Two Sheffield eateries in the running to be named Best Local Restaurant in the North East

The Good Food Guide (GFG) is one of the longest-running and best-selling guides to dining out in the UK, and seeks to ‘cover the best establishments’ in the country.

The GFG is on a mission to scout out the Best Local Restaurant 2023, and has now announced its front-runners for this year’s awards, which are broken down by geographical region.

Announcing the shortlist yesterday (Saturday, May 6), the Good Food Guide confirmed two Sheffield restaurants, Bench and The Orange Bird, have been named among the list of five front-runners in the North East of England.

Bench

Based on Nether Edge Road, Nether Edge, Bench is a compact restaurant which describes itself as a ‘neighbourhood hangout with communal bistro-style dining serving seasonal dishes alongside cocktails, natural wine and beer, with an outside terrace’.

It has previously been named among the UK’s best restaurants in the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2022, with judges describing the eatery ‘near-perfect neighbourhood joint’ thanks to a combination of friendly staff, small mark-ups on natural wine and its ‘clever’ seasonal small plates menu.

In GFG’s review of Bench, it said ‘every plate, created with a eye for colour, is a still life about to be eaten’.

The review continues: “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.”

Orange Bird

With a South African-inspired menu, Orange Bird has attracted positive reviews from customers and critics alike since opening on Middlewood Road, Hillsborough towards the end of 2020.

It, too, was named as one of the finest places to eat in the UK in the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2022. The OFM praised the South African-inspired menu,’ cooked on a braai, picking out treats including caramelised aubergine and seaweed sambal, Durban curry and peri-peri chicken’.

GFG’s review of Orange Bird describes the restaurant as ‘topping the neighbourhood pecking order’ and being ‘taken to Hillsborough's heart by loyal locals’.

"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,” the review states.

While the current front-runners have been announced, the GFG is still accepting nominations, and people are encouraged to name their favourite local restaurant.

Nominations close on Wednesday, May 24, and to throw a restaurant’s name into the ring please click here.