special guests and we were shown to our room which was delightful and had everything we needed. We went and sat in the garden for a drink - as a gardener, I loved looking around, and even more husband was impressed although he hates gardening! Prior to dinner, we had one of their cocktails - OMG. How on earth do they do these?? We had different cocktails but tried each others - it quite literally was a taste sensation!! Forget your Pina coladas! One sip started with a taste of fruit, then smokiness, then heat, then something else...it was like Willy Wonka's chewing gum! I've never had anything like it. It was pure alchemy.

The meal, all 15 courses were absolutely to die for. Each one was immaculate and tasted divine. Our waitress and 'personal wine expert' were wonderful. They were busy doing their job, but they also made time to chat and answer questions. They were also very genuine and sincere and we got the impression they enjoyed talking to us and certainly enjoyed their jobs. There was no pretentiousness from any of the staff, or Sat Bains, who were all very friendly, chatty and jolly! They really enhanced our stay.

I really dislike seafood and so I was initially dubious about having 15 courses containing so many seafood dishes...HOWEVER, I loved them all! I had turbot, caviar, crab....!! All divine. And such unusual concepts and mixtures of ingredients. Genius.

A really lovely touch was that Sat made sure he said happy birthday to me in person and we had a chat - he's a great guy. Again, very sincere and genuine. I felt quite honoured.

So we went to bed stuffed! And had breakfast in the morning which was also wonderful. I had the chorizo eggs, on Sat Bain's recommendation, and my hubby had fry up, both with a twist. Everything was home produced and you could taste it. Amazing.

On the way home, we looked at other restaurants that would have before tickled our fancy and thought, what's the point of going anywhere else after that because they all pale into insignificance!!!

Big thanks to Sat and everyone else who looked after us. I've been to some top notch restaurants and some expensive ones but I would deffo recommend this place to anyone who enjoys good food- it's on another level.

My husband does the cooking in our house and is very good but I've told him he needs to...

We booked the Chefs table experience on Saturday 1st September 7.45pm for 4 people.

We arrived a little early and were warmly greeted. Our visit was to celebrate a very good friends 50th birthday which your team were aware of and they did make reference to this when we were sat in the lounge area enjoying a pre-dinner drink. Whilst in the lounge, we were approached by your female sommelier who asked if we would be looking to drink wine with our meal. Two of our party were happy to share a bottle of a New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc , but we were advised that it wasn’t a wine you hold in stock and were suggested to consider an English wine from your menu. The lady very kindly poured us a small taster to see if the wine suited our palate and whist one of the party were happy with the wine, the other individual didn’t like the taste. When we were approached by the lady again she asked if we like the wine and wanted to order it , we replied ‘ we have decided against the wine, sorry’, at this point we were met with an fairly loud exhale from the lady as she walked off. This took us all by surprise but we put it aside and moved on.

Upon settling into the Chefs table we were all very impressed by the set up and were excited for the experience to begin. I must say that all of our dishes were obviously very carefully executed and it showed the attention to detail that you expect of a 2 Michelin star establishment, very impressive. The interaction with each of your chefs was a really pleasant and enjoyable experience. Our highlight was the Green House experience with Chef Kelvin, what a great time we had.

There were however a few other events that occurred on the evening that took us by surprise and are things that we absolutely not expect to have to encountered in any restaurant, let alone a Michelin Star restaurant.

Throughout our meal we had to ask 3 different individuals to top up our water glasses. After the first time you would expect for this to be addressed for the rest of the meal, so to have to ask on another two occasions it was very disappointing and we were left with empty water glasses for quite some time. In addition to this, our plates were cleared on various occasions by the male sommelier. On one occasion he reached and across over the table, I think as there were only 4 of us he felt it was easier to clear the table by reaching over. On another occasion he stood next to one of the party and as he cleared her plate his sleeve was touching her bread on the side plate, causing the treacle bread to be rolling around the plate.

As this was a treat for our dear friend we were left a little disappointed by the service on the night and felt it really let down the attention to detail that your chefs put into their dishes, not the overall experience that we...