Top award announcement for Nottingham restaurant described as ‘blissful’

Twenty restaurants have been awarded a Bib Gourmand in the new MICHELIN Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2023. This also includes an award for Japanese restuarant Kushi-ya on alleyway, off Long Row in Nottingham.

This will come as no surprise to anyone given the recent praise for the restaurant and its menu from The Guardian’s food critic Jay Rayner, who labelled it, “restaurant of the year.” A Michelin inspector also named it as one of their faouvrite new restaurants which earned it a spot in the guide.

Kushi-ya is the only Nottingham restaurant to join the list this year along with The Six Bells in Witham on the Hill and . They described the restuarant as a “inviting counter restaurant specialising in Japanese kushiyaki skewers cooked over a charcoal grill.”

The menu is known for its unusual small plates which include: onion kakiage, shichimi, mayo, mouthwatering soy braised pork shoulder, prawn katsu sando and raw salmon, smoked tosazu with wasabi.

Desserts are also on the menu at Kushi-ya including matcha cheesecake with lime meringue and amazake pudding, umeshu soaked cherries and almond. Refreshingly, the restaurant has reasonable prices with plates ranging between £3 to £16 and skewers that range from £6 to £7.50.

Kushi-ya opened in the former Alley Cafe site after starting life as a supper club. The former chef at Iberico World Tapas, Simon Carlin and Tom Clay from The Railway, a pub at Lowdham combined to create the event which was a sell out success. With a quick makeover, the restaurant was transformed into what the Guardian critic descibred as a ‘blissfully good place and ‘hidden gem.’

The Michelin Star list is due to be released on Monday but this is a great boost for Nottingham’s dining scene. The city currently boasts two Michelin Star restaurants, Alchemilla on Derby Road and Sat Bains on Lenton Lane.

Bib Gourmand is named after Bibendum, the official name of the Michelin Man, the award was created to recognise restaurants that offer quality, great value cooking.