A new Restaurant and bar with a difference, OAKS opened last month serving locally sourced food cooked over burning wood embers.
Located on Maid Marion way on the corner of Bromley Place, the new 90 seater dining concept sits side by side with the popular Chino Latino and opposite The Calcutta Club and Memsaab, so it is between some stiff and much loved competition. The unique style of the restaurant however warrants it’s place a amongst some of Nottingham’s finest restaurants.
Heavy oak (I assume) doors open into the restaurant with exposed pipes and hanging lamps, giving the feeling that you’ve entered something between a woodland cabin and a disused hanger. One of the main differences with OAKS , which becomes apparent soon after you enter is the smoking hot grill, the restaurants unique selling point, on which diners can watch the chefs as they prepare food using a cooking technique currently only seen in a handful of restaurants in the UK.
All of the logs used for cooking on the custom-built cast iron grill are taken from the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, which produces the wood as a natural. by-product of sustainable coppicing which is a good thing so you know that you don’t feel so bad about filling your belly with the fantastic food and drink on offer.
We began our meal with a cocktail. Our friendly waitress recommends the Cuban Affair – Havanna7 Rum, charred pineapple, fresh ginger and ginger ale which we sipped whilst perusing the menu. My dining companion moved on to a craft ale from the diverse range delivered by nearby Castle Rock Brewery and I moved onto the red wine.
The menu itself it kept relatively simple. There is a selection of nibbles which serve well as a starter course or could be a light bite. We were invited to the restaurant by Tank PR. I’d read a few other reviews and folks seemed to be raving about the beef quail scotch eggs. Most pubs serving cask ale now seem to have a scotch egg option on the menu. It has been said that one of the things to try before you die is a Scotch egg and pint. Can I add to that that you should try THESE Scotch eggs. They are made in a similar way but the rich beef coating around the flavoursome quail egg, coated in a golden crumb takes the humble traditional savoury scotch egg to a whole new level. We also tried the pork crackling. Crunchy and tasty with an added spicy kick.
Three sauce bottles were placed on our table. I tried each in the interests of research obviously. I wasn’t keen on the mustard and horseradish, purely because I don’t like either so that’s just my preference, however the burnt tomato ketchup and smoked chilli brown sauce were both full of flavour.
For our main course we had a portion of the Freedom and Respect Chicken which is marinated for 48 hours to bring out the essence of flavours like the lemon, garlic and rosemary we tried. Available in quarter, half or whole portions. The dish was succulent and tasty. We opted for a side order of truffle mash to accompany the dish, which was soft and earthy just as a good truffle mash should be, though if you don’t like truffle oil it you might just find it a tad strong.
The restaurant has a burger range which includes beef and bone marrow to soft-shell crab and portebelo mushroom, avocado and aubergine as well as a sharing option. We opted though for one of their handmade sausages, created to the chef’s own recipes, the signature range includes taste sensations ranging from chicken, asparagus, ricotta, sage and lemon zest to wild boar, purple broccoli and smoked mozzarella served with mashed potato. We tried the lamb, aubergine, tahini, rosemary and confit garlic sausage and, at the suggestion of our waitress again, the beef, gruyere cheese, red onion and red sausage. This are no ordinary sausages, handmade on site, they’re fresh and full of flavour. Don’t be put off by the £6/£7 price tag as they are so huge they are a meal in themselves. We also ordered a portion of hand-cut chips, I mean who doesn’t like sausage and chips? and thankfully these beauties were no exception.
We were given a portion of the naked coleslaw to try. I never order coleslaw as I just don’t like it but this one lived up to its name and was indeed naked as the day it was born, well kind of, I’m pretty sure it had some dressing to favour it but certainly not the synthetic mayo I associate with coleslaw, damn I actually liked it.
I’m one of those people who, no matter how full they are, can still find space for pudding ( I probably store it in my thighs) so we finished our meal with the beautifully sweet sugar coated doughnuts filled with a gorgeous soft light Marsala cream and a couple of scoops of the Bluebell Farm Ice cream, the Amaretto with black cherry and the carrot cake, the unusual latter being our favourite. The Ice cream is one of the few things not made on site but in amazing attention to detail, our waitress told us that they had visited the farm in Derbyshire themselves to see it and sample the delicious range of Ice creams. Thirty new jobs were created at OAKS and they certainly seem to have gathered a friendly bunch who are passionate about the food they are serving.
Will I go back again? absolutely! The restaurant was a little quiet when we visited mid week but I expect that will change once word gets round Notts about this exciting new concept.
OAKS is open from 12pm -11pm Monday to Wednesday, 12pm – 2 am Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Closed on Sundays.
For more information on OAKS visit www.oaksnottingham.co.uk or OAKS Nottingham on Facebook or follow on Twitter and Instagram @Oaksnottingham.
