The seven restaurants in Sheffield recommended by The Good Food Guide 2023

The gastronomy guide was founded by Raymond Postgate in 1951 and it today remains the longest-standing and best-selling guide to dining out in the UK.

Inspections are conducted on an ongoing basis and anonymously with impartial recommendations then offered. Members of The Good Food Guide Club can access hundreds of reviews and pictures via their app.

Here are seven restaurants that are currently recommended by the guide. We have also included what inspectors made of each venue.

Bench, Nether Edge Road

Named for the softly glowing slice of wood at the heart of the room, Bench is subtly polished in other ways, too. Staff know exactly what they've got (including coolly inventive cocktails and the new-wave wines also stocked for retail), while every plate, created with a eye for colour, is a still life about to be eaten.

For those who are not communally minded, high tables edge the room; views are of Nether Edge outside, and of the open kitchen counter with its mandatory stickered fume hood and ranks of sourdough boules. On the menu, favoured combinations shift around with the seasons. The salsa rossa and hazelnuts that might have been served with agretti and preserved lemons could end up giving crunch and life to slices of fat-but-delicate raw chalk stream trout with bergamot.

A standalone salad of radicchio with blood orange and togarashi-cured ox heart is also paired with a whole, gently volcanic boudin noir - blood on blood, red on red, it's dramatically satisfying. The same skill evident in that poppy seed-crusted sourdough is also on show to finish, when a textbook bay leaf panna cotta is partnered by whisky prunes and their syrup – these fudgy, wrinkly beauties are just one of many rewards for taking a seat at the bench.

Domo, Little Kelham

This lively Sardinian restaurant, bar and deli, takes up much of the ground floor of the Eagle Works, an old red-brick former steel mill in a regenerated area of eco houses and commercial spaces known as Little Kelham. The sizeable dining room retains hints of its industrial past and and there's a large terrace for drinks and aperitivi – perhaps a sharing plate of, say, cured meats and pecorino with truffle honey and walnuts. Sardinia’s thin and crispy pane carasau ('music paper') bread comes nicely blistered and arrives with a creamy, cheesy dip.

The menu is extensive, opening with a choice of bruschetta ranging from simple tomato, basil oil and garlic to aubergine, caramelised onion, figs and roasted almonds. They also offer a wide choice of antipasti, including well-made Sicilian arancini filled with beef ragù, peas and melting Taleggio or deep-fried king prawns with a crispy carasau coating. There are salads and pizzas too, while pasta features Sardinia's own culurgiones – fat little parcels filled with potato, cheese, mint and garlic, here finished with a pecorino and truffle sauce. Owner Raffaele Busceddu's fish stew is renowned and, with 48 hours’ notice, he will prepare a feast of roast suckling pig with all the trimmings. Desserts come into their own with a classic tiramisu, ricotta-filled cannoli and affogato, the vanilla ice cream drowned in amaretto and further drowned in a shot of espresso.

This is generous, hearty, bold and crowd-pleasing food with not a micro-leaf in site – all backed by a list of Sardinian and regional Italian wines.

JÖRO, Shalesmoor

One of the best possible uses for a shipping container, Luke and Stacey Sherwood-French's darkly loveable restaurant is hunkered into Sheffield's ex-industrial heartland. A simple fit-out bats away any pretension – all is charcoal, including the sacks of artisan fuel standing ready to grill Thai sausage-stuffed chicken wings.

You'll help yourself to cutlery from the big box on the table, allowing the staff space to communicate their deep in-house enthusiasm for the possibilities of flavour and texture. With no carte on offer, a generous tasting menu is well balanced and precise in almost all things, borrowing from the Japanese kitchen as well as making merry with British ingredients and European technique. The opening moments might feature a croustade brimming with Montgomery Cheddar and onions or a well-fired treacle roll with barley-miso butter, followed by silky, barely set chawanmushi custard popping with mussels and trout roe and topped with a decadent white wine sauce (why not?). Pearly North Sea cod dotted with wasabi has a chip-shop vibe with pale tempura-batter scraps added at the table, while the aforementioned stuffed chicken wings come with an inventive, intense sunflower-based satay sauce and juicy papaya salad. West Country venison, served with foraged mushrooms, squash with mandarin kosho and a liberal dousing of cep butter, is something to truly delight in, and puddings are a proper job: kaffir lime gives some Opal Fruit-sherbet zing to a mango parfait; chocolate tofu ice cream comes with a delicate coffee-bean oil, and an apple extravaganza (sponge, miso, custard) is the final hug.

A carefully considered drinks list has something for the responsible fermentation enthusiast inside us all, while non-alcoholic options set the standard.

The Orange Bird, Hillsborough

Utterly comfortable and scented irresistibly by the smoke from the braai grill, Orange Bird tops the neighbourhood pecking order. Chef Matt Duggan-Jones grew up in South Africa, and the menu is his compelling homage to the dishes of his homeland, taken to Hillsborough's heart by loyal locals – though the tram's so easy, it might as well be in town.

The concept of one-room dining, backed by a semi-open kitchen, is relaxedly cool, but the charcoal is hot. From it, a tangy, puffy fermented potato flatbread has a gorgeous char to go with the sweet depth of a starter of white-bean houmous, onion caramel and nigella seeds. Alongside the big hitters – whole braai mackerel with pickled rhubarb or a mixed grill of boerewors, smoked pork belly and chicken wings – there are some thoughtful veggie options too.

Also check out the 'chops chutney', a triumphant treatment of a fine Barnsley chop in a richly spiced tomato sauce, its fat crisp and almost fluffy, with gently curried rice on the side. Puddings such as an OB Peppermint Crisp tart (a chocolate cake fulsomely stacked with cream cheese, caramel and chunks of the much-loved minty confectionery) are less precisely calibrated but are still a lot of fun. Wines, from orange to crémant, are South African, interesting and – like the menu – fairly priced.

No Name, Crookes

The (no) name is a teaser, and this converted shop in Sheffield’s Crookes district is full of eccentric touches: they don’t take cards, wine is strictly BYO (£2 corkage), the menu is handwritten on a wall-mounted roll of brown paper, and the whole place is a jumble of mismatched furniture that might have come from a local auction.

Chef-owner Thomas Samworth works solo in a pint-sized kitchen hidden behind a drape, but his food shows plenty of ambition, creativity and individual character. Seasonal flavours loom large, from charred mackerel with Yorkshire rhubarb, horseradish and dill buttermilk or asparagus with brown butter and Marmite hollandaise to cod loin with confit new potatoes, baby spinach and grape sauce. There’s always something intriguing for veggies (how about spiced baked celeriac with brown lentil and coconut curry), while sweet treats could include caramelised white chocolate parfait with smoked caramel or vanilla panna cotta with poached peach, blackcurrant meringues and basil. Space is at a premium, and bookings are essential if you want to grab one of the two-hour slots in the ‘early’ or ‘late’ sittings.

Rafters, Nether Green

Alistair Myers and Tom Lawson used the lockdowns to do some constructive refurbing at Rafters. There is now an open kitchen to add to the visual allure, and the room has been fitted with new solid oak tables, made locally. The whole operation radiates enthusiasm: 'it is very rare to find this level of service, combined with personability, in a restaurant,' mused a reporter, as the waiter wrote out the recipe for the miso Martini, before vacuum-packing some of the coffee beans. In between all that, the kitchen essays a fine-dining spin on classic home dishes, truffling up cauliflower cheese into something aromatically beguiling, transforming an Indian-spiced serving of Cornish cod with chip-shop scraps and caviar.

Elsewhere, dishes are about the intelligent matching of centre to peripheries: beetroot, blood-orange and buttermilk with Loch Duart salmon; parsnip, blackcurrant and kale with Scottish venison. Indulgences of another era are evoked in the refined takes on rum and raisin ice cream, or Yorkshire rhubarb enriched with white chocolate, ginger and sorrel. A spectacular wine list is arranged by style, depending on whether you want some body but without mouth-drying tannins, or would actually quite like your socks knocking off. The small glass options that accompany the tasting menu are well worth the extra investment for both gastronomic fit and imagination. There is now a second operation at the Riverside House Hotel, Ashford in the Water, Derbyshire DE45 1QF

Tamper, Arundel Street, city centre

Housed in a former silversmiths in Sheffield's old cutlery district, this Kiwi café delivers a menu of brunch-style dishes freighted with flavour. Crisp halloumi with zhoug dressing, coconut togarashi and puffed rice takes 'avo on toast' to the next level, while corn fritters are livened up with goji berries, charcoal yoghurt and crunchy corn. It's a dream spot for vegetarians but meat eaters will be pleased with stout-braised salt-beef Benedict or spicy slow-cooked Yorkshire beef mince on toast. As you'd expect from an Antipodean operation, the coffee is great and so are the fresh juices, pastries and cakes. Payment by card only.