Dean has mentioned a few times now that he’d love to go to Nottingham to visit Restaurant Sat Bains, so this Christmas I thought it would be a lovely treat for us in the New Year. This week we finally got to go and had a truly amazing experience.
We’d both been looking forward to going away for the night, spending quality time together and doing what we both love most – EATING! We got off to a bit of a late start but managed to arrive there about 3.30pm. We were shown to our lovely room, which I had already chosen when booking (number 5) – it was really cosy and came with a freestanding bath not far from the bed.
We decided to go down to the lounge area to have a few drinks and catch up on a few things. Although we live and work together sometimes you don’t get chance to talk much (although if I had my way I’d talk to Dean all day, not that he’d be listening 😂).
We were enjoying the ambience and relaxing when who walked past, only Sat Bains himself. He was very friendly and welcomed us to his restaurant. It was quite refreshing to know that he was there and would be having a lot of input in our experience here. Most of the restaurants we’ve been to in the past that are run by well known chefs are lacking in one thing – the chef himself!
We went to get ready for dinner and discussed what we thought would be on the menu. Two of my guesses were scallops and partridge while Dean went for mackerel and pheasant. By the time we arrived downstairs we were both starving! The friendly staff presented us with the menu (we were having the 7 course taster), I think the smile on my face said it all, I was right with both scallops and partridge 😊
The meal
This was our introduction, a selection of amuse bouche.
We were offered an extra course, for which Sat himself won three 10’s for during his time competing on The Great British Menu. This was a 62°C sous vide egg done for two hours along with various textures of peas. We added it to our menu as the first course.
It was a great start to the evening and was truly delicious. The egg had a texture totally different to any I’ve had before. We’ve got a sous vide so might give this a try at home!
“Scallop – Japanese influences” – this was my favourite course, it was full of flavour with lots of depth and I loved the Japanese influences.
“Aged Beef, 200-240 days, mushrooms” – This was Dean’s favourite course, he enjoyed it that much he got a little emotional 😂 and said it’s one of the best things he’s eaten in a long time!
“From the wood fire, maris piper, chestnut / parmesan / truffle” – this was a real delight with the taste of the truffle.
“Partridge, cabbage, pine / thyme” – this was our main course. Everything on the plate was fantastic, we both could have eaten more!
Our crossover course was a small peace of miso fudge, with yuzu gel on top. It was tiny but tasted delicious.
“Chocolate, cherry, ?” – our first dessert which had a secret ingredient in it. The waitress said she would ask us if we knew what it was after we’d finished it. It had an interesting flavour and the dessert itself was so smooth and silky it just disappeared in your mouth. Dean said he could taste banana (I hate banana) and I thought it was very bitter and smoky. The waitress returned, I told her I thought the secret ingredient was tobacco. Her face lit up and she immediately asked if I was a chef! 😊 She said not many guest guess that, Dean looked very impressed! It was an interesting dessert to say the least.
“Bramley apple croquante” – this was much more of a sweeter dessert with sourness coming from the apples.
“Conclusion” – we were told to eat this as one. It was quite funny putting it all in your mouth at once but had an amazing cold ice cream underneath the candy floss, it had great flavours of chilli and lemongrass.
Once we had finish all our courses we were asked if we like’d to go through to the kitchen – of course we did! We got to meet Sat and have a brief chat with him, Dean talked about the amazing beef dish was and how I guessed the secret ingredient, then he asked us what we did for a living, of course I told him about the blog! I thought this was a great finishing touch and made the whole thing very personal.
We had a fantastic time at Restaurant Sat Bains and our experience a very special one. We would highly recommend it to anyone!
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