Restaurant Sat Bains

 

We went across from our accommodation to the bar area at about 6.15pm for our 6.30pm sitting. We began our meal with drinks in the bar. I opted for a sugar-free Elderflower pressé and Drew a Ginger beer.

Our room was on the left opposite the restaurant

Tonight's menu is a 10+ Course, I add the + as there are little extra treats along the way in addition to the advertised 10 courses. 

The restaurant follows the theme of the five tastes: 

Salt, Sweet, Sour, Bitter and Umami. 

The first taster, called Introduction includes these five tastes in delightful little morsels. I'll let the photos tell the story. 

The samphire and seaweed, along with the balsamic and bread were my favourite two. Following the tongue tingling experience of the five tastes we had a little extra 'treat from the kitchen' which was a small tart with a light shortcrust pastry, nasturtiums, lyonnaise onions with mustard cress and other fresh greenhouse herbs, we could see the greenhouse through the window and were invited to explore it before we leave in the morning! The flavours popped as we eat the tart leaving a refreshing flavour on the tongue.

Following the tart we were served bread. Sourdough and Treacle were the flavours. I stayed with the sourdough and Drew with the treacle. It was lovely white sourdough with a robust sourness that was missing from the bread last night, which had more of a milky texture. During the meal we had another three servings of the sourdough, though Drew only managed two servings of the treacle bread. 

The next course was confit salmon served with vegetables a la grecque (i.e Greek Salad vegetables including radish, cucumber, peas, broad beans, red pepper and tiny mushrooms) it also had wasabi, alioli, pollan and topped with Schrenckii caviar  with a Tuscan olive oil poured over the top. The caviar gave a rich saltiness to it that suited my taste perfectly. Drew, who does most of the chopping at home when I am cooking, made clear that if I ever wanted cucumber, radish and red peppers cut this small I was going to have to eat out for it. [Co-pilot's note: I think I was a bit more "robust" than is reflected above.]

The next dish was another delight. Called 'From the embers' It had Jersey Royal potatoes and Smoked Eel cooked in barbeque ashes topped with hollandaise sauce and delightful potato straws. This was one of the amazing dishes which plays with your mind. The smokiness was so intense it confused my palette into thinking I was eating smoky bacon, never had a tiny baby potato tasted so smoky in my expereince. The eel was delightful too, it was Drew's first time eating it and he enjoyed it as much as I did. A very simply description for a lovely dish - it was really really yummy or as Drew had it: "Eelly, eelly, yummy."

We next moved on to a veal sweetbread with a sauce Robert. The sweetbread was lightly fried and the sauce was a veal and chicken reduction with Dijon mustard, wow what a flavour. The sweetbread was served on a coleslaw with hisbi cabbage on top and horseradish on the side. [Co-pilot's note: this was veally, veally good!!]

Next was a dish of which I had never heard. It was called 'Chawanmushi' which it was explained is a Japanese word for ‘steamed in a tea bowl’. It was a light and delicious dashi egg custard with raw cauliflower flaked to the same size as the flakes of 60-month-old matured Parmesan, wow what a flavour, and black truffle on top. The earthy flavour of truffle and rich delight of the dashi made this a memorable dish. 

On today's menu we were able to choose our mains. I opted for 'A plate of lamb' which had lamb cooked five ways. Loin and lamb belly on the main plate and a delicious pot of lamb ragu, lamb kidney and lamb sweetbreads that had such an intense flavour that I felt I should so something special to celebrate these often wasted bits of meat that could make such an impact on my taste buds. I liked the fact that the menu also told us how old the lamb was -  Spring 2021. My sister, who buys a haggot carcus once a year or so is very fussy about the age of her lamb, haggot, sheep meat, so it is good to see others who feel the same. The plate also included a black olive tapenade, this is a bruiser of a flavour, don't get me wrong I loved it, but you felt that if the tapende had been a person he would have been a heavyweight boxer, even this morning I can reflect on its power, yet oddly it was not overpowering the loin or belly, indeed was perfect at bringing out their deliciousness. There was also a lovely black garlic smear with real zing. I wonder if they sell the tapenade and garlic as I'd buy lots of it to get those intense flavours alongside meats or vegetables.  The lamb was served with red peppers and aubergine, lightly fried, which offered a nice crunch as a compliment to the wonderful meat and sauces.

Drew opted for the Monkfish “Tikka”. This lovely piece of Monkfish was served with three sauces: courgette, coriander and mango underneath and pickled cucumber on top all brought together with a buttery curry sauce. Drew absolutely loved this dish. A perfectly cooked piece of fish with a crispness on the outside yet being soft and delicate within. The main curry sauce was pleasant and worked well, yet differently, with each of the three smears.   

Following the 'main' course was a dish called 'The crossover'. This was puffed rice and caramel rice with marinated raspberries and granita snow on top. While this was too sweet for me Drew was happy to help consume both small pots which tingled on his tongue. 

The next dessert was called 'Lenton Lane' the name of the somewhat broken path that leads from the main road to the restaurant. Thus makes a good pun on being inspired by Rocky Road. While I've never eaten Rocky Road, Drew tells me there were links between these flavours and the dish. It has a Passion fruit sorbet, chocolate in multiple ways (chocolate granita, chocolate crumb, chocolate tweel, aerated chocolate pieces and rocks of dark sour chocolate) all of this came with two pieces of  honeycomb. The aerated chocolate was crunchy and delicious, the honeycomb puffy and light, Drew was glad that the chocolate included lots of sweet stuff as it meant he got more than his share! [Co-pilot's note: Once more unto the breach, always happy to help, I'm a martyr etc. etc. etc.]

The following dessert was called 'Pelargonium' an Elderflower ice cream with strawberries in balsamic under a biscuit. The strawberries were sour and delicious, for the ice cream and the biscuit I'll rely on Drew's description. Drew liked the sweetness of the biscuit(s) which were exceptionally crisp. The elderflower completed the strawberries in his view. He was a bit put out that I was able to eat my strawberries, as he thought he might get both desserts again!!

The final course (well, almost) was called 'Conclusion'. This linked back to the introduction to the meal with another five tastes to draw us back to the flavours. You can read what each was in the photo.

My conclusion from the exercise is: give me lots of salty and sour, quite a bit of bitter and leave the sweet and umami to others!! Both the introduction and the conclusion had three absolute delights (for me) on them and two I would happily not have eaten, not nasty in anyway, but not flavours I really enjoy.

You note that I said the conclusion was almost the final course. Of course being in the Vale of Belvoir we had to taste the Cheese Board which had Vale of Belvoir cheeses, these were: Long Clawson, Colston Bassett, Tuxford and Tebbutt and Cropwell Bishop which came in blue, white and beauvale. The Tuxford was a bit mild for me, but all of the others were a rich delight. The Cropwell Bishop beauvale was so sharp that I was allowed an additional piece from Drew's plate in reciprocation for all the desserts he'd had from mine!

I was delighted that the cheese was served with more of the delightful sourdough, there were home made garibaldi biscuits and some oatcakes, but who needs those when you can have bread!!

We ordered two espressos and as a surprise a chocolate log came with it. There were five different flavours of chocolate of which Drew was able to identify Bee pollen, Matcha and Sichuan pepper. Two he couldn't identify, I was happy to leave him to it. The coffees were sharp and tangy, perfect to round off a delightful meal.

Having started at 6.30pm it was again 10pm before we left the restaurant. Sat Bains was one of the first chefs whose Great British Menu experience made us want to try his food, it has taken a very long time to get here, but it was worth it now we have.