I’m pretty sure I could live off breakfast foods if I tried. Scrambled eggs, a full english, pancakes, salmon, french toast; you name it, I’ll eat it. Brunch at a weekend is something to be savoured, why pour yourself a bowl of sad sugar puffs when you can take the time to enjoy it? Breakfast in bed with a paper (or more likely, Facebook and online news sites) is brilliant, but brunch is a social affair. Meet up with friends, or treat a loved one, switch your phone off and just relax on a Saturday morning.
Oaks in Nottingham invited me along to try out their fabulous brunch offer. You can choose from two or three courses, and for an additional £12 you get unlimited prosecco or bloody marys for up to two hours. It’s available every Saturday from Midday until 4pm.
We arrived at 12.30 and it was fairly quiet, but the buzz built up over the afternoon. With beautiful stripped wood walls, tiled tables and huge chandelier style light fittings, the restaurant is light and airy, with huge windows surrounding you.
We had the three course option. I chose the baked Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, which came with sticks of grilled garlic bread which were perfect for dipping into the perfectly melted cbeese. The table next to us were eyeing it enviously, waiting for me to dip the bread in; exclaiming “it’s like porn!”. Well, quite.
Duncan chose the battered sea bass with tartar sauce and lemon – the batter was light and delicate and remained crispy and the fish was fresh and flavoursome.
For the main course, I decided to pick one of the brunch specials, a salmon steak and scrambled eggs with an added portobello mushroom (I love mushrooms). Insta-fans will be pleased to hear that they offer avocado on toast too. The salmon was huge, perfectly seasoned and still slightly pink in the middle, and the eggs were beautifully creamy. Duncan had the half chicken seasoned with paprika, chilli and garlic, with a side salad and hand cut chips. He enjoyed his too, struggling to finish the generous portions. The only criticism is that the chips were a little on the soggy side but everything else was lovely.
The prosecco comes out in a 500ml carafe for you to pour, and you signal to a member of staff when you would like more. We had three over the course of the meal between the two of us, as you want to enjoy the food and bubbles fill you up!
We left a break between the main and dessert, but it was well worth making room for. I chose a rich chocolate homemade tart with vanilla ice cream. The biscuit base was crisp and the chocolate wasn’t at all sickly. Duncan chose from the Bluebell Farm ice cream selection, with a scoop each of the Bakewell Tart and American Black Cherry flavours and was very impressed with the strength of the flavours and the unusual combinations.
Chocolate tart always makes me happy, that’s a definite “happy food face” there ^.
As well as the brunch offer on a Saturday, Oaks also offer Sunday roasts and midweek steak offers, and live music on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
We’ll definitely go back again, I’m keen to try out the steaks and experience some of the live music. Also, check out the toilets – they look like a giant walk in freezer!
The whole meal was complimentary from Oaks, but I was free to write an honest review and whatever I felt about the experience.
Jen Thomas 