A quick word about No 4 Wood Street, Mansfield

Way back goodness knows when in 2011, there was a Group On offer for a 3 course meal at No 4 Wood Street in Mansfield. I'd never heard of it, so I googled it and it looked lovely and then people started to say they'd heard it was nice, so my friend Helen suggested we book a girls night out. On synchronising diaries we realised it was going to be 13 January 2012 before we could go, but it was something for us to look forward to in the dark days after Christmas, the bonus being we would have already paid too!

We weren't really sure where we were going, we roughly knew where Wood Street was, but not if it was a two way street and not if there was enough parking. We ended up parking in Tesco's on Chesterfield Road (beware timed parking with number plate recognition) and walking round to the restaurant. In the end the building was easy to find and there were 6-8 parking spaces outside. The entrance was a little harder to find, but actually we'd walked past it twice, luckily someone came out and we nipped in.

First impressions were good, there seemed to be a private function going on downstairs and there were some stylish toilets, albeit with a very confusing set of taps. They had some sample menus and a guest comments book.

We climbed the stairs to a small bar come reception area. We sat at a leather settee where we were served drinks and given the menus. We ordered and waited to be shown to our table. The actual restaurant had a very easy atmosphere, it was all solid wood tables and light and airy but lit really well, a kind of modern but rustic feel.

Erm...I forgot to take
the photo of the soup
until it was almost too late!

Helen enjoying her soup

Before our starters came we were brought a taster / chefs starter, a little cup of mushroom soup, a real burst of mushroom taste, rich but light, the flavour really filling your mouth. It was one of those little touches that make your dining experience that little bit more memorable.

Yes, photo forgotten until eating well under way!

For starter we both went for the grilled mackerel fillet on toast with pickled vegetables, it had a light sauce with it, how terrible that I can't remember what that was. The trouble with enjoying yourself when you're out from a bloggers point of view is the more you enjoy the more you forget to write and photograph. I was a bit sceptical about the starter but when it arrived it looked lovely and invited you to tuck in. The pickled vegetables perfectly complimented the oily mackerel which was served with a crisp skin but soft, melt in the mouth, juicy flesh. I thought the toast would be overkill but it was light, crisp on the outside and soft but not at all doughy on the inside, with a good home baked taste.

For my main I went for fish again. I had left Tony and Lauren at home enjoying salmon for their dinners, so I decided to go for salmon too. It was served on a potato and white fish (again the exact fish is lost from my memory) fish cake, with spicy king prawns, pickled shallots and a tomato salsa.



Helen went for the duck breast, served with Dauphinoise potato, on a bed of creamed vegetables and if my memory serves me right a Madeira sauce.

Both mains came with a serving of green vegetables, a medley of peas, leaks and green beans cooked on the right side of crisp but not raw.


The salmon was delicious, cooked every bit as well as the mackerel had been, again the salsa was a great accompaniment. The fish cake was tasty, crispy on the outside and light and fluffy potato inside, there was a fine balance between fish and potato. The prawns were a little disappointing, I would have liked them to be a bit more succulent, so maybe they were a little over done.

Helen enjoyed her meal, she was full of praise for the sauce, but for her, the duck was cooked too pink, she ate the extremities but there was a very rare piece in the middle that she couldn't manage. It's not an issue we've encountered before but if we were to go again, I'm sure Helen would have duck again if it was on the menu but we'd know to ask for it to be less pink.


Our group on offer included dessert and coffee. They had a nice selection of desserts traditional apple crumbles, sticky toffee pudding...but believe it or not we were too full up to be tempted by anything. We had both had a glass of house red and white with our dinner, there were no complaints from Helen and my red was smooth and warm and pleasing. I had a coffee, strong and black and that was our evening.

We both agreed that we would definitely go back to Wood Street,the food was delicious and the service good. We did in fact, try to book for the following week to take our husbands with us but they were fully booked, but Helen has now booked again and will be going in a few weeks.

We got back to Tesco's just within our parking time limit. And just to show that we can't have a night out without anything weird happening, on the way we walked past Kwik Fit where we had considered parking. An estate car was parked there and a man in a kilt was looking through the open boot from which he promptly produced a bucket and knelt down in front of it in the car park, well I won't elaborate I'm sure you can guess what he was doing, maybe the convenience accounts for his dress sense, but a lesson for us to always park somewhere sensible, look forwards and keep walking!