The Adams Restaurant Brasserie and Bar located at New College Nottingham (NCN) in the Lace Market is one of our little gems in the Nottingham Food Scene. It is the training restaurant where the students on the college’s catering and hospitality courses get to cut their teeth with the paying public. All their food ‘is locally sourced and prepared freshly to order by our students’.
They run a lunch menu where you can get 2 courses for £9.95 and 3 courses for £11.95 and Evening Menu’s where it is usually 2 courses for £12.95 and 3 courses for £15.95. They also have a number of ‘gourmet, showcase and themed evenings’ during the year.
“Food Bloggers’ fundraising Dinner for the Stroke Association”
I went along to one of these events recently the “Food Bloggers’ fundraising Dinner for the Stroke Association” both to try the food out and to support the fundraising efforts organised by Adam ‘Andy’ Hayes @adamhayes900
It was a really good evening, well supported by many of the local restaurants, Tweeters, press, supporters, and the local food community. All enjoying plenty of good food.
So what did I actually eat?
We started off mingling in their bar area where we nibbled on numerous tray of canapés. I started taking photos, but then just started to chow down and socialise, so I missed snapping some of my favourite ones.
Apart from the little tartlets filled with Mediterranean spiced vegetables and the chicken pate that I did take pictures of, there was a lovely smoked fish, and a rather delectable soft cooked quails egg.
There were also some really good cocktails by Sailor Jerry which hit the spot. I had the one mixed with Ginger, which was to go quite well with my Starter a few minutes later
After a few snacks and drinks we retired over to our tables for the main event
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Starter – Crispy Pork Belly
The Starter of choice seemed to be the “Crispy Pork Belly” which was described as coming with “honey and soy dressing, oriental vegetables and toasted sesame seed”. The cubes of Pork belly were just as I like them, the skin was crispy and crunchy and cooked so that you could chomp your way through it without breaking a tooth. The fat had all been rendered down nicely and even though it had been crisped up right up to the edge of the line, the pork meat was still soft and moist and packed with flavour enough.
The Pork Belly cubes came with a really delicious salad of oriental bits and pieces coated in a well balanced dressing that was both slightly sweet and slight salty from the honey and the soy. Personally I would have liked just a hint of heat perhaps from a little bit of chilli, but then again perhaps that could have destroyed the delicacy of the dish? I don’t know the answer, but I would have loved to have been at the class where they taught this dish to the students to ask all about how to balance these sorts of flavours. Put a fancy dish in front of me and I become a bit of a food nerd.
To bring it back to my normal level, I could have just eaten a whole plate of the Pork Belly Cubes with a big bowl of that side dip. This could be a really good bar snack in a craft ale house. I am such a heathen, beer, meat, and some gravy and I am happy. Forget my thoughts though, everyone this was a really sound dish of food and very well executed.
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Main – Duo of Lamb
For my Main course I had chosen the “Duo of lamb; braised shoulder and pink cutlet, rosemary fondant, purple sprouting broccoli and a redcurrant jus”. This was a dish that I had been quite excited about as I love Lamb and was hoping to get nice pink bit of meat. I was not disappointed on that front as my cutlet was very pink, the flesh itself was tender, juicy and did melt in my mouth, the only slight downside was that there was quite a bit of chewy white fat. Now I do like a bit of fat and I don’t know how you cook a cutlet to make both the meat and the fat perfect so I am pretty forgiving. I kind of wanted to pick the cutlet up so that I could suck all the fat off it and gnaw at the bone, but I was sort of in ‘polite’ company so I didn’t. I was to find that we all wanted to do that so it turns out that I was just in ‘good company’ (I already knew that!)
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Dessert – Chocolate and Cherry Black Forest
Dessert was a “Chocolate and cherry black forest”. It was not quite as I expected, but perhaps it was to be expected that there would be quite a bit of reinvention needed to elevate the ‘black forest gateau’ that I recall from the 1970’s.
I think the word these days is ‘deconstruction’ which seems to mean just taking all the elements and flavours of a classic and re-arranging them ‘all fancy like’ on the plate. I liked the dish, it was certainly well executed from a visual standpoint, and it was pleasant on the eye.
You still had to mix it all up on a forkful to get the black forest gateau experience so I kind of wish it was less pretty and just stuck in a bowl, what am I like? all that effort and the bloke still just wanted a slice of gateau (ignore me) 🙂
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It was a really good evening and I would definitely recommend coming here to try out the food. It was very kind that they left me a little note to remind me of what I had chosen from the menu and I took it home to remind me as well. When you come you will have to remember that it is being run by the students, such was the quality of the food you could forget that you are in a training restaurant. It was good to support them as many are just starting out on their food journey and careers. So if your waiter has a shaky hand or something on your plate is a little askew, just be a little bit forgiving.
Adams Restaurant Brasserie and Bar is located in the Adams Building of NCN. They are ‘open for coffee from 10am and lunch from midday during the week.’ and they are open for lunch and dinner on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.’
You can follow them on Twitter and on Facebook to see what they are up to and to see latest news of upcoming events.
Directions can be found here
As I said at the top this event was all about Fundraising for the Stroke Association and there was so many people out to support the event that if I tried to name them all I would miss many.
There was a really good raffle with great food and drink prizes donate by many local bar and restaurants including Adams Restaurant, Carluccios, Curious Manor, Iberico World Tapas, Langar Hall, Missoula, Pitcher and Piano, Raglan Road, Reds True BBQ, Revolution Hockley, Revolution de Cuba, Rub, The Rum House, World Service, The Lace Market Hotel, and Sailor Jerry