My reviews so far have all been of London restaurants, so it was nice to head home to Nottingham for a couple of days to explore more of the foodie scene there. Gotta put the ‘travel’ in foodtravelsldn somehow…
Persian Empire is somewhere we’d never been before but had seen fab reviews on Trip Advisor. It’s in a city centre location where you might not typically find the best quality food, but so many good reviews surely meant something.
The interior is a bit basic and dare I say, slightly tacky, but I’m all about the main focus being on the food itself.
To start, we shared a mix of 5 starters for 4 people with a side of flatbread. They came well presented on a rotating dish; I’ve numbered each of the dishes to review them individually.
- Your simple hummus. A lovely, thick and creamy texture with lots of flavour. Bland hummus always sets off alarm bells but this one hit the mark.
- Olivier. Chicken, egg, mayo and potato with gherkins and peas. I wouldn’t have known this was a typical Persian dish, and the flavour was giving me generic egg-based salad feels, but I did actually enjoy it and was great piled onto the bread.
- Ghel Gheli. Lamb meatballs with prunes. These were flavoursome with moist mincemeat sitting on a juicy sauce.
- Kashke Bademjan. This shredded aubergine was delicious. The way it had been cooked gave it a tender, almost meaty texture.
- Last, and to be honest, least, was the Sabzi Paneer. Basically just cubes of feta with walnuts and various herbs. Each element sat there in isolation, none of the flavours or textures working well together harmoniously. Nothing unpleasant about this at all, but just not one that I’d recommend.
Quick mention about the flatbread – perfect thickness – not wafer thin and crunchy but not heavy and stodgy either. A great balance and the ideal side to accompany the mixed starters.
Onto the mains, and typically, whenever I head to middle eastern restaurants I tend to always go for lamb over chicken. This time I decided that I’d change things up a bit and stick to chicken. The Fesenjoon caught my eye on the menu straight away. It’s a pomegranate and walnut chicken stew served with either rice or bread and salad. Really rich in both colour and flavour, it was delicious. The shredded chicken soaked up the creamy sauce, and the pomegranate added the perfect amount of sweetness to the stew. The saffron rice was a solid accompaniment – not wildly exciting, but just what you need to mop up all the sauce.
I couldn’t leave without satisfying my dessert stomach, obviously, so I shared the Faloode with saffron and pistachio ice cream. Faloode is basically rice vermicelli soaked in rose water syrup. For me, any food this bright in colour immediately makes me slightly sceptical. My brain is automatically shouting ARTIFICIAL… and admittedly this dessert was divisive. For me, the flavours were quite unnatural and I didn’t associate them with saffron or pistachio. The vermicelli in the syrup was also incredibly sweet and I just found it to be too much. Its crunchy texture also didn’t really work for me. Having said that my Mum really enjoyed it, so just goes to show that our tastes are entirely subjective.
The service was great throughout. Waiters were lovely, and attentive but without being overbearing. It’s also fantastic value for money. Starters are generally under £5 each, mains around £10 and desserts under £4. Even with a couple of rounds of drinks the final bill was a pleasant surprise.
So whether you’re a Nottingham local, or find yourself visiting in the future, I definitely recommend this place. It’s not at all fancy, but if you just want some hearty, flavoursome food, this is the place to go.
Looking up ‘Let’s eat’ in perfect Farsi might be a bit ambitious so for now I’ll stick with…
¡Comemos!
xo
¡Comemos! 