Dreamcakes & Bakes in Amber Valley

Myself and a friend came here for the taster menu as a little Christmas celebration for us. After seeing the taster menu we were intrigued as to what we would be served. The first course was 'roasted parsnips, cumin', in a lovely little glass on a wooden board we were served a lovely roasted parsnip soup with a cuming homemade bread. This course was delicious, the bread was soft and warm and the soup was divine. The second course was 'rice, chestnut and mushrooms', we were served a risotto with mushrooms. The mushrooms we lively and had a lively flavour. The rice however tastes quite bland and plain, we would have been happy with a whole bowl of mushrooms as they were lovely. The next course was 'coley, panchetta, onions', this was a lovely fillet of fish served on a little bit of what I think was kale with panchetta and pickled onions. WOW! The flavour combination of the salty panchetta and fish with the tangy pickled onions was absolutely delicious. 'Mussels, smoked bacon, wine' was our next course. I am not a person who likes mussels etc but I was willing to try this and the flavour of the smoked bacon was delicious. I hate some mussels and was pleasantly surprised, I couldn't eat many due to the texture but it was a lovely dish. The next course was 'baked ham, picallili, hazelnuts' this dish was up there in our top two courses along with the coley. It was so flavourful and delicious and just the right amount. On to the Christmas Dinner with 'roast turkey, Brussels, cranberries', this was a lovely posh Christmas Dinner the roast parsnips were cooked to perfection the turkey was lovely and moist and I'd love to know how the turkey was served in a circle shape. Time to cleanse the pallete with 'lemon and raspberries', I love sorbet type dishes and so really enjoyed this. Dessert number 1 was 'caramel, chocolate and vanilla', this was a salted caramel brownie based cheesecake. Very rich and lovely the caramel around the plate was really nice. To finish off was 'Christmas pudding', now I don't like Christmas pudding but enjoyed some of this. I wouldn't choose it off a normal menu but was happy to eat it. Overall the food was lovely, hats off to the chef. Only a few small things that weren't our favourite but as an all round meal we really enjoyed it. Now the only bad thing was the atmosphere.... Or lack of atmosphere in this case. We were the only table in there until around course 5 when another table came in. However the place just lacked and feeling or vibe of any kind and this may put us off returning. We did think that the restaurant would be very full as it was so close to Christmas but we thought wrong. The table that then arrived were sat too close as they were just sat staring and listening to anything and everything that my friend and I were talking about. The waitress also did not seem confident in herself or what she was presenting to the table, this took away from some of the enjoyment. However, a lovely new restaurant that hopefully if we do return will have a better atmosphere.