Tipped

Best food in Sheffield city centre

January 03, 2009

Over the years I've eaten in most of the restaurants in and around Sheffield city centre, and this one is consistently the best.

The bar serves excellent and varied tapas, plus relatively cheap bar meals - if memory serves me correctly, they do an excellent bangers and mash for under a fiver.

The restaurant, which has recently been expanded and redecorated, serves fancier dishes, but in a very relaxed and unfussy environment. The cuisine is what I guess you'd call modern european, and the chef seems to take delight in using various regional inspirations, with a core menu inspired by Spanish and French food.

Highly recommended are their regional food evenings: for around £35 you get 4 or 5 courses with a different drink served with each course. Often these evenings feature exclusively food and wine from one particular region of France or elsewhere in Europe, but sometimes the theme will be a little more quirky, highlighting for example English beers, Scottish whiskies, or local produce. The food and drink are always expertly matched, and the head chef and sommelier give a little introduction to each course as it is served.

The atmosphere is very laid back and the decor modern, quirky, and relaxing. Service is pretty decent though not the best I have experienced - I would probably give this 4/5 compared with 5/5 for all other aspects of the dining experience.

A word of warning though: The Wig & Pen's sister restaurant Platillos is, for some reason, pretty dire, both in terms of food and service.

Keywords: cuisine: modern european, international tapas, fine wines, themed events, cuisine: french, cuisine: modern british, bar food, speciality beers