'Hidden' restaurant is now well and truly on the map

FORMER WORLD SERVICE CHEF HAS ELEVATED MENU AT BRAMLEY'S

- By LYNETTE PINCHESS

IF I was to ask you to name your favourite Nottingham restaurants, I bet the list would inevitably include the likes of Bar Iberico, Bar Gigi, Restaurant Sat Bains, Kushi-ya, Everyday People, Cleaver & Wake and Alchemilla at the very least. You're not wrong.

But there’s one gem of a restaurant that might never cross your mind. Even though I knew it existed, Bramley’s was never really on my radar despite it being less than five miles away from home.

Maybe it’s the location - a case of out of sight, out of mind - because the restaurant is tucked away within the Orchard Hotel on the University of Nottingham’s Highfields campus near Beeston.

But all that could change because owners Nottingham Venues have set out to make Bramley’s a new high quality dining destination.

The good news it’s not only guests who will benefit as anyone can book a table there.

Tom Waldron-Lynch, CEO of Nottingham Venues, said earlier this year: “For too long, Bramley’s was a hidden gem. Now, we're putting it on the map.”

Former World Service head chef David Cartwright was appointed to elevate the menu and within months of the relaunch Bramley’s earned its first AA rosette.

David, who has excelled in kitchens for 15 years, has developed a refined, seasonal menu within the restaurant alongside small plates in the bar for those a more casual alternative.

“We want Bramley’s to be a destination where people can come to have a memorable experience,” he said.

After taking up an invitation to visit, the first thing that strikes me walking through the doors of the four-star hotel is how different it looks after its £1 million makeover.

“Not just a renovation, it’s a reinvention” is how it’s been described.

With drinkers perched on high stools, it's buzzing around the gleaming island-style bar that has been repositioned during the revamp and looks like a high-end London haunt.