South Yorkshire Restaurant Guide

“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.

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”.

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.

“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’.

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.

Opened in August 2023, this spacious venue from the duo behind Sheffield bar-restaurant Bench is the latest addition in the renewal of the city's famous Park Hill modernist development, Europe's largest listed building. Cocktails, craft beer and natural wines will be on offer alongside pintxos-style snacks showcasing top-class suppliers.

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.