Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms, the two Michelin-starred Nottingham restaurant run by Sat and Amanda Bains, is small by design – which is exactly what makes it so compelling for group and private dining. Also SquareMeal's 2025 Top 100 UK restaurants winner, expect an exclusive private dining experience with a choice of intimate spaces.
For total discretion, the restaurant can be hired exclusively for up to 28 guests, with private lunches sometimes arranged outside usual opening hours. Smaller parties of ten to 12 can take the private dining room, a conservatory-style space, with exposed brick, stone flooring, and a timber partition that gives privacy without isolation. For something more intimate, The Chef's Table can host up to six guests, with chefs emerging from the private kitchen door to present each course. The four-seat Kitchen Bench, meanwhile, takes the immersion further, hosting guests beside the pastry section within the kitchen itself - a one-of-a-kind experience you won't get anywhere else.
Regardless of the size of your group and the occasion - milestone birthday, anniversary, client dinner or corporate event - the Restaurant Sat Bains team can create an entirely bespoke experience, tailored to you. This might include moments spent in The Cigar Hut after dinner with its wood-burning stove, and perhaps a cigar and digesif; a tour of The Urban Garden; or The Champagne Triptych which includes Laurent-Perrier Grand Siècle on arrival, the Prelude menu, an overnight stay, and breakfast in the morning.
Three tasting menus are available at different price points, with the longest unfolding over 11 courses. Seasonal dishes might include Devon eel with apple, turnip and truffle; chalk stream trout with smoked pike roe; and grouse with lentil, pine and spring onion. Complementing the rhythm of the menu are various wine pairings, ranging from beautifully chosen labels to balance each dish to rarer bottles, and an aptly named 'Off The Chart' pairing with exceptional allocations and cellar-held bottles. Non-alcoholic pairings are afforded the same level of care.
Image credit: Will Bibb and Jodi Hinds