The bad news is that the increase is accounted for entirely by one addition: the Cricket Inn at Totley, which joins this year's survivors, Artisan/Catch at Crosspool and Greenhead House at Chapeltown.

Which? – publishers of the 2009 guide, out yesterday – remain apparently unmoved by the storm of protest which greeted last year's guide, when the number of Sheffield entries was halved.

On the other hand this year's showing reverses the trend which had seen two restaurants cut from the city's tally over each of the last three years.

Nevertheless it will come as a blow to Eat Sheffield, the organisation set up two years ago to champion local restaurants and gastropubs.

In the wake of last year's poor showing it produced 30,000 table cards, encouraging diners to contact the guides, recommending their favourite restaurants. But the move has failed to make an impact on the Good Food Guide panel.

Eat Sheffield manager Sean O'Toole insists that the fault rests with the Which? set-up. "They're not as well exposed to the area in terms of people evaluating restaurants and I don't think much has changed this year," he said.

"I see a discrepancy between what the different guides recognise. They just seem to bypass Sheffield one way or another."

The Peak District boasts half-a-dozen entries, including the Cavendish, Fischer's and Rowley's in Baslow, the George Hotel in Hathersage and the Devonshire Arms at Beeley.

Tessa Bramley's Old Vicarage at Ridgeway retains its seven points for cooking. Also recommended are the Chequers at Froggatt and the Old Post in Chesterfield but there's no mention for likely inclusions the Walnut Club at Hathersage or the Druid Inn at Birchover.

Meanwhile the Cricket Inn team was celebrating its success as a 'relaxed gastropub in idyllic countryside', with a score of two for Jack Baker's cooking.

"It's fantastic news," said Simon Webster of owners BrewKitchen. "We've not lobbied anybody or asked customers to write in, we've just produced good quality, simple, honest food.

"We've had about 1,500 people a week through the door since we opened, which speaks for itself. But it's great to be acknowledged in this way within a year of opening."

It's a double whammy for the Cricket, which is the area's sole new entry in the Michelin Guide to Eating Out in Pubs, also out this week.

lBrewKitchen, the Sheffield gastropub chain, has taken over Artisan and Catch, the award-winning Crosspool restaurants run by Richard and Victoria Smith.

The move is a technicality rather than a buy-out, since the Smiths are directors of BrewKitchen, along with Simon Webster and Jim Harrison of Thornbridge Brewery.

Thyme Café at Broomhill remains an independent concern run by Richard and partner Adrian Cooling.

BrewKitchen was founded last year when it took over the Cricket Inn and launched its second pub, the Inn at Troway, on its first anniversary.

Customers will be able to keep up with developments at all three outlets via the new in-house journal Di sh, launched last week.



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