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Restaurant Sat Bains: putting Nottingham spectacularly on the food map

30/10/2011

11 Comments

 
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2011 brought to Restaurant Sat Bains what many had talked about for some time, a second Michelin star. Sat Bains has for over a decade now been recognised by industry peers as a strong and original talent: he won the Roux Scholarship in 1999, and a Michelin star in 2003 (Nottingham's first). Other awards are too numerous to list. A winning dish on the 2007 season of Great British Menu meanwhile brought him a wider public audience and now, with that second star and a vivacious personality, Sat Bains is all set to become a household name.

Even before Michelin's October announcement, Restaurant Sat Bains was a destination restaurant (despite its somewhat obscure location), but now, expect to have to plan a visit well in advance, especially on weekends. From London, it's a 2 hour train ride from St Pancras and then just 10 minutes in a taxi from the station to the restaurant so it is in fact quite accessible.

The menu offers a choice of a 7 or 10 course tasting menu (there's no a la carte). The pace of the meal is perfect but even so, with so much food, expect to make a full night of it. For those not local to Nottingham, the restaurant comes 'with rooms' which is handy and allows everyone to sit back, relax and enjoy the experience. The restaurant itself is relaxed and friendly while staff are similarly friendly as well as knowledgeable and efficient. Our eating partner for the night is @sped98, also known as Cumbriafoodie.

Little surprise perhaps that we choose the 10 course menu, and we're offered (as all guests are) the option to supplement this with the Duck Egg course, Sat's winning dish from the Great British Menu; we simply have to say yes.

First up though is an amuse of horseradish panna cotta, smoked bread, nettle puree, and a gastrique; an interesting start and certainly original. Of the early dishes though, the Duck Egg is the absolute star and it's no wonder that it was a GBM winner. Slow cooked egg through the widespread adoption of sous vide cooking is now making an appearance on many a restaurant menu but Sat Bains has honed this one to perfection. The ham and the crisp combine with the egg for the traditional breakfast feel but the addition of the peas adds additional layers of flavours and textures. It's a winner for sure. 

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Amuse of horseradish panna cotta
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Duck egg
Now the main menu kicks in. First, scallops roasted on the plancha, with chicory, coriander, seasame seeds, pumpkin seeds, shallots, textures of squash and pumpkin oil. A colourful dish, a beautiful scallop and attention to texture, something seen throughout the night. It's followed by Grey Mullet topped with ground cornflakes, crispy rice and pork crackling on braised leek with onion oil. The grey mullet and its crunchy topping is excellent though the braised leeks overpowered the subtleties of the fish in our view. 

The next dish is 'Allium', the Latin word for garlic but is the broader taxonomic name for onion. This transforms to an aromatic bowl of caramelised shallots, a French onion soup, onion oil and crispy shallots.
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Scallop
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Grey mullet
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Allium
Moving to the middle section of the menu, we next have English Duck: duck liver parfait rolled in a duck ham, crispy duck skin on top with, on the side, 'Asian influences' of peanuts, sweetcorn, shiitake mushrooms and spring onions with a plum puree. Nice to see something different being done with the duck liver parfait, new combinations, good textures, the crispy duck skin possibly the star here for me, but a well composed dish that sits nicely in the menu.

This is followed pickled, salt baked and cured celeriac, served on a chicken and truffle jus. The chicken and truffle jus is the star and is so rich and comforting, we could happily spoon up a bowl of this heaven many times larger than the one we have in front of us now.

But it is the finally savoury course that is possibly the highlight of the meal: wild hare served with quince, fresh pear, cauliflower and shavings of bitter chocolate. On the side is a little toast with tartare of hare. The hare is exquisite, tender to cut, so full of flavour in the mouth, a joy by itself but complimented brilliantly with the quince. The hare really has been expertly handled and respected to deliver a dish this good.
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Duck
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Salt baked celeriac
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Wild hare
A crossover dish follws: beetroot, goats cheese granita, lemon zest and a little salt. Colourful and beautifully presented.

For dessert fans, the menu is a real treat as there are three of them. First, Sea Buckthorn with caramel, soft meringue and pine. A beautiful balance of refreshing and sweet, again, stunningly presented, and ideally sized. Middle dessert is a chocolate dish, served with coffee caramel, yoghurt foam and coffee shortbread. Finally, it is 'Blackberry', served with almond granola, wood sorrel and vanilla ice cream. A fruit and nutty way to end the meal!

By now, we were all very full; portion sizes were sensible but it is a lot of food by any standards. 
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Beetroot
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Sea buckthorn
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Chocolate
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Blackberry
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Chef Sat Bains
Sat Bains's name is above the door and Sat Bains is indeed in the kitchen. The whole 'hotel' is in fact is run by Sat and his wife Amanda so they are not absent landlords, it's very much all hands on deck even if he is surrounded by an extremely competent staff. Settling down to an after dinner whisky in the bar area following the meal, we were lucky enough to catch Sat passing through and spent a few minutes chatting to him. Clearly still delighted by the recent Michelin result, Sat comes across as a man of great passion, energy and humour, and it would be hard not to like him. There's also a feeling of pride (felt not for the first time this year) that Britain now boasts such a remarkable array of culinary talent.

The standard of cooking at Restaurant Sat Bains is excellent and even where traditional 'top end' ingredients are used like scallop and duck liver parfait, Sat seeks to provide an original twist to the dish, something not always tried even amongst his two star contemporaries. 

For me though, I'll remember Sat Bains for setting a benchmark dish with the wild hare which was simply sublime. Going forward, any hare dish now served up in a restaurant will necessarily be held in comparison to Sat's dish tonight and will almost inevitably be found wanting. Any restaurant that can deliver such a defining plate is clearly worthy of Michelin recognition and we are delighted that Sat Bains is fully reaping the rewards of his hard work and natural talent.


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Related links

Restaurant Sat Bains website


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Restaurant Sat Bains on Urbanspoon
11 Comments
Hungry Hoss link
30/10/2011 02:44:09 pm

Looks like a great lovely pictures and words - can't wait to pay them a visit in the new year... not too far from me!

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Joyce Wang link
30/10/2011 03:02:30 pm

Wow, the duck egg and hare looked amazing! I'll add this one to my list too. Very nice review as usual:)

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Alan spedding ( cumbriafoodie ) link
30/10/2011 03:15:27 pm

How do you do it ? The post is up within no time of you arriving home.Nice to see your pics came out so well , i`m really impressed....mine ( with the restaurant lighting ) are a disaster....im not happy but shall persevere with them and try n salvage something.Was lovely to see you both and now ....back to the real world again. Cheers Alan

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Karohemd link
30/10/2011 05:00:54 pm

Sounds excellent!
Apparently, Sat has donated a dinner for the auction at the charity do at Alimentum tomorrow so I'm going to try and get my hands on that. :)

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russel
31/10/2011 01:06:53 am

The food loos amasing on the wild hare dish what is the puree(is it pear)? will have to go soon

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Tim
31/10/2011 08:59:56 pm

So glad you finally made it and enjoyed the experience. It is an exceptional restaurant, great food and a wonderful team. I am on my 1oth visit in December and it been a privilege to see the restaurant evolve over the last 5 years to be one of the countries finest. Gear review as ever guys.

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Laissez Fare link
1/11/2011 06:53:14 am

Great pics and sounds like it was well worth the journey. His food seems to be continually evolving/improving from what I've read from afar.

Best regards.

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Terry Gordon
19/11/2011 03:39:20 pm

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Terry Gordon
19/11/2011 03:44:08 pm

We ate at restaurant sat bains last night and are agreed that it was the best meal we've ever had. Amazing food, fabulous service and a signed copy of the menu and visit to the kitchen for our 18 yr old daughter. Hope to make it an annual visit.

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Polo Outlet link
24/5/2012 05:12:04 pm

Good article, really opened my eyes, I found a lot of things I usually did not find suddenly become clear. Thank you.Your share will make more people to get help.

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Andrew Blunsden
17/12/2012 01:38:26 am

My wife and ate at Sat Bains this weekend. We had the 10 course tasting menu and it included some of the dishes reviewed above. I have to say I was not really looking forward to a 10 course meal starting at 6pm (only table available) but it was a quite memorable evening and not too much at all in the end. First off we were lucky enough to sit down next to Sat (who was changing the batteries in some of his christmas lights!) who talked to us for a few minutes about a couple of the wines on his list. He seemed very down to earth and calm for a Saturday evening just before christmas with a full house. The whole meal was just sublime. Highlights for me were the scallop dish, the celeriac and the hare. My wife had lamb for her main and that also was stunning. The service all evening was pitch perfect. The staff were approachable and chatty if you engaged them, but also did not interrupt at all. Having coffee after we got talking to a young couple on the next table and we all agreed that the evening had been fantastic. I have to say that the meal is probably in my top three (along with a lunch at Le Manoir and dinner at the French Laundry). A stunning experience.

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