East To Eat Oriental food in Nottingham (review by Jon Horne 2001) © Touch Nottingham (internet magazine and What's On guide) Nottingham is probably the largest city in Britain not to have a recognisable Oriental community. London, Birmingham, Liverpool, Belfast and Glasgow each have their Chinatown, and everybody knows where to have a decent sit-down with chopsticks and perfumed tea. In Nottingham, you have to search a bit harder if you want to find some good far-eastern cuisine. OK, I'm hungry, so let's get going. Pass the prawn crackers, will you? We might as well begin with a Chinese breakfast. Since Chinese restaurants never open for breakfast, dim sums (assorted snacks) make an excellent light lunch - unless you overdo it, in which case they make a perfectly adequate heavy lunch. Man Ho on Pelham Street (between Market Square and Hockley) specialises in dim sums, which come in at around £2.50 each. As with any Chinese restaurant (certainly the ones that I'm about to mention), Man Ho also serves the usual range of Cantonese, Szechuan and Pekinese dishes. However good the food, Man Ho's main selling point is that it's slap bang in the middle of town, and it's not a wine bar. A fairly new, and definitely exciting addition to the restaurant list in the past couple of years has been Hanson's, the restaurant attached to the excellent Chinese supermarket opposite the Broadmarsh centre. Like Man Ho, Hanson's advertises itself as a dim sum specialist. Set meals are also served, and lunch-time deals can be very appetising. Not only that, if there's something which takes your fancy, you can buy it frozen in the shop below, and have the dim sum experience in the comfort of your own home whenever you like. I must recommend the steamed buns with red bean sauce. In fact I might just have one, right now. My favourite Chinese restaurant must however be King's, on Mansfield Road, a few doors up the hill from Richer Sounds, and no more than five minutes' walk out of town (which means that it's downhill going back - something for which you will be very grateful if you make a pig of yourself). In addition to high-quality main meals, King's is one of the few restaurants (of any sort) in Nottingham to serve an all-you-can-eat buffet in the evening - although their success has prompted nearby competitors to do the same. Now, it's quite expensive, at £15 per head - but if you're just plain greedy, King's is the place to go. If you don't overdose on crispy aromatic duck (and no one would judge you harshly if you did), you might consider trying the Mongolian-style beef - a welcome change from the standard Cantonese fare. Japanese food is surprisingly well represented in Nottingham, with two traditional restaurants. The more ethnic of the two is Higoi, on Castle Boulevard in Lenton (opposite the Happy Return pub, just along from Derby Road). Many of Higoi's customers are Japanese, and there aren't too many concessions to Lenton-style culture. The food is expensive, and classy. A three-course lunch will set you back £15, and a variety dinner in the evening costs between £17 and £29. Higoi specialises in sushi and sashimi, and despite the cost, they don't short-change you. you get what you pay for: some of the best Japanese food in the Midlands. For cheap and cheerful sushi, the Skinny Sumo in Hockley is possibly the most under-rated eatery in Nottingham. If just a few of the people who turn their noses up and screech: "Eew, raw fish!" as they walk past the Skinny Sumo would go inside and try something, the eating habits of this town might change overnight. Occasionally I get the urge to slap someone and say: "Eat something without raw fish in it then, stupid." But I don't, because that wouldn't be behaviour worthy of my position as a Touch Nottingham contributor. Watch out too for Skinny Sumo's weekly teriyaki (braised meat) and kari (curry) nights. With its distinctive (and magnificent) white facade, the Ginza Teppenyaki restaurant is an unmistakable landmark on Mansfield Road in Sherwood. Like the Higoi, a full-fledged sit-down restaurant, Ginza is more attuned to European tastes, regularly entertaining works parties and suchlike. Teppenyaki means that your meal is cooked in front of you - always a sensuous pleasure. Main evening meals run from £15 to £25, with lunches (mixed meat with rice and vegetables) at £9 per head, served from 12 noon to 1.30pm. Thai food is a pretty safe bet for an uncomplicated, tasty evening meal. The Royal Thai on Mansfield Road (near the Forest Tavern), and the Siam Thani in Hockley are both pleasant places to eat, and that's about all I can say. I had the red and green curries, because that's what I like, and they were really nice. Three-course meals cost £18 on Mansfield Road and £20 in Hockley, which might give you some idea of how much of the cost of your evening meal goes towards rent. Slightly cheaper, and possibly more interesting, is the Pretty Orchid in the Lace Market. Set meals are £16 per head; individual meat dishes are approximately £7 each, with vegetarian alternatives at £5. I must confess that I haven't tried the Pretty Orchid, so I can't give you an opinion on the food. It just sounds good. The chef recommended the steamed sea bass, and who am I to argue with that? NB: Massive respect to all the above Thai restaurants for resisting the temptation to use puns involving the word 'Phuket' in their names. They are run by stronger men than I. Unlike for example, Birmingham, which can boast a Vietnamese fondue restaurant and a Mongolian barbecue, Nottingham doesn't have a lot else in terms of far-eastern culinary variety. In an attempt to rectify this lack, Wok Wok has opened (just off Market Square, nearly opposite Waterstone's) as a general purpose oriental restaurant. If your eyes can handle the decor - chrome-plated brutalist 'good taste', then your stomach could be in for a treat. The all-you-can-eat lunch buffet will set you back £7, as will most main meals. Dishes come from Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as China and Thailand. Favourites include nasi goreng (your basic Indonesian fried rice dish, with mixed meat and chicken satay) and pad Thai (noodles with meat, turmeric and peanuts). The lunch buffet is also available to students (at normal price, or to the rest of us, at £2 extra) on Monday evenings. Finally, I must mention That Cafe, on the corner of Broad Street and Parliament Street. Though not an oriental restaurant, their often-changing menu always includes at least one recipe from the oriental-Jamaican tradition. If you haven't had the East-West jerk chicken yet, then it's well worth trying.Try not to have too much absinthe afterwards though, or you'll forget what the meal tasted like, as well as what your name is and where you live. That's all for now. Watch this space though; there are always new restaurants opening up in Nottingham, and we'll let you know if any of them make our chopsticks quiver. - - - read more rants and raves