A 2 star Michelin restaurant in Nottingham? Rooms, steps away from their restaurant? Oh no, would I be able to book dinner & a room with only a week's notice? The stars aligned and YES, I had a reservation (restaurant is open only 4 nights/week). Its tucked away on back roads near the River Trent. We arrived early and took a stroll for a couple hours around the river. Upon our return, we were immediately led to a perfectly cozy, quaint room. Outdoor patio seating, indoor seating area, cold water, fantastic tea & coffee, with fresh milk in the room were waiting along with a hot shower and plush towels. We were so comfortable, we were disappointed that we had to rush off for meetings. We returned for our 9pm dinner reservation. We arrived 15 minutes early for a cocktail. And then we were led to the table for our culinary adventure to begin. I have been to 2 star Michelin restaurant, Melisse and 3 star Michelin restaurant Per Se and each restaurant offers a unique experience. Sat Bains was elegant, yet casual and the only one to offer a room that was commensurate with the dining experience. Thus, its been our favorite experience. We opted for the 7 course tasting menu and added Duck Egg and Wine Pairings. The 7 courses included Scallop, Deer, Royal Kidney, Grouse, Chocolate and Blackcurrant. The wine pairings were a global experience, as well, with wines from Germany, Australia, Hungary, Uruguay, Argentina, New Zealand and California. Its always a challenge with an evening like this to not "tap out." We barely made it through, but loved the ability to schlepp to the comfort of our room. But it doesn't end there! In the morning, an incredible breakfast is provided in the atrium. Fresh orange juice, the BEST yogurt I had ever eaten, etc. After breakfast, I just wanted to go back to sleep, but alas, back to work. Finally, ALL staff was friendly, accommodating and we would love to return. An extraordinary experience. read more

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Thanks to Daniel Patterson and Coi, I have now been exposed to the great cooking of Sat Bains. Like his counterpart in SF, the seaonality and local focus of ingredients yields magic when combined with his creative combinations and technique. -Oxtail in mushroom ketchup, served with a sous-vide duck egg and shaved porcinis. Apparently the ketchup is of 1700s historical recipes brought back by Heston Blumenthal . LIke a Worcestershire sauce, it melded with the beef and egg, paired with Radikon 'Oslavje' from Friuli. -Brassicas, radishes, flowers, charred onion ash, and smoked Hollandaise. A signature off of his tasting menu, it was surprising that this was served after the protein but then the smoked elements with the ash maybe strong enough to mask the complexity of the former mushroom ketchup. I think I'd make a UK trip for the Olympics next year as an excuse to come and try more of his fare. read more

Part 2: The Crossover - a dish to ease the transition between savoury and sweet, it was an absolute mind bending belter. A 'jammy dodger' made from tomato, and a sherbet dip made from carrot covered in a sweet, sticky sauce and the sherbet being fully spoonable once the carrot had gone. Lenton Lane - world class. An interpretation of the classic Rocky road (and Lenton Lane definitely is a rocky road - my suspension will never be the same), it was the most intensely rich, flavoursome and chocolatey dessert I've ever had. The honeycomb was incredible, the aero light and the chocolate snow added last minute is inspired. A picture of a dish as well. Perilla - man oh man, another one I didn't expect a huge amount from when it was presented, but a proper little box of tricks it was. The cold, possibly semifreddo coconut cream was unbelievably tasty, and distracted me from the cherry hiding underneath. The cherry took me by surprise, a very pleasant surprise! It was the perfect foil to the rich Lenton Lane that came before it. Conclusion - another absolute mind melter, it's candy floss, but hiding within us a solid, sweet block of, what tastes a lot like Thai green curry. It's all very weird but absolutely delicious. There's every chance the pastry chef is a wizard. Also a shout to the black treacle bread! This is an experience that will stay with me forever. I'd built this up in my head so much before going, and it absolutely exceeded all expectations. You won't find a better restaurant in the UK in my opinion - Sat and the team, you are absolute legends! read more

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My ski friend summed it up perfectly by saying : 'There is no wasted mouthful at this restaurant.' The reunion of my ski gang at Alton Towers this weekend gave me the perfect chance to introduce them to the 2 Michelin star wizardry of Sat Bains' cooking As we were a party of 6, they offered us the Kitchen Table experience, which was new to me. On arrival, I was surprised to find that we were immediately led out of the main building, past some rabbit hutches (we were assured they were pets, not part of the dinner menu!) and into the cool development kitchen at the back of the property We were introduced to Canadian Dan, who would be our chef for the evening and he helped us feel at home immediately. The kitchen has some great kitchen technology on show as it's a working kitchen (Henkelman vacuum packer, anyone?) and the 6 seats are arranged at the counter with a great view of everything going on in the kitchen. As you can guess, this was heaven for me and Dan was very happy to indulge all my food geek questions Dining in the Kitchen Table means that you get a £99 8 course menu (the other dining areas get either a 7 or 10 course menu). There are optional courses of Sat's 62 degree egg which shot him to fame on the Great British Menu TV program and cheese. The sommelier was great at advising on wine choices and despite not being in the main dining area, we were well looked after in all aspects of service The menu is meant as a surprise, so there was nothing to guide us except Dan announcing each dish as it was served and of course, my prying eyes trying to guess! Amuse bouche 1 - horsseradish ice cream sandwich, lovage tuile A lovely amalgamation of disparate flavours which worked well together Amuse bouche 2 - wild garlic soup with horseradish chawanmushi The chefs go foraging and the foraged ingredients, like the wild garlic are all found within 100m of the restaurant. Lovely soup but the set custard could have done with a little more horseradish flavour Some yummy treacle bread and sourdough was served with Lincolnshire poacher butter and their own butter made at the restaurant, both with 3% salt. Let's just say we asked for and received extra treacle bread! 1. Seared scallop. scallop tartare, compressed watermelon, samphire, caviar Lovely to see how to cook scallops perfectly though I loved the scallop tartare more, which was dressed in homemade soured cream 2. Duck liver muesli Such a simple name for my favourite dish on this menu. Basically, the main component are cold pebbles of liquefied foie gras, which have been solidified by dropping them into liquid nitrogen. The most amazing rich intense flavour emerges as they melt on your tongue and match the crunchy toasted oats, cranberrynad other sweet components in the dish 3. Salmon, oyster froth/broth, pickled cucumber, plum sauce, puffed wild rice The salmon had been brined for 10 minutes and then sous vided for 10 minutes at 42 degrees, coming out almost like sashimi but with more flavour. Again, perfectly matched with the other ingredients for flavour, texture and temperature 4. Shallot, thyme, thyme granite Seriously, how can you get a baked shallot to be so sweet and have so much flavour? Then, the thyme granite lifts it and makes it light. Genius 5. Roasted roe deer, venison tartare, mushroom ketchup, seared mushroom, pine mayonnaise Roe, a deer, a female deer. Sorry, couldn't resist!. Back to the food - in this dish, they paired the deer with stuff like pine which they would eat. Again, the tartare was my favourite component with great gamey flavour. The flavours were enhanced by some pine heated up in a mini pan to give the aroma of pine! I spied some purple powder on the plate and asked Dan what it was - juniper berry powder. The attention to detail is mind-boggling 6. Lolly stick of beetroot ice cream , white chocolate & freeze dried raspberries Great palate cleanser 7. 'Tiramisu' A base of white chocolate which had been aerated in a Pacojet topped with other deconstructed components of the Italian dessert classic. Very clever, great fun and yummy 8. 'Strawberries & cream' Another delightfully judged dish with sweet and acid flavours of strawberry mixing with comforting unctuous creaminess underneath I think what Sat excels at is to add the surprise dimension of temperature to that of flavour balance and texture. Every mouthful is a delight and I have to re-quote my friend that there is no wasted mouthful at this restaurant! read more

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The GPS had a difficult time finding this small, Nottingham Forest restaurant with rooms near a highway and industrial estate with huge Boots and Imperial Tobacco complexes. A very odd location. As we drive into the car park, we were watching chefs shucking freshly arrived scallops. We had a 40 minute walk along the riverside to the left and large fields to the right...and the industrial monstrosities in the background. Along the walk, we saw one of the restaurant's chefs and a person visiting to learn how to cook picking veggies for our lunch. Literally, just on the riverside. No doubt helps with margin as their cost was zero! Upon entering the restaurant, we were taken to a small, delightful courtyard where two domesticated rabbits (Biscuit and Junior) were holding court and nibbling on the plants. Adorable! We were escorted to The Chef's Table, which is a small room with a door opened to the kitchen. Excellent! Sat Bains is Indian. "Too many chefs, only one Indian. Sat Bains". Tasting Menu : Postal Code NG7 2SA is the name of the amuse bouche. It is Horse radish ice cream with a fresh green puree made of the herbs growing outside the restaurant. Scallop white with ponzu sauce and vanilla mayo and nuts/seeds. Scallops arrived this morning. Excellent flavors and textures allow the scallop to shine. Oh My Yummy God ("OMYG")...WOW!...... Read more read more

Sat Bains is supposedly one of the best restaurants in Nottingham and is certainly up there with the likes of World Service and Harts (personally I prefer Harts). We went for the taster menu. We were expecting small portions but it was ridiculous! We got a soup "foam" for the first course that was served in what could only be described as a bowl from a dolls house! Talk about small portions - you've not seen small portions until you've been to Sat Bains! I don't really think that any of the courses particularly stood out. That could be because the portion sizes were so dainty. After 12 or so courses we didn't really leave feeling totally full. But our wallets were considerably lighter! The food and service are very overpriced in my opinion. The waiter in the drinks holding area spilt a glass of red wine that splashed my friends black dress. They didn't really offer very much help in getting the wine cleaner up quickly. Also I thought the service in the restaurant area was not as good as I would have imagined. The staff were not as well trained as I imagined they would have been or would have expected given the very high price. Perhaps we did not get the best experience that night but I would not have the taster menu again. I might consider eating in the kitchen area next time as friends have told me that is very entertaining. read more

This place is a gem.. I love the "restaurant with rooms" angle and it was great to see that Sat himself is there working in the kitchen for each dinner service. Many times general satisfaction is compromised for creativity, but in this case Sat has been able to strike that perfect balance. read more

Be very careful when you book into this restaurant, read the small print on the cancellation policy as there is a £360 fee. On the day we were due to go to Sat Bains my five year old son fell over and split his head open. He required stitches and the doctors advised close observation for 24 hours. I naturally called Sat Bains that afternoon and requested that my table reservation was moved to another day. They informed us that there would be a £360 cancellation fee. Despite explaining the situation they were very unsympathetic and inflexible. Unbelievably when they managed to rebook half our table allocation they still wanted to charge us the full cancellation fee. We would have hoped that a restaurant that prides itself on it's level of personal service would be more understanding of the situation. You never know when you might have to cancel last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. read more

Been looking forward to visiting. Many friends recommend as a must go place! It delivered with great service and superb food and wine.....

Enjoyed the taster menu following my graduation. Top notch! High quality local ingredients used to their best