Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms

Sat Bains' two Michelin-starred restaurant is, by now, a fine dining veteran, having opened its doors a staggering 25 years ago and retained its second star since 2011. But time is a beautiful thing, and if Sat Bains was great then, it’s outstanding now, sharpening its sword over the years to become a gleaming, powerful weapon of a restaurant.

One look at chef Sat’s Instagram bio, which heeds the quote ‘I am an artist that uses food as a medium’, will give you an insight into the type of cooking you can expect here. His menu is brave and unique, but it’s also filled with comforting things that celebrate the joy of eating. Crusty, hot treacle bread served with heavily salted homemade butter, for example.  

Each course is bursting with concentrated flavour and mouthwatering textural combinations, like flaky crab meat in an umami bisque elevated with the crunch of paper-thin peanut brittle. A velvety potato dish, one of our favourites from the menu, marries contrasting textures with salty kicks, from parma ham to raw truffle to big bites of fluffy baked potato.   

The cooking is intricate and clever, but it’s also filled with fun surprises. Mid-course, we’re led from our table to a greenhouse in the restaurant’s kitchen garden, where one of the chefs crafts bubbly, wood-fired flatbreads in an effortless 60-second demonstration. These are finished with parmesan cream and verdant herb oil, then served still steaming with a crisp beer. Come on! Another dish entitled ‘the crossover’, which functions as a bridge between the savoury and sweet courses, pairs mellow sweetcorn ice cream with olive oil, miso caramel, popcorn and passion fruit in a melee of tang, salt and citrus. Sat challenges the diner constantly, like when infusing creamed rice pudding with truffle, but the execution is always spot on. Needless to say, we didn’t want the meal to end.

A considered wine pairing features bottles from some of the best winemakers across the globe, meandering from mineral-rich whites to berry-heavy reds, to sake and sweet wines. ‘We wouldn’t put a bottle on the menu that we wouldn’t want to drink ourselves’, explains Sat.  

As for the setting? The dining room feels like a countrified home, with large tables, red brick walls and uber-cosy lighting, fake candles and all. 10 courses are £199. 15 courses are £275. Sat Bains is a destination restaurant for sure, but this truly is food of the finest pedigree.  

Holding two Michelin stars for over a decade is no mean feat - especially in the UK where that second star is not easily earned. That feat seems even less likely when you're a fine dining restaurant placed amid electricity pylons near the Nottingham ring road, but Sat Bains had always imagined that he would earn his stars in the most unlikely of settings. Not only has Restaurant Sat Bains set the standard for fine dining in the UK for well over a decade, it has also proven to be a breeding ground for superb chefs - the likes of Gareth Ward at Ynyshir, Alex Bond at nearby Alchemilla, Niall Keating at Luna and more have passed through this kitchen over the years, going on to hold Michelin stars of their own.

Originally the Hotel de Clos, Bains relaunched the hotel as Restaurant Sat Bains in 2002 and won his first Michelin star a year later with intricate modern British tasting menus. Two decades later the set up is rather different - the restaurant boasts its own urban kitchen garden now, as well as an al fresco courtyard, lounge bar and a number of rooms for overnight stays - but the philosophy is the same - to make guests feel as though they have had a completely unique experience. 

Dishes on the tasting menu come and go, and are gradually adjusted and iterated on with the team holding regular meetings and tastings to discuss how dishes can evolve. Food at Restaurant Sat Bains is precise, intricate, and measured. Examples of dishes include ratte potato jabugo with tartare sauce and seven-year old parmesan, Cornish crab with brown butter ice cream, and BBQ monkfish with truffle, mushroom and a red wine sauce. Bains' time at iconic Les Jardin des Sens restaurant in France is also evident in dishes like veal sweetbread with pickled cucumber and lentil velouté.

Wine plays a huge part in menu development here - the wine list is equally carefully researched and constructed, and is constantly evolving to match the menu.