Stepping into Oaks, with its light wood décor, warm lighting, impressive ‘chandeliers’ made of strung up, long wicked candles – not lit, of course, there’s such a thing as health and safety nowadays – and tables spaced out nicely, was just the ticket on what was a rather nippy night in Nottingham.
After seating us into a cosy corner, the waitress immediately returned to take our drinks order, hand out menus and to furnish my four-year-old with a pot of felt tips and a kids’ menu that doubled up as a rather cute colouring sheet. Small child immediately distracted and quickly served a lemonade, we were free to delve into the menu and decide what we were all having.
Everything looked so good, our debating over who was having what and who’d be stealing what from whose plate was quickly sorted out when we spotted the sharing platters on the menu. With two adults and an eleven-year-old to satisfy, we went for the wild boar, purple broccoli and smoked mozzarella sausage, a quarter of honeydew beer and black pepper marinated chicken, porterhouse steak (although it was a toss-up between that and the tuna steak with salsa verde, tough Monday night choices), and sides of truffle mash and hand-cut chips (£37). Yeah, I know, we went for the double potato hit… it’s winter, don’t judge. The youngest at the table ordered from the Little Acorn menu (£5), a simple menu that caters to the younger and sometimes pickier of diners, and he chose the sausages, chips and corn on the cob.
Dining out with offspring, if we’re honest, can leave you spending the meal feeling a bit on edge. Not every restaurant is set up that well for families, and although you try to hammer home that sitting relatively still and remembering your manners is important, kids can be a pain in the arse at any given moment. Thankfully, the pleasant atmosphere combined with attentive staff who were super friendly meant that I actually got to relax during the evening. My four-year-old devoured everything on his plate bar the sweetcorn, but that’s okay because we got to swipe it – he missed a juicy treat there.
While he was shovelling his way through his little feast, we tucked into our meaty one. More than enough for two and three quarter people, our elder child was rather impressed with his “exotic” sausage, not minding at all that broccoli was secreted within it. I’m not sure how exotic wild boar is, but there’s no denying it was a damn fine sausage, and made locally by Tuxford Butchers in Netherfield. Talking of local, their grills are fired by wood supplied by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. Not that we’d mind wood from other counties, but carbon footprints and the like.
I digress. Back to the fayre. The steak, cooked rare for us, was succulent and juicy and the chicken had a beautiful tang from the marinade, was tender and fell off the bone. The mash and chips were both fluffy in their own, and very different, ways. Call me a heathen, but with all the flavours from the meats, I couldn’t taste the truffle oil in the mash. But despite that, they play a strong mash game at Oaks. The homemade burnt tomato ketchup and brown sauce are worth a mention too: the former lacked the overbearing sweetness of your standard ketchup and although the burnt bit of the name might be off-putting, it’s a lightly smoked taste sensation. They’re both quite runny though, so easy as you go when you’re squirting it on your plate.
We didn’t do starters, mainly because children don’t tend to be that into starters. And even if they are, you need something to bribe them with if they are acting up, and pudding is one of the best behaviour bribes out there. They both had ice cream; the younger stuck with vanilla, while the elder went a bit more sophisticated with a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of toffee apple (£1.50 per scoop, or inc. in Little Acorn menu). I went for the healthy option of apple tart tatin with toffee apple ice cream (£4.50). And yes, if it’s got apples in it, it’s healthy. Sticky and sweet with a caramelised crunch on the base, it hit the spot. Although, I wasn’t sure why it came with a side serving of cream in addition to the ice cream. My partner went for doughnuts with Marsala cream (£4.50), which I managed to convince him to give me half of one in a swap for a spoonful of mine. Lightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, they were stuffed with the sweet, whipped cream. Lush.
I’ll definitely be back for more Oaks action, happily with or without the young uns. And if it’s without, the cocktails are going to be explored… a Midlands Spritz, containing Noilly Prat, elderflower, mint and pale ale (£5), urm, yes please. Ali Emm
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