Jericho – Fine Dining – Nottingham (Vale of Belvior) | Frusher on Food

Jericho – Fine Dining – Nottingham (Vale of Belvior)

You might have noticed the erratic cadence to my reviews over the last few years, you have Jericho to thank for this return to writing at the start of 2023. Wanting to share my experience at this new restaurant was the most compelling reason I’ve had to pick my keyboard back up. I won’t be telling you it was a perfect meal but anywhere that is thought-provoking, exciting and different merits my column inches more than most.

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Jericho only opened in September but to little fanfare, at least I feel I’ve heard little about it in foodie circles. It is a touch off the beaten track, in the Vale of Belvior, just over 30 mins East of Nottingham. The setting is a farm owned by the same team behind the restaurant and even in the dark of a January night it was a pretty location. As you approach its lit by both bulb and flame against the shadowy rural backdrop of barns and fields. At this time there is little information online about the experience, menus change regularly due to availability of ingredients so we didn’t quite know what to expect. We were first seated in a separate bar area, that I decided to name the ‘holding pen’, where we were served some snacks. Beetroot and seaweed crisps arrived alongside some venison sausage and trout roe tarts. Enjoyable. simple fare to accompany a pre-dinner drink. On that front their wine list is partly a work in progress but an area they want to take seriously with Tom on board, a passionate young sommelier.

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As we were relocated for the main part of our meal the surroundings moved up a notch to a beautiful dining room. Rustic beams and modern metals combined with some leafy additions to make a stylish and spacious experience. The attention to detail extends throughout, impressive given how new the restaurant is and the general atmosphere with contemporary music was excellent. We were first furnished with a delicious, salty and warming broth which was exactly what was required on a cold January night. The bread and butter from the adjacent dairy farm was of equally high quality and provenance.

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Moving into the menu proper it was in a tasting format of around 12 courses. As ever with a menu this length not every dish can be to your taste or hit the mark unless you’re dining at the absolute highest level. Broadly there was an even distribution of exceptional, good and average dishes. I say average, I am already contextualising this against the cost which is £90 for the food which understandably sets certain expectations. Rather than go through the procession of the dozen dishes as they came I’ll start with the very best. These were pleasingly quite diverse. I loved a partridge dish with homemade kimchi and gochujang. The closest thing to a main course was fallow deer with deer sobrassada with carrot several ways. In its different forms the humble carrot brought sweetness and acidity, a harmonious combination with the richness of the meat. This was also served with a little deer charcuterie that was excellent quality, one of the best I’ve had and some of the top restaurants in the country have served me their versions.

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By comparison glazed eel atop chawanmushi accompanied by eel hash browns didn’t sing. The custard (thats the chawanmushi) seemed over set and really lacked its own flavour. I’ve enjoyed this in other restaurants a great deal but it didn’t pack that umami punch in the better examples I have had. An eel hash brown alongside was a nice idea for some texture and an extra nibble but was just under seasoned and bland as a result. Despite this I applaud the use of eel, which can be fantastic, and presentation was still excellent as it was consistently all evening. Jerusalem artichoke with shropshire blue was a course that as advertised sounded right up my street however the advertised blue cheese was almost undetectable which left a fairly one dimensional dish. The most maligned dish of the evening across our table was mallard, advertised as a cross over where you move from savoury into sweet. It was served with a “blood orange sphere”. I found this hard work. I love rare game but this was very rare with a strong flavour that I didn’t find was complemented by a cool, sharp citrus hit.

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A dish of scallop with turnip and hazelnut flavours was very enjoyable although could have benefited from a lift from a more acidic element to make it sing. As maybe the safest course of the evening it also suffered from having to compete with many great scallop dishes over the years! Mackerel had a nice onion broth that was clearly well made but didn’t quite harmonise as a complete dish as the delicate flavours were dominated by the strong, oily fish. Pork pie was a nice local nod made with very well made short pastry, and a brooding boudin noir that had a good depth of flavour. Sadly its fennel veloute bed fellow was a little thick and cloying when something lighter would have helped the balance. The dessert courses in modern fine dining places can be challenging but here were perhaps overall the strongest part of the meal. A chocolate, rose and beetroot combination was simple but oh so effective and could have been easily imbalanced without a deft touch shown as it was here. “Milk and honey” was equally as successful and whilst a pear and whiskey combination wasn’t to my taste I could appreciate the quality and execution of the dish.

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So as you already knew the overall verdict for me is excitement. There are flashes of brilliance here and ambitious food. The more ambitious you are the more you feel it when it doesn’t quite come off perfectly so I hope they forgive my critical eye. As a small operation you feel the passion and dedication from the owners who currently are the ones doing the majority of the service, it does enhance the experience. Having followed them since I can see that there will be regular changes to the menu in terms of seasonal focus which is great.

I have little issue with the aforementioned cost given the amount of work that has gone in and how they have already made the experience feel premium. However whilst it is unfair to draw comparisons sometimes that is sort of my job so if someone had £100 to spend on food in Nottingham there are places with a much more consistent execution that I might point them to. You can get 5 courses (with several smaller snacks) at Alchemilla for £95 for example, somewhere that spent longer building its reputation at a lower price point, gained a star and wide recognition before putting its prices up. Not that everywhere has the luxury of doing that. There is nowhere quite like Jericho locally, I could see them growing towards something like Ynyshir which is one of the most lauded restaurants in the UK over the last few years. Ultimately I really think it should have much more of a profile, refinement is required but with time it could become something truly special. Support from diners will help them go from strength to strength more quickly, so check them out: https://restaurantjericho.com/

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