Bellota - From Small Acorns Great Restaurants Grow

In the first of a new series for the Wayne Hurr Hair blog, we celebrate the great independent small businesses of Bury St Edmunds. We start with the fine-dining experience at the newly opened Bellota, just a few doors down from our salon in Churchgate Street.

Attention to Detail in the Bellota Kitchen

Bury St Edmunds is fast becoming the foodie capital of East Anglia, and the newly opened Bellota may be the extremely tasty icing on top of the cake.

Bellota is Spanish for acorn, and the design of the restaurant includes tasteful theming such as the oak table which you will be seated at.

We wanted to celebrate a good friend's birthday in style, and Bellota seemed like the obvious choice. Owning a busy hairdressing salon means that we give and receive many dining recommendations every day and we had only heard good things about this fine dining experience.

Ready and Waiting in Bellota

Bellota offers an a la carte and set menu option for lunch and a 7 or 8 course taster menu for dinner. We chose the 8 course Vuelve dinner menu, and our seating was at 8pm. There are two dinner sittings, one at 5.30pm and the second at 8pm.

We were warmly greeted by Gabi, who runs the restaurant with husband Ruben. Both are amazing chefs, and are the perfect people to be in charge of a venture like this.

Drinks were ordered and other diners began to arrive until every seat was filled. As the designated driver, I could not partake in sampling the carefully chosen wines, but I did indulge in a lovely olive lemonade. Honestly, you've got to try it.

The concept of the restaurant is an open-kitchen chef's table, where you can watch the talented chefs at work. We were all very intrigued as to what delicacies awaited us and it was not long before our curiosity, and appetites, were satisfied.

The Open Kitchen at Bellota

To accompany the Suffolk-coast crab gazpacho, we were presented with some sourdough bread and salted butter.

Wayne enjoying his Raviolo

It is impressive that Bellota's menu only features locally sourced ingredients with fruit and vegetables grown in their very own garden.

The flour for the bread is produced in Woodbridge at a mill using an 800 year old stone and baked on the premises.

The Amazing Sourdough Bread

I did not have to research this information as it was freely provided by chefs Ruben and Jack, along with descriptions of every course that we enjoyed that night. This makes the whole experience more intimate, almost as if you have hired a private chef for your special evening.

The courses started to arrive in a timely fashion, with enough of a gap in between that you can enjoy the conversation and ambience.

Highlights of our menu included a 'Puffed up Pig', which comprised of a porcine souffle,

A Puffed Up Pig

cured pork jowl and smoked yolk. Absolutely delicious, although you do feel guilty as it must take an age to prepare and only a few seconds to enjoy.

The grilled vegetable raviolo with Manchego cheese and a tomato crumb

was also a delight, and if you are very lucky you may receive some extra bread to mop up the excess sauce.

Another favourite was the line caught Wild Suffolk Bass perfectly accompanied by a zesty lemon emulsion. You may be starting to feel full when this course arrives, but believe me, you will not be able to stop eating this culinary delight.

The menu is completed with a light pre-desert of raspberries, grown in Bellota's own garden, complimented with a cava foam. This delight refreshes the pallet in readiness for Elderflower sorbet and dark chocolate sponge.

Concentration is Key for Chef Jack

We ended the evening with some delicious petit-fours and a really decent cup of coffee. The whole operation run like a well oiled machine and it came as no surprise that some of the team had worked together in previous restaurants.

We must also mention Lily, who always made sure that all our needs were being met, and we were amazed to discover this was only her second shift at the restaurant.

I started this blog by describing Bellota as a fine-dining experience, and this is a very accurate description. The food may be the star of the show but the people, atmosphere and professionalism elevate your evening to a different level than just having a meal out. Belotta might not be the cheapest night out that you've ever had but we all thought it was worth every penny. We will definitely be visiting again soon.

Are you a foodie who is planning to visit Bellota?

What do you think of Bury St Edmund's 'foodie-capital' reputation?

Let us know in the comments below.