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Restaurant Sat Bains
from 6 reviews
Restaurant Sat Bains
Old Lenton Lane
Nottingham
NG7 2SA
tel.: 01159866566
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Restaurant Sat Bains
Restaurant Sat Bains offers a heavenly culinary experience. It has been said that Chef Sat Bains expertise is evident from the flawlessly cooked food and each combination of flavours and textures that has been carefully chosen to delight the senses. If you want to shower the chef with praise, as you most likely will, he will only too gladly welcome you into his kitchen. Eight luxury bedrooms are also available for guests to stay the night.One Michelin star
This restaurant has been awarded one star by the Michelin Guide 2010.
Reviews or Comments (6) See all»
The location is “unpromising” (“between a huge flyover and an industrial estate”), but Sat Bains’s “inspirational” cooking can be “absolutely stunning”; even fans (“best meal ever!”) can find prices “shocking”, though, and the whole experience sometimes seems too “up-tight” to really sing. read more
The location of the place is not particularly inspiring; near an industrial estate, a motorway flyover and directly beneath two huge electricity pylons. All that was missing was the stereo-typical burnt-out car on the roadside.
We arrived to what looked like a 1970's bungalow with a few extensions and a gravel drive (no cladding though). The black VW Golf parked up outside with the 'Cheff' registration plate made us snigger; was this Lenny Henry's 80's parody of the Chef, Gareth Blackstock??!!
We parked up and entered. Mmm. Knowone around. When someone eventually appeared (Mrs Bains), we were made to feel that we were an inconvenience. we were told to sign in. We were told to be at our table for 7:30pm (our original booking). We were led to our room, just about 10 yards along the corridor. The Charles 2. Pleasant room, mock English tudor/period French. The TV didn't work well. The stand-alone bath had huge cobwebs at its base and the shower curtain was cheap and badly planned. The bed was very uncomfortable; two average mattresses on top of each other to create a traditional high four-poster effect. It didn't work. After spending circa £550 for an overnight stay (£175 for the room) I'm sure they could invest in some quality furnishings.
We asked (Mrs Bains) whether it was possible to delay our sitting slightly (just around 20minutes as we had a long drive and wanted to relax a little). Her answer? A straight no! When asked why she simply said that "you must be joking" that was followed by a profanity. Charming.
Even though we were now on a strict deadline, we found a little time to walk out into the tiny courtyard. It is plain to see (given Mr Bains experience at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons) that they have attempted to duplicate this style; and failed.
We made our way to the bar (at 7:25pm). We sat and ordered some drinks. The restaurant manager appeared to make a point of checking her watch and informed us that our table was booked at 7:30pm. Warm service! I don't think so.
We chose the ten course tasting menu with suggested wines. When we asked the sommelier to explain a few of the courses versus wine choices we were simply given the impression that that we were being naive to even think that we could question their choices.
There were frustrated looks when we made our table selection rather than the one we were led to (one that we were, told to sit at).
The food. The food was generally good; the "9 hour tomato, 6 herbs, 1 Manni olive oil" was very good, a perfect blend; although the pork belly was 90% fat and the cheese course was very poor. Three of the wines were badly chosen in our opinion (and I can speak with authority as a qualified member of wset). My opinions; an attempt to spark up a little conversation and aloow the uptight staff to chill a little; were dismissed by the restaurant manager.
The customer experience was poor.
The following morning improved, far more relaxed; but perhaps that was due to the fact that they only had four out of five covers for breakfast!!
Then came check out. Over-priced. £540 much better spent elsewhere. £15 charged for ice! thats a first; we have never experience that!! (we had a bottle of champagne in our room). We put it down to experience.
The coverted Michelin star is awarded for exceptional service and food. They will struggle if they continue in this vein. look at the other reviews!! Poor service and cold welcomes are mentioned on many occasions. One to avoid. We will.
We arrived to what looked like a 1970's bungalow with a few extensions and a gravel drive (no cladding though). The black VW Golf parked up outside with the 'Cheff' registration plate made us snigger; was this Lenny Henry's 80's parody of the Chef, Gareth Blackstock??!!
We parked up and entered. Mmm. Knowone around. When someone eventually appeared (Mrs Bains), we were made to feel that we were an inconvenience. we were told to sign in. We were told to be at our table for 7:30pm (our original booking). We were led to our room, just about 10 yards along the corridor. The Charles 2. Pleasant room, mock English tudor/period French. The TV didn't work well. The stand-alone bath had huge cobwebs at its base and the shower curtain was cheap and badly planned. The bed was very uncomfortable; two average mattresses on top of each other to create a traditional high four-poster effect. It didn't work. After spending circa £550 for an overnight stay (£175 for the room) I'm sure they could invest in some quality furnishings.
We asked (Mrs Bains) whether it was possible to delay our sitting slightly (just around 20minutes as we had a long drive and wanted to relax a little). Her answer? A straight no! When asked why she simply said that "you must be joking" that was followed by a profanity. Charming.
Even though we were now on a strict deadline, we found a little time to walk out into the tiny courtyard. It is plain to see (given Mr Bains experience at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons) that they have attempted to duplicate this style; and failed.
We made our way to the bar (at 7:25pm). We sat and ordered some drinks. The restaurant manager appeared to make a point of checking her watch and informed us that our table was booked at 7:30pm. Warm service! I don't think so.
We chose the ten course tasting menu with suggested wines. When we asked the sommelier to explain a few of the courses versus wine choices we were simply given the impression that that we were being naive to even think that we could question their choices.
There were frustrated looks when we made our table selection rather than the one we were led to (one that we were, told to sit at).
The food. The food was generally good; the "9 hour tomato, 6 herbs, 1 Manni olive oil" was very good, a perfect blend; although the pork belly was 90% fat and the cheese course was very poor. Three of the wines were badly chosen in our opinion (and I can speak with authority as a qualified member of wset). My opinions; an attempt to spark up a little conversation and aloow the uptight staff to chill a little; were dismissed by the restaurant manager.
The customer experience was poor.
The following morning improved, far more relaxed; but perhaps that was due to the fact that they only had four out of five covers for breakfast!!
Then came check out. Over-priced. £540 much better spent elsewhere. £15 charged for ice! thats a first; we have never experience that!! (we had a bottle of champagne in our room). We put it down to experience.
The coverted Michelin star is awarded for exceptional service and food. They will struggle if they continue in this vein. look at the other reviews!! Poor service and cold welcomes are mentioned on many occasions. One to avoid. We will.
having read rave reviews about sat bains perhaps our expectations were a little high, the price would not have been an issue if we had gotten value for money, the tasting menu portions tiny and not at all what we expected, in quality texture and taste, we did not find the service exceptional ,although we were charged a 12.5% gratuity we would not reccommend or revisit again
16-05-2008
Mr Ed Woods
Sorry, couldn't disagree more I'm afraid. I took my gorgeous wife to Sat Bains for our anniversay and havng already dined at Jamie Olivers, Rick Steins, Hestons and Carluccios, expectations were high and I wasn't disappointed. We had the surprise taster menu and asked politely if they could accomodate the pea and ham starter into the menu somehow and they did. Food was wonderful, service fantastic andoverall well worth every penny of my second highest bill to date. Sat even took time to hand write out our menu for us as a momento so we could remember all the ingredients used in over fourteen courses so maybe he was just having an off day?Anyway, I would suggest to anyone who likes great food and is willing to experiment go and enjoy, we certainly did
I heard that story too, from the source! All except the frog march part, it's all true. Nothing like someone that speaks their mind for a change.
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