I was lucky enough to visit Nottingham last month as a guest of Experience Nottinghamshire, and although Nottingham might not be synonymous immediately with great food, what we found was that not only are there are great places to eat, but great places that children would love too.
Happy children = happy parents!
I thought I would share with you my Top 3 family-friendly restaurants in Nottingham.
Zaap
Zaap is a Thai street food restaurant that is pretty new to Nottingham, less than six months old. It has a sister restaurant in Leeds with plans to expand further in the future. The first thing you notice when you arrive is that there is a queue outside, but don’t let that put you off – as much as I don’t ‘do’ queues, it’s invariably a sign that you are about to eat fantastic food, and we definitely did! My son and I were seated in a tuk-tuk and the service was impeccable. Fresh coconut water to whet our appetites, and then the dishes began to flow! Thai fishcakes, spicy chicken wings and chicken sesame toasts to start with, followed by chicken pad Thai, deep fried seabass on a bed of crunchy salad, and the tastiest garlic chicken and rice I’ve ever eaten.
Phew! And if that wasn’t enough, we thought it would be a good idea to try out a desert – caramelised banana with ice cream!
The restaurant has a great atmosphere and is laid out like an authentic Thai street food market and it even includes the front end of a train that children can sit in and pretend they’re driving.
All in all, a great experience for you and the children.
Annie’s Burger Shack
The clue is in the title and if your children are anything like my youngest, a burger could well be at the top of their top three favourite meals. Annie’s Burger Shack has it all.
Delicious (but be warned, very sweet) milkshakes, fresh juicy burgers with every conceivable topping you can think of and then, to top it all off, a slightly spicy apple cake with cream cheese filling that I still dream of most nights. I wish we had and Annie is in Kent where I live but it’s a great excuse to go back to Nottingham!
Cosmo
They say variety is the spice of life and that has never been more true than when we ate at Cosmo. Considered a ‘world cuisine’ buffet style restaurant, Cosmo offers cuisines from around the world – from English to Japanese, from American to Chinese (and plenty in between.) There are chefs cooking fresh food at various stations around the considerably sized restaurant so you are always guaranteed fresh, delicious food.
I only partook in the frozen yoghurt for dessert but there was a smorgasbord of various cakes, pastries and ice creams on offer – something for everyone.
I can also report that the cocktails are pretty good too!
Nottingham has a lot more to offer than just restaurants but when (not if) we go back, we will definitely make sure we revisit these places I’ve mentioned above. A special mention also goes to the 200° cafe – the peanut butter filled chocolate cookies were to die for.
Twitter: Brimshack
says:
Carmelized banana and ice cream sounds delicious.
It was! From what I remember … it didn’t last long 🙂
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