Piccalilli – Modern British – Nottingham
Returning to the recently vacated Kushi-Ya space I was pleased to see a positive and distinct transformation. The layout remains but is now accented by darker woods and green upholstery. Opening at the start of October, the concept may have changed from Japanese to British, but the small plates have been retained. There is a pleasingly wide drinks menu with good selections of wines, cocktails and beers. The menu is broken down into; snacks, veg, meat and fish with 3 of each section. I didn’t see or hear about any specials on my visit.
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First to arrive were broccoli (£7) & carrot plates (£7). Both simple and enjoyable if lacking excitement. I’d have preferred more cooking of the carrots to deepen the flavour as there was really little else going on. Broccoli was better with a touch of charring, though a little too much lemon overpowered the subtle notes of the brassica for me. Fish dishes were probably the triumph of the meal. Plaice, for an extremely reasonable £8, was skillfully cooked. The cream sauce was well balanced, a nice acidity cutting through it alongside the pop of roe and the addition of cockles is always welcome! Hake (£9) was even better. The pairing with celeriac & mushrooms made me worried about overpowering the fish. In reality the expertly cooked hake and earthiness of the accompaniments were in perfect harmony.
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Roast beef (£7.50) was advertised was with fries. This probably warrants a change in order to set expectations on the few paper thin matchsticks that adorned the plate. That aside the beef was beautifully rare and tender. A final savoury dish of pork belly (£8) had a layer of delicious, crispy crackling and all the fatty unctuousness you would hope for and expect. However it did raise a question. It may be small plate fatigue but I couldn’t help but feel the pork, and fish to a lesser extent, would have been better as a main dish. Certainly I felt the rich meat here was crying out for some vegetables and carbs. Yes we had ordered two plates of vegetables but in a system of ‘things arrive when they are ready’ they had long been consumed and would have been stone cold even if you had tried to pair them with later dishes.
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A final dish was a Parsnip Cake (£8), one of two desserts currently available. Really it was a sticky toffee pudding it all but name. Perfectly decadent toffee sauce clung to the moist satisfying sponge. Ignoring my small plate issues Piccalilli was already running like a well oiled machine, both in the kitchen and out. It does bring something different as traditional English fare like deviled eggs, parsnip cake and cold roast beef are in short supply elsewhere. The fish dishes excellent value and whilst these multi-plate affairs are rarely cheap you could leave happy spending less than £25 a head. I look forward to returning as the kitchen beds in and the menu evolves.
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