A few weeks ago I hopped on a train from London to Nottingham for a weekend of caves… and calories.
After adventurously ticking off 5 different sets of caves in my last blog, these next posts are selfishly dedicated to my mouth, stomach, and BRAND NEW LOVE HANDLES!
Oaks Restaurant is a highly regarded in Nottingham’s food scene, and when I visited every single table was filled! Their speciality? Locally sourced grilled meats, cooked in the open-kitchen.
With its super cool décor (think wood and quirky light fittings), mood lighting, and DJ later in the evening, Oaks is a restaurant that could sit comfortably alongside the hipster hangouts of Shoreditch.
Service was slick and friendly, and there was a real pride not only in their use of local ingredients, but also their homemade creations. Even the sauces on the table (mustard and horseradish sauce, burnt tomato ketchup and smoked chilli brown sauce) were made on site!
Meat, meat, meat. Oaks is a meat-lover’s paradise. There were a few veggie options, but the key items were burgers, sausages and steak. With a few cocktails on the way, we tucked into some quail scotch eggs and battered mackerel. The scotch eggs oozed as I cut into them, and were totally delicious – beefy with a dash of spice.
The sausage menu was very tempting with its unusual homemade combinations including lamb, aubergine, tahini, rosemary and confit garlic, and wild boar, purple broccoli and smoked mozzarella. However… WE were craving steak.
Nottingham – land of Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest and a football team I have no interest in. Home to a university I never visited. The birthplace of HP Sauce. Yes really.
Oh, but hang on, what’s this. Nottingham: City of Caves? How had I never heard about this before? Earlier this year I visited Cappadocia in Turkey – a land of cave hotels and ancient underground cities, but it turns out there was another underground world just a few hours away by train.