GB Cafe - A Beautiful Mix of Oriental Diner-Sushi Bar, English, Turkish, Chinese and Japanese Cuisine
GB Cafe is one of my favourite restaurants in Nottingham, and I was musing on whether or not I wanted to share this gem with the rest of you who don’t really know about it. I can't have you all creating queues while I'm waiting for my delicious food, but then the altruist in me won over, so here we are.
I’ve been coming to this place for what feels like forever. It was first owned by Chris Haydar Sagir, who opened it in 2011. Chris, a career chef with restaurants in London, Stoke, and other places, focused on Turkish and English cuisine. Classic British dishes, such as expertly crafted fry-ups and roasts, were served alongside Turkish grills like my favourites, Chicken Shish or Shish Combo, complemented by a hefty but delicious Turkish coffee. Then, a potential disaster struck: Chris needed medical care, and the restaurant seemed to be on the brink of closure. Thankfully, Chris eventually recovered, but after spending decades in the restaurant business, he decided to sell. Again, I thought this was it.
During the transition, new team members, East Asian in appearance, began getting to grips with Chris’s British and Turkish menu. Subtle changes soon became glaring ones with the introduction of sushi, a clear departure from Adana kebab. "Sushi? What's sushi got to do with a Turkish breakfast?" I thought. Then came the joint menu, featuring selected dishes from Chris’s old menu and a new East Asian menu, with similar dishes to my favourites found in Bonsai in Hockley.
"This ain’t gonna work," I thought. "How do you fuse all this cuisine together?" But it does. GB Cafe doesn’t care about trends; it cares about stuffing your face with expertly and lovingly cooked food, which is frankly some of the best in Nottingham. No, I mean it. Try the Seafood Laksa, Katsu Curry, or the Chicken Shish. It's all amazing.
So there it is. Most of you reading this know about GB, but maybe you haven’t ever gone in, never went in after the change, or haven’t really heard about it. Which is good—keep it that way. I don’t want you lot clogging up the counter when my stomach is rumbling for a Chicken Teriyaki Bento box or my usual Tom Yum Soup.
Now forget you ever read this and move on. Nothing to see here.
Chicken Katsu Curry
Seafood Laksa and a bottle of hot Sake
Shish Combo and a Turkish coffee
