The best restaurants in Sheffield

CITY CENTRE

Tamper at Sellers Wheel

Best for: casual dining

Sheffield was the 19th century metalwork capital of the world. Today, Tamper, housed within a former silversmiths’, creates an equally precious commodity: Antipodean-style all-day brunches and great coffee. Over the weekend, local students, in particular, flock to this brick-lined, whitewashed space to gorge on Turkish eggs; kedgeree; sweetcorn, chilli & chive fritters with avocado and eggs; or that Kiwi classic, spicy mince on ciabatta with poached eggs & herb hollandaise. Dishes from £6.80.

Rutland Arms

Best for: casual dining

There’s a lot of like about this quirky, boho city-centre pub. It’s a craft beer hub, with a yard that makes a sweet al fresco drinking spot in summer, and a legendary jukebox (complete with hilarious list of dos and don’ts). Chef Richard Storer’s idiosyncratic pub grub has put the Rutty on the map for food, too. He keeps it real on his “ballast” menu, while taking unusually good care of his chip butties, burgers and sausage sarnies. On the wider menu, there are generous snack plates of smoked anchovies on toast (with lemon and caper butter or mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes); salt-baked potatoes with “scotchpocalypse” hot sauce; moreish tofu nuggets with vivid pickles and salad; or mains such as mutton leg with mustard mash, greens and gravy. The Rutty’s Sunday roasts are a big draw, too. Light meals from £4, mains from £12.

Fat Hippo @ Kommune

Best for: casual dining, kid-friendly

A communal food hall housing street food traders is now every city’s must-have, and Kommune – a sleek transformation of Castle House – is a striking addition to that network. Among its traders, Fat Hippo is an enduring favourite. This next-level burger outfit started in Newcastle and its classic double-patty American cheeseburger is always a tonic, particularly when paired with a drop of the good stuff from Kommune’s craft beer bar-shop, Hop Hideout. Evening burger meals from £12.90.

Native & JH Mann

Best for: casual dining

Visiting a city is about hunting for one-off experiences, and eating among the vintage crockery and ornamental bric-a-brac of Sharrow Vale fishmonger, JH Mann, is certainly that. At lunch (11am-3pm, Tue-Sat; from £15, 261 Sharrow Vale Road), you can choose your fish from the ice-counter, add various sides – think seared mackerel fillets with samphire and yellow lentil dhal – and the staff will cook it for you there and then. In 2021, JH Mann’s chef-owner, Christian Szurko, launched a city-centre restaurant, Native, where he dives deeper into seafood cookery. Expect plates like hand-dived roasted scallops with a garlic, herb and parmesan crumb; tempura soft-shell crab with handpicked Devon white crab meat and katsu sauce; or sea bream, chorizo butter, salsa verde and new potatoes. Mains from £15.50.

CITY CENTRE: KELHAM ISLAND

Piña

Best for: casual dining

This warehouse taqueria in Kelham Island (an historic industrial zone, increasingly home to bars and restaurants, office spaces and creative studios), is worlds away from Oaxaca. But, after finding inspiration in Mexico, owner Joe Cribley was determined that Piña’s taco menu and margaritas would deliver authentic flavours. Hand-pressed corn tortillas are topped with slow-cooked meats and vibrant vegan combinations. Think: braised birria beef, or citrus confit pork with salsa verde and pink onions. Two tacos from £10.

JÖRO

Best for: special occasions, casual dining

A chic nook in the Krynkl shipping container development, JÖRO is a relaxed restaurant that, in chef Luke French’s ultra-seasonal, globally influenced dishes, operates at the very top-end of contemporary UK cooking. You eat amid jars of fermenting produce, with hip-hop and house music pumping away in the background, as engaging staff deliver plates of BBQ hand-dived Orkney scallop with rhubarb nahm jim; savoury spelt porridge with Jerusalem artichoke and comté; or Moss Valley pork belly tacos, mole and pickled cabbage.

French and co-owner, Stacey Sherwood-French, also operates House of JÖRO, a luxurious four-bedroom boutique hotel in Sheffield, and KONJÖ, an East Asian-inspired kitchen at the Cutlery Works food hall. JÖRO has a retail arm, too. A second, larger version of its SHÖP concept will open this year at Oughtibridge Mill, between Sheffield and Barnsley. This space will include a bar, coffee shop and kitchen serving small plates, cheese and charcuterie. It will host foodie workshops and events, and retail food products, natural wines, books, kitchen kit and homewares. Menus from £35.

V or V

Best for: casual dining, vegetarians and vegans

Using seasonal, heritage ingredients, open-fire cooking and clever pickles and ferments, the V or V kitchen creates innovative plant-based dishes, drawing on global influences. Good examples include the jerk-spiced oyster mushrooms, pineapple scotch bonnet jam and red cabbage sauerkraut; salt-baked celeriac, sage butter, chanterelles, baked apple mostarda and buckwheat; or BBQ hispi cabbage, rum raisins, brown butter hollandaise, pickled walnuts and Old Winchester. Note: the spin-off V or V Grill House recently opened at food hall, Sheffield Plate, serving, among other items, celeriac doner and oyster mushroom shish kebabs (mains from £10.75). Plates from £7.25-£12.75.

Peddler Market

Best for: casual dining

This is a regular street-food party (first Fri-Sat monthly, plus occasional bank holiday weekends), spread across the Peddler Warehouse and courtyard. Expect live music, DJs, craft beers and cocktails, and top-notch traders serving everything from fried chicken and corn dogs to vegan kebabs. Look-out for tap-takeovers from notable craft beer breweries such as Hull’s Atom Beers and Huddersfield’s Zapato, while neighbours Depot Bakery handle the hot drinks and sweet bakes. Periodically, the self-explanatory street-food event Veg Out is held at the same site (next, October 21, 2023).

The Depot Bakery

Best for: casual dining, kid-friendly

This is a warehouse bakery-café renowned for its bread, cakes and coffee, which also does fine work in the brunch-lunch sphere. From overnight oats to ham hock and Dijon mustard cheese toasties, plus creative plates such as “smashed” sardines on sourdough (cleverly jazzed-up with lime and olive oil, herbs, nuts, smoked and pickled chillies), the Depot Bakery is a feast of tempting options. There's a second Depot café at Hillsborough Park. Brunch dishes from £6.

Slap & Pickle @ Heist Brew Co.

Best for: casual dining

Northern burger vendors Slap & Pickle serves its 40-day aged beef patties at two Sheffield venues: Heist Brew Co.’s large brewery-tap bar, on the Neepsend side of Kelham Island, and Ecclesall Road’s Dark Horse bar. S&P’s Sheffield menus include a local speciality, the Mardy Bun, comprising two smashed patties, smoked bacon, crispy onions and a rarebit sauce made with stout and Henderson’s Relish, aka. Hendo’s. Created in the 1880s and still made in Sheffield, this dark, spicy Worcestershire-adjacent table sauce is the Steel City’s default condiment. Burgers meals from £12.50.

Cutlery Works

Best for: casual dining, family-friendly

Cutlery Works was voted best food hall at the 2022 British Street Food Awards. Among its traders are KONJÖ (see above), Edo Sushi, and Chuan Wei, a spin-off from Sheffield Szechuan restaurant and foodie favourite, China Red. Chuan Wei’s menu runs from dumplings, bao buns and crispy duck to spicy, aromatic Szechuan classics, such as yu-xiang shredded chicken or poached beef in hot chilli oil. The latter is a deep, soupy bowl of fiery meat and veg, that simultaneously sharpens the senses and lifts the soul.

ABBEYDALE ROAD & NETHER EDGE

Forge Bakehouse

Best for: casual dining, cheap eats, kid-friendly

To eat well in Sheffield, it pays to explore the inner-suburbs beyond the city-centre – and artisan bakery Forge Bakehouse is certainly worth the diversion. Its first-floor dining room is a Scandi-modern space (look-out for supper club events here), and downstairs, its sun-trap conservatory seating spills out onto the street. Tables are in big demand on bright mornings. As well as stellar pastel de nata and cinnamon swirls, Forge dispenses one-pots (stews, soups, curries), savoury tarts, French toast and brunch plates. Specials might include smoked haddock and baked eggs with spinach, gruyere and sourdough, or Toulouse sausage and mash with crispy bacon, caramelised onions and wholegrain mustard sauce. Note: Forge has a new second site on Hutcliffe Wood Road in Beauchief, and also sells its baked goods at Sheffield Station (currently, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday; soon daily). Snacks from £2.65, dishes from £6.50.

Bragazzi’s

Best for: casual dining, cheap eats

This quaint Italian deli-café was nourishing discerning locals long before Sheffield got its foodie groove on. Claire Thornley, a co-founder and editor of essential Sheffield guide Our Favourite Places, says that it remains “a city classic". She explains; "For 20 years, they’ve been serving the best coffee in the city, and the best sandwiches in the world. Expect panettone in winter, gelato in summer and the best cheeses, meats and pasta all year round.” Panino £6.25.

Bench

Best for: casual dining

Cocktail whizz Jack Wakelin and chef Tom ‘Ronnie’ Aronica are two of the sharpest minds on Sheffield’s food scene, and their first independent venture, Bench – a relaxed, neighbourhood hang-out for good drinks and elevated sharing plates – has established itself as one of the city’s defining modern restaurants. Aronica’s cooking is clever, eclectic and neatly reconciles big flavours in dishes such as beef fat potatoes, watercress and smoked cod’s roe; cavatelli pasta with cavolo nero pesto and chilli; or a bavette steak with roasted roscoff onions, salsa verde and a fish skin and seaweed seasoning. Wakelin and Aronica will this year open a second venue, The Pearl at Park Hill. Currently subject of a major regeneration programme, Park Hill is the brutalist 1961 tower block estate visible behind Sheffield Station. More of a bar, The Pearl will serve seasonal cocktails, natural wine and snacks. Plates £8-£20.

Mavi Rüya

Best for: casual dining, special occasions

A handsome restaurant which, as well as looking the Anatolian part, is wowing locals with its topped pide, meze and charcoal-grilled meats. Platters of shish and minced adana kebabs, lamb chops, köfte and dishes of garlicky, butter-drizzled chicken or lamb, wrapped in lavash bread with various sauces, cheese and yogurt, make it, says John Harrison, owner of Sheffield micropub, the Beer House: “The best place I’ve been to this year.” Mains from £15.50.

North Town

Best for: casual dining

Opened in 2020, the “hearty, authentic dishes” at this deli-kitchen made it an instant hit, says Claire Thornley: “It’s a super-cosy spot lined with vintage Italian newspapers and cycling mags. Start with the caponata and burrata, plough through the parmigiana and leave room for their incredible cannoli.” Plates £6-£18.

INNER SUBURBS: BROOMHALL & AROUND

Ashoka

Best for: casual dining

A Sheffield fixture since 1967, this compact, much-loved Indian restaurant was given a smart, retro-modern makeover a few years ago: all antique Indian café signage, wooden booths and shelves stacked with colourful, iconic South Asian products. Similarly, Ashoka’s food persuasively blends tradition and modernity. Scintillatingly spiced seekh kebabs emerge from a still charcoal-fired tandoor, while dishes, from Parsi lentil curry to the “Viceroy’s keema”, are kaleidoscopic in their freshly-ground, sensitively-spiced flavours. The dhal palak is terrific: buttery, savoury, thick with leafy spinach. Mains from £10.

Elm

Best for: casual dining, cheap eats

A space of raw plaster walls and stylish retro furniture, with a vinyl turntable and hi-fi system as its eye-catching centrepiece, this hip hang-out majors in A1 coffee, cinnamon buns and hand-rolled Montreal-style bagels (they’re flatter and denser), innovatively filled with, for example, cured pork loin, truffled goat's curd, sweet pickled celeriac and crispy pig skin. Elm doubles as a retail store for a small selection of natural wines, books and sustainable homewares. Those low-intervention wines feature in irregular Thursday tastings and on Fridays, when cheeses, Curing Rebel charcuterie and wines are served until 10pm, alongside a carefully selected vinyl soundtrack. Bagels from £6.

Napoli Centro

Best for: cheap eats, kid-friendly, casual dining

Whether it’s Dough Truck in Nether Edge or Porter Pizza in Sharrow Vale (see below), Sheffield is blessed with multiple options for slow-proved, fast-cooked Neapolitan-style pizza. Napoli Centro, is a tiny restaurant, takeaway and shrine to Naples – naturally, Diego Maradona features prominently – whose soft, chewy, beautifully-blistered bases come topped with both classic combos (organic tomatoes, mozzarella, high-quality salami, chilli flakes), and tempting white pizza creations of, say, smoked provola cheese, sautéed porcini, roasted potato, fennel sausage and truffled olive oil. Pizza from £7.20.

INNER SUBURBS: SHARROW VALE

The Porter Pizza Company

Best for: cheap eats, kid-friendly, casual dining, vegetarians/ vegans

In Sharrow Vale, Porter is flying the flag for wood-fired ovens and Neapolitan-style pizza, producing pies with puffy cornicione crusts and good so-called ‘leoparding’, the delicious spots of char created by super-hot domed pizza ovens. Try the Amore (olives, fennel seed salami, artichoke hearts) or Red Devil (‘nduja, red roquito jalapeños, red onion). The latter is also available in a meat-free version that uses a house-made plant-based ‘nduja; one option from a large range of vegetarian and vegan pizzas. Pizza from £6.50.

SUBURBS: HILLSBOROUGH

Orange Bird

Best for: casual dining, special occasions

Located a few miles from Sheffield city-centre in Hillsborough, this cool, cosy neighbourhood joint is garnering plaudits for its menus of modish, sharing dishes; many influenced by chef Matthew Duggan-Jones’ South African upbringing and fondness for cooking on a braai barbecue. Dishes might range from burrata, burnt radicchio and blood orange with a curry and kombucha dressing, to Durban-style ‘chops chutney’. In this case, Barnsley chops served on a spiced, almost curried tomato sauce with yellow rice and shrimp sambal. Homemade boerewors sausages come with smoked pork belly, polenta-like pap topped with whipped bone marrow, burnt onion and pomegranate molasses. Orange Bird is an accomplished feast of creative ideas. Larger plates £12-£18.

10 MORE SHEFFIELD HOTSPOTS

Public - Exceptional modern cocktails in a stylishly remodelled former gent’s toilets below Sheffield’s Victorian town hall.

Two Steps - Historic chippy (est. 1895; 249 Sharrow Vale Road), where the mushy pea fritters and brilliant Yorkshire fishcakes (fish, sandwiched in slices of potato, battered and deep-fried) retain a loyal following.

Hungry Buddha - This Moor Market kiosk gets a lot of love for its Nepalese thali platters and momos. “Amazing food,” agrees Beer House owner, John Harrison.

SHÖP - Jöro spin-off at Cutlery Works food hall, retailing cookbooks, high-end kitchen kit, natural wines and niche premium ingredients.

Eve Kitchen - Small Sharrow Vale Road takeaway-café, famous for its beautiful handmade doughnuts and other baked treats (think: blood orange whipped cream brioche buns). Eve has a sister kitchenware store next door.

Butta La Pasta - Chef Stephen Ogden’s seasonal fresh pasta restaurant also offers classes (£50pp; June 4, July 9, Aug 20), where 8-10 people get to grips with making oriechiette, tagliatelle and such, around a convivial shared lunch.

Ambulo - Cut-above family-friendly canteen at Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery, featuring Yorkshire producers such Dark Woods Coffee and Sheffield’s own Our Cow Molly ice-cream. There is a second Ambulo at Weston Park Museum, too.

Porter Brook Deli - Another Sharrow Vale Road favourite, for all your artisan cheese, cured meat and fine food needs.

The Brewery of Saint Mars of the Desert - Acclaimed, adventurous craft beer brewery out in Attercliffe; tap-room open on Fridays and Saturdays (2pm-8pm).

SHEFFIELD PUB SCENE

Sheffield is one of Britain’s great beer cities. It is home to several top breweries and many amazing, historic pubs that take a modern approach to cask ale and craft beer. This scene is celebrated every March during Sheffield Beer Week, but, whenever you visit, you will have your pick of good pubs and great beer. Personal favourites include the pioneering Sheffield Tap on platform one at Sheffield Station; the nearby Rutland Arms (see above); that warm haven from the world outside, Shakespeare’s, a pub of huge character; and The Fat Cat for an essential pint of Pale Rider. When it was first brewed in Sheffield using American hops in the 1990s, Pale Rider was a ground-breaking ale. Beyond the city-centre, smaller beer hubs, often beer shops where you can drink-in, are thriving. Walkley Beer Co., Hillsborough’s The Pangolin, and, in Nether Edge, Turner's Bottle & Tap, fly the flag for good beer in the ‘burbs. On Ecclesall Road, the charming Beer House micropub is a reliably wonderful place to sink a pint.

Demonstrating Sheffield’s seemingly unquenchable thirst for friendly, unpretentious pubs that foreground modern beer, it will soon open a second venue, Beer House S6, in Hillsborough.

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