1. Delilah Fine Foods
Now, this is how you run a delicatessen. Not only is everything labelled with clear, concise but illuminating background information; not only does stock range from staples like bread and oil, to exotica like liquorice root and chipotle chilli powder, but there are also a handful of seats at a "food bar" where you can eat simple, fresh dishes, such as whole baked camembert; smoked salmon with scrambled eggs; mushrooms stuffed with gorgonzola and walnuts; as well as various salads and meat/cheese platters. As close to Barcelona's Boqueria market as you can get in the East Midlands.
• Sandwiches from £3.25; hot dishes from £3.75. 15 Middle Pavement, +44 (0)115 948 4461, delilahfinefoods.co.uk.
2. Lee Rosy's Tea
"Where music, art and tea combine," runs the tagline at a cafe where the backwoods US indie soundtrack (think Fleet Foxes) is as plaid-of-shirt and as skinny-of-jean as the trendy clientele. The main draw is a wide variety of loose leaf teas, but there are also fat sandwiches in the chiller, hot buttered crumpets, and nice cakes and sundaes on offer. The chocolate fudge cake, all buttons, Flake and Crunchie bits, may look childish, but it's dense, gooey and seriously fruity, in a way that suggests proper high-quality chocolate. A good place to nurse a hangover.
• Pot of tea £2.20; slice of cake £2.95. 17 Broad Street, Hockley, +44 (0)115 959 8890; lee-rosy.co.uk.
3. Larwood & Voce
Hard by Trent Bridge cricket ground, this modish food pub has locals raving about its gutsy dishes: Welsh rarebit; braised beef; local sausage, bubble 'n' squeak and 'brown sauce' gravy; roast chicken with mustard mash and cabbage - that sort of thing. The set-lunch (Mon-Thu, two courses, £6.95) and the afternoon bar menu are of particular interest to bargain hunters. Incidentally, the same people also own the nearby Wollaton and the Lord Nelson in Burton Joyce, whose chips (and dipping gravy) the ever-reliable food critic Terry Durack thinks are the best in the UK.
• Bar menu: sandwiches from £4.50; mains from £6.50. Fox Road, West Bridgford, +44 (0)115 981 9960; larwoodandvoce.co.uk.
4. Goosegate Coffee Bar & Deli
This tiny takeaway cafe - quirkily decorated with art and antiquey pieces - serves the best bacon sarnie in the city, according to Nottingham's favourite son, Paul Smith. It also does a fine line in salads and, well, kids' sweets. The confectionery "corner" includes everything from di Saronno Amaretti biscuits and Reese's Pieces to Tunnock's caramel wafers. Good ingredients are clearly paramount. A Greek salad includes unusually creamy high-quality feta, pert, fruity green olives and is dressed with a lovely oniony, balsamic reduction.
• Sandwiches from £1.95; salads from £3.25. 8 Goosegate, no phone.
5. Iberico
Iberico's set lunch (£10 for two tapas, bread and dessert) is one of the best deals in Britain. Its tapas dishes are as sharp as anything that this country - and much of Spain, for that matter - has to offer. We're talking precision cooking and refined presentation, which, nonetheless, maintains a rustic depth of flavour. Its Catalan tomato bread is exemplary, as are four two-bite chunks of exceptionally moist, fresh mackerel, the skin perfectly crisped, perched atop toasts topped with a mix of tapenade and smoked tomato. Treat yourself to a glass of spicy white Ondarre rioja (£4), sit back, and try and zone out the one drawback: insipid "chill out" music.
• Evening tapas £3.50 to £8 . The Shire Hall, High Pavement, Lace Market, + 44 (0)115 941 0410; ibericotapas.com.
6. Tarn Thai
This slick, modern Thai has won Nottingham over with its combination of fresh, zingy cooking and keen prices. At lunch, you can get three courses for £7, or one main and rice - the choice includes various green, red and yellow curries, stir-fries and, intriguingly, Son In-Law's Eggs (deep-fried boiled eggs with caramelised tamarind sauce) - for just £4.95. A long lounge-style space, Tarn maintains a serene atmosphere at lunch, if you're looking to escape the hubbub, or work.
• Evening mains from around £8. 9 George Street, + 44 (0)115 959 9454; tarnthai.co.uk.
7. Broadway Media Centre
The canteen at this arthouse cinema complex continues to pack 'em in for its filling chalkboard bites (£6.95), such as feta pie; chicken rogan josh; huge veggie burritos; or lamb provencal. There are various cheaper breakfast-baguette-soup options, too, plus regular film 'n' meal deals. The tapas, however, could be tighter. Decent hummus arrives with cheap, pappy pittas, while good roasted veg are let down by grainy, rubbery mozzarella. Good beer selection, including three guest ales, and, at 6.8%, the dangerously moreish Duvel Green.
• Tapas from £2.75, light meals from £3.50. 18-14 Broad Street, +44 (0)115 952 6611; broadway.org.uk.
8. French Living
The French pop songs, the French staff, the old fashioned faux-marble cafe tables, even that random rack of postcards and calendars, all combine - even before you get to the authentically French food - to produce a fairly convincing approximation of a family-run cafe in rural France. The basement restaurant does a good lunchtime deal (two courses, £8.50), but, if money's tight, stick to the street level deli-cafe. A paysanne salad is liberally doused in sharp vinaigrette, contains tiny black olives with a distinct liquorice tang and the ham and cheese therein is full of foresty, farmyard flavours. Nothing is toned down for English palates. Although - sacré bleu! - a grand creme coffee was gritty and sloppily served.
• Baguettes from £2.20; salads from £5.30. 27 King Street, + 44 (0)115 958 5885; frenchliving.co.uk.
9. The Walk
"Budget" is all a matter of perception, and many people would never pay £7 for a sandwich. But, at the Walk, we're talking superior sandwiches, salads and platters, executed with flair from fine ingredients - and backed-up by first-rate cakes and tea. Any kitchen that can make something as banal as mushroom soup sing (£3.95) is clearly doing something right. The place itself has an upmarket Mad Hatter's Tea Party feel: a phalanx of pretty cakes and tea pots at the entrance (you can choose your pot) giving way to a smart, iodsyncratically dressed space, complete with a brightly, almost psychedelically, decorated outdoor patio area.
• Dishes from £3.95. The Walk, 12 Bridlesmith Walk, + 44 (0)115 947 7574; thewalkcafe.co.uk.
10. Kayal
Not just a novel experience, but a quality one, too, it's easy to see why this Keralan restaurant has won such plaudits locally. For £5.95, the business lunch - light, crisp dosa; interesting coconut chutneys; three similarly fascinating, flavoursome sampler curries, with rice; plus side dish - is a great way of dipping your toe into south Indian coastal cooking. On a money saving tip, it's a substantial platter, too. You won't need to eat much later.
• Evening mains from £3.99 to £12. 8 Broad Street, Hockley, + 44 (0)115 941 4733; kayalrestaurant.com.
• Nottingham Food and Drink Festival runs from 16-20 September 2009.
• Tony Naylor travelled with East Midland Trains; eastmidlandstrains.co.uk
