Meal and associated drinks were GIFTED
You'd not normally find me in a restaurant which is labelled as 'fine dining' because I'll be honest, it's not really my scene; I like to feel full when I've finished my meal and I don't get the impression that I would be after most fine dining experiences. However, when I was contacted to ask if I wanted to try Silversmiths Restaurant in Sheffield, a relaxed fine dining experience, I had a look at the menu online and I couldn't resist.
Silversmiths is situated in the heart of Sheffield, close to the train station, so it's easily accessible from surrounding areas (the only slight issue I had was parking - there are plenty of car parks around but Saturday lunchtime tends to be quite busy; although on a night I would expect the car parks to be much quieter).
They pride themselves on their Yorkshire heritage; using fresh locally sourced produce to create the finest British cuisine with a true taste of Yorkshire. They have a couple of different menus to choose from: the a la carte menu which has a choice of three starters, three main courses and three desserts plus cheeseboard plus a simply British menu which gives you a few more options. You can mix and match the menus if you wish and you can also take advantage of their pre-theatre menu before 6:30pm which is £23 for 3 courses.
The restaurant itself is quite small and intimate but after their recent refurbishment, Silversmiths have made the most of the space while making the atmosphere relaxed and welcoming. They also have a private dining room upstairs which can be used for small parties of up to 16 or corporate meetings.
Part of the main restaurant dining space
Private dining space
To begin with, I decided to try a cocktail from their new cocktail menu (launching soon); I asked for something not overly sweet and was presented with a Black Forest Manhattan - a Silversmiths twist on the traditional cocktail; made with bourbon rather than blended whiskey which gave it a more palatable flavour.
Then came the starters; in all honesty I wasn't blow away by the choice on either of the menus so I decided to go for soup of the day which was Celeriac with an Apple Velouté and Kev chose the Venison tartare with egg yolk emulsion, horseradish, olive and dripping.
As you can see, the portions are as you would expect from a fine dining experience but I must say that the soup was beautiful; not a lot of it but what was there was delicious. I only realised when I'd finished that my bread was supposed to have butter which I think had been forgotten but had I noticed and asked I have no doubt that they would have brought me some as the service was very attentive. The Venison tartare wasn't really Kev's cup of tea; mainly his own fault for not knowing what the word 'tartare' meant (raw meat). My advice in a fine dining restaurant is to ask if you're unsure of what's on the menu, especially in Silversmiths as the waiting staff are more than happy to help; it is much more a relaxed atmosphere than pretentious.
I could tell that Kev was much more excited about the main course choices; he went for the House smoked brisket and Hendo’s pie, seasonal vegetables and mash (classic Sheffield!) and I went for the Pork belly, black pudding mash and spring greens.
As you can see, the beef brisket pie was absolutely packed full of amazingly tender beef brisket, the pastry was perfectly cooked and the mashed potato was gorgeously creamy. This definitely did not disappoint and Silversmiths really came into their own with these courses - even someone who is adamant they don't like fine dining would enjoy both of these dishes and they'd come away feeling full and satisfied (we certainly did!)
The belly pork was the best I've ever tasted; if done wrong belly pork can be awful but this was cooked to absolute perfection and it just melted in my mouth and the black pudding mash complemented it perfectly. The only thing I felt my dish was missing was 'spring greens' I understood spring greens to be similar to what came with the pie but what actually came was rather more like cress - it didn't hinder my enjoyment though because as I say - the belly pork was out of this world!
By this point we'd both already eyed up our dessert choice; I went for the Chocolate suet pudding,
chocolate custard and wagon wheel shortbread, Kev chose the Sticky toffee pudding, butterscotch, Yorkshire tea ice cream and brandy snap:
True British cuisine really shines through in these desserts, again, with a Silversmiths twist. I would have loved if my chocolate suet pudding had had a jug of chocolate custard because I didn't feel that there was quite enough but it the pudding itself was the sweet hit that I needed after my meal and the wagon wheel shortbread was beautifully baked. However, the sticky toffee pudding was the real winner here; it was amazingly moist and sticky and the ice cream was perfect for cutting through the stickiness making it an absolutely delicious dessert (I'm not going to lie, I did have food envy at this point - my chocolate suet pudding was nice but the sticky toffee pudding stole the show).
Overall, we had a really lovely experience at Silversmiths, the food was all well cooked and knowing that it was locally sourced makes it even better! If you're looking for a relaxed fine dining experience in Sheffield, maybe for a special occasion, then I highly recommend Silversmiths. My personal menu recommendations would be the Hendo's pie and the sticky toffee pudding - absolutely spot on!
Check out my other restaurant recommendations in Yorkshire.
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