Sheffield Restaurant Guide

A charming “family-run” operation, which after 16 years is “now a Sheffield institution”. Neapolitan-born Ester’s “delicious” dishes are backed up by Saverano’s “mind-boggling wine listed topped by super-Tuscans”, while “there’s a small bar for pre-dinner drinks”. Top Menu Tip – “sublime ravioli”.

2019 Review: “One of Sheffield’s old industrial spaces, converted into a comfortable restaurant with quirky style”, and going like a dream since the then ‘Runaway Girl’ featured on Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in 2008; “they have a nicely considered menu with some interesting (Yorks-centric) choices”, and the fishcakes are a “classic well worth trying”.

Richard & Abi Golland’s street-food operation wins high ratings for its tacos and other lively Latino dishes, available at its city-centre Burrito Bar or the fully licensed Mexican Canteen in Sharrow Vale Road.

2022 Review: “The best freshly ground and tasty coffee in the whole of South Yorkshire, can’t beat it” – insist fans of this Kiwi-style spot in the Cultural Industries Quarter – now in its 12th year, so a veteran in the fast-moving world of artisan coffee. It has an all-day menu of brunch-ish eats, and serves cocktails as early as 11am. The industrial-style interior is replicated at its second site, at Sellers Wheel.

“World-class cooking” – “a blisteringly good fusion of Nordic, Japanese and modern British ingredients and techniques” – continues to win ever-more renown for Luke & Stacey Sherwood-French’s “brilliant and imaginative” venue, in a “slightly cramped” converted shipping container (but see note below) “with a great playlist of music that you wouldn’t normally hear in a fine-dining restaurant!”. “It’s a travesty that this place hasn’t been awarded a Michelin star, as it’s definitely operating at that level and restaurants less deserving are awarded one (one guesses that the shipping container location has put off the traditionalist tyre men)”. “A light touch and high-end technique in the kitchen make unusual combinations feel natural” – “every dish is a flavour bomb!” – while “inventive drinks flights showcase some bold pairings”. Watch this space, as a move is afoot to a new location in late 2022/early 2023, and the couple are also expanding their local empire (which includes House of Jöro, see also) with a new deli concept: Grocerant.

2022 Review: No feedback as yet on this brave September 2020 opening – a tiny, 8-seat chef's table restaurant (all seats are at the counter) with an ever-changing and affordable tasting menu (7 courses for £30 on opening) from chef Luke Reynolds. Reports please!

2021 Review: Maurizio Mori’s long-established Italian (est. 1996) has earned its local popularity with “good food that’s consistently authentic” and “staff and an atmosphere that help improve your day”.

“Still one of the best, with great service (and also good for special events)” – Tom Lawson & Alastair Myers’s small (26-seater) dining room in Nethergreen is ever-more focused on its tasting menu format, delivering 6 courses for £95. There’s also the option of eating at the ‘Kitchen Bench’.

2022 Review: A collaboration between Sheffield cook Richard Smith, his restaurateur wife Victoria and the award-winning craft brewers Thornbridge; “creative fish dishes” feature alongside meats – all well-singed on the fancy Bertha indoor charcoal oven – and the “great location” (skirting the Peak District) makes it particularly “good for outdoor eating”.

This “excellent seafood restaurant” was opened in 2021 by “top Sheffield fishmonger J H Mann” – an institution that opened a century earlier in Hillsborough. “Being run by a fishmonger means they have varieties way more exciting that the usual offerings, including lobster, oysters and scallops” – which means it’s “a wonderful place for fish lovers”. The retail part of the business is now based in Sharrow Vale, with a second shop in Bakewell.

2022 Review: “The food is authentic and quite different from average North Indian establishments (dishes from Kerala are featured)” at this “very consistent” spot proclaimed in particular for its “fine dosas”.

Flo Hiller and Joe Shrewsbury opened this modern and minimalist small-plates restaurant in late 2019, since which time it’s made waves locally in the local press (if not our annual diners’ survey). In April 2022, it caught the eye of Marina O’Loughlin in The Sunday Times, who gives it a full-on rave: in the city’s “coolest, restaurant-lined neighbourhood” she finds it “warmly ramshackle… as far from fancy as it’s possible to get”. The menu is “a box of delights” that “fairly jitters with promise” with a “maverick touch” that pairs mussels with rhubarb and “ajo blanco (Spanish-style almond and garlic ‘soup’)”… “sounds like madness, tastes like genius”.

“Nice, if somewhat out-of-the-way, neighbourhood-style spot serving small plates and good wine”, outside Sheffield – a bar / kitchen and shop that started life with sell-out pop-up dinners. Its cuisine was given a strong plug by The FT in early 2022.