The Bakehouse in Nottingham is an ‘award winning artisan bakery and cafe in Sherwood‘, It was the winner of the ‘Best Cafe in Nottingham’ award in 2018 and is pretty much on everyone lips when you ask where the best cafes to eat are in the area.
They have just been named as finalists in the bakery category for the Great Food Club awards as well for 2020
Despite all that and the fact that I am eating out everywhere that I can when I can, it is somewhat remiss of myself that I had not managed to eat here. That is partly because Sherwood is not one of my usual food scoffing haunts, but also because the place is so popular that everytime I had made it up here there were no free tables and I kept missing out.
Anyway, since lockdown started to ease I have found myself in the area a few times and on a couple of occasions we managed to grab one of the small tables on the pavement outside so finally managed to check them out! Phew 🙂
BAKEHOUSE MENU
At the moment the menu has been broken down into sandwiches and box meals, what I would call ‘hand food’ that you don’t need to worry about needing a plate for. It makes perfect sense in the current climate being much easier to serve as takeout or to people like us sitting outside on one of the small tables having a cup of tea.
The stuff on the menu though still reads pretty grand and it all sounded well tasty. In the line of Breakfast I was tempted by the “Mushroom and Egg” sandwich which was ‘Roast Field Mushroom w/ Fried Egg on our White Tin Loaf w/ Brown or Red Sauce‘ and if I had picked that I would have slipped in a Sausage or a Slice of Bacon from the Extra Items list for another quid (bargain)
They even made a Cheese & Bean Toastie sound glam ‘Bakehouse Baked Beans w/ Cheddar Cheese w/ Sea Salt Crisps’. I would like them to do a take on my home fave comfort meal ‘Cheese and Heinz Spaghetti’ Toastie, not sure that you can do a homespun tinned spaghetti as easily though
We both opted for the Pork Belly slider for £6.50 “Slow Roasted Pork Belly on our Milk Bun w/ Slaw and Spiced Wedges” it was a straight toss up between that and the BBQ Pulled Pork that came on a ‘Fennel & Sea Salt Foccacia‘ but Pork belly won (quite easily in the end)
PORK BELLY SLIDER
When it arrived I opened the box for a food stock take prior to scoffing and of course for a compulsory photo (it’s like saying grace these days before eating isn’t it?) and I was happy to see that it was all pretty neatly packed away, perfect if we had been taking it away, perhaps to the nearby Woodthorpe Grange Park
Pork Belly Bun? Check, Pink luminous slaw? Check, Pile of leafy green rocket? (added bonus) Check, and a lot of the ‘Spicy Wedges?’ that turned out to be Sweet Potato wedges and very orange ones at that, Check.
I did a bit of sandwich reorganization shoving some of the peppery rocket into the bun and into the flavor mix and I think that was a good plan on my behalf. It added a bit of a fresh crunch and it also allowed me to dwell in some faux fake ass smugness in a pretence at making it slightly healthier. I knew that I was not fooling anyone, but it was all in my mind so I had no-one else but myself to get validation from.
I liked that the supposed healthy elements that ‘snuck’ their way into my Box Meal added a lot to the meal and surprised me as well. OK so I am always game to check out any house coleslaw, even though as a kid and to be honest a young and youngish(ish) adult I detested it and the thought of it. I am happy to say that I ate all of this ‘vibrant pink slaw’ here at the Bakehouse and I would again (apparantly they use yoghurt which makes it creamier and well to be honest actually nice).
The second unexpected ‘healthy’ element that I ‘enjoyed’ eating were the Spicy Sweet Potato wedges. I normally avoid these as they are usually dreadful and a poor excuse for a chip. I have to say though that I quite enjoyed these ones here at the Bakehouse and I ate them all, OK so I would not order them as a side if I knew what was coming, but was happy to take them on as they were actually pretty good.
CAKE TIME
Just in case anyone thought that I was serious about getting down with a healthy meal, we went to check out the cake situation and ended up walking out with a Cherry Brownie and a Flapjack. Both were excellent bonus snacks with a cup of tea when we got home 🙂
SAUSAGE ROLL – THE BEST
The week before we had stopped by just for a cup of tea and coffee and ended up ordering a sausage roll (as one does). Now this turned out to be a truly excellent decision as it was one of, if not the best sausage roll I have had the pleasure to eat for quite sometime.
Everything was spot on, the pastry casing was baked perfectly, the solid meaty sausage inside packed with herbs was fantastic, but what I loved the most were the fennel seeds that were scattered on top and also in amongst the filling. They just added that little bit of aniseed flavour that reminded me of a classic rye bread in the states. The only downside to this little package of heaven was that it was not twice the size so that I could garner even more enjoyment from it.
LOCAL SUPPLIERS
I was also delighted to see that that were promoting and selling a lot of goods from local suppliers and I could not leave without taking this picture of the bottles from the Sauce Shop one of my local faves.
I did see some local beer as well from the Black Iris, but I was being well behaved, however I still made a mental note though for another day maybe 🙂
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I have really enjoyed visiting the Bakehouse and I’ll be back again, not only for another sausage roll, but also to try some more of what these guys have to offer, to pick up some supplies and a loaf of bread too 🙂
The Bakehouse is Sherwood is located at 631-633 Mansfield Road, Sherwood, Nottingham, NG5 2FX. You can check them out on the usual social channels, their Facebook Page, their Instagram Profile and on their Twitter Feed