The wallflower of the UK's big cities, Sheffield doesn’t mind the chain restaurants passing it by; that just leaves more room for its creative, multicultural population to fill the gaps. Even in the city centre, independent businesses are the mainstay – do not leave town without trying a roast pork bap from the iconic Sheffield sandwich shop Bères – and neighbourhood favourites easily establish loyal followings.
Fittingly, Sheffield’s best restaurants are almost all scattered through its charming suburbs, but if you need good food in the city centre, your appetite is in safe hands at Cambridge Street Collective, Europe’s largest purpose-built food hall. Less slick but probably even more delicious, the kitchen at The Rutland Arms turns out some truly impressive specials alongside their legendary drinking ‘ballast’, the Rutty Butty.
Does Sheffield have any Michelin-starred restaurants?
There are three Sheffield restaurants listed in the Michelin guide but none of them currently hold a Michelin star. The sort of old-school tasting menu experience that Michelin-followers tend to be keen on can be found at Rafters, where the appetisers are topped with microherbs and the carpets are tartan. At Jöro’s handsome Oughtibridge papermill you’ll get food (and indeed ambience) that’s more of a talking point. A new addition for 2025 is Tom Lawson at The Psalter, a boutique hotel where both the vibe and the food could be described as ‘elevated classic’.
Here are the most reliably delicious restaurants in Sheffield.
Native
Best for: Fancy, fish-based feasts
Dish to order: Roast octopus on mashed potato with an nduja and anchovy dressing
Sheffield’s favourite fishmonger, J H Mann, is behind this almost bachelor pad-like restaurant that displays its finery on a bed of ice in front of the fire-fuelled open kitchen. As is correct with such fresh produce, the fish is all cooked simply, though often with little flavour twists to really make the dish pop. Their love of bold combinations plays extra hard on the specials board – monkfish with salt-baked celeriac, apple puree and XO sauce, for example – and even main menu stalwarts such as mussels and oysters get a glow up each week. The wine list is concise and full of small-batch gems, and a stop at their neighbouring cocktail bar, The Stag and Eel, is a fun way to kick off your edible celebration of Britain’s fantastic seafood.
Address: 169 Gibraltar St, Sheffield S3 8UA
Website: nativejhmann.co.uk
Bench
Best for: Proving your food-obsessive credentials
Dish to order: Fennell’s orange blossom and caramel ice cream with pecan brittle
This small but quietly ambitious restaurant fits into the well-heeled neighbourhood of Nether Edge so neatly that the oyster happy hour (£1 a shell on summer weekday afternoons!) feels like destiny. The main table is, in fact, the titular bench, a long, tall central table that lets you eye up other diners’ orders while you work out whether you have the appetite for basically the whole menu. There will likely be perfectly charred chunks of locally reared meat with a zingy salsa verde, and you might start with something weirder – how about cod crudo with cantaloupe, guindilla and sumac? – that arrives looking like folk art. Never resist the fancy ice cream. The knowledgeable, laid-back staff will be delighted to help you choose from the selection of natural wines, which brighten up the plywood shelves on the back wall.
Address: 7b Nether Edge Rd, Nether Edge, Sheffield S7 1RU
Website: benchsheffield.co.uk
The Orange Bird
Best for: Culinary comfort
Dish to order: Mosbolletjies (exceptionally fluffy, aniseed-laced bread made from an enriched dough)
The sun-drenched flavours of South Africa are transported to the heart of Hillsborough at The Orange Bird, a teeny restaurant with masses of passion. Some of the recipes (and even ingredients) are confusing enough to English ears that there’s a glossary at the end of the menu; this is food that wears its multicultural influences with pride. Most of the cooking is done on a wood-fired braai-style grill – of course – meaning that everything from peri peri chicken to halved heads of hispi cabbage arrives deliciously smoky, with charred crispy bits in all the right places. The Orange Bird offers home-style cooking done with flair, so expect to feel nourished afterwards, especially if you save room for pudding. Their Peppermint Crisp tart is like a candy cane version of tiramisu.
Address: 78 Middlewood Rd, Hillsborough, Sheffield S6 4HA
Website: theorangebird.co.uk
Napoli Centro
Best for: World-class pizzas
Dish to order: ‘Vesuvio’ (organic tomato, fior di latte, nduja, spicy spianata Calabrese salami, burrata, hot honey)
There is a disproportionate number of fantastic pizza restaurants in Sheffield, and Napoli Centro is the very best of them. It gets those puffy, charred, chewy sourdough crusts absolutely bang on every time, and the toppings are all of the very finest quality. Despite their authentic Italian credentials, there are some fun toppings on offer – the ‘Sophia Loren’ is all dolled up with goat’s cheese, caramelised red onion and pancetta. And for dessert, they’ve messed with a classic in the most irresistible way possible by creating ‘nutallamisu’. Obviously, they deliver, but the cacio e pepe frittatine are much better when piping hot from the fryer. And who doesn’t want Diego Maradona watching over them from every wall while they eat?
Address: 343 Glossop Rd, Broomhall, Sheffield S10 2HP
Website: napolicentro.co.uk
Jöro
Best for: Wowing the taste buds
Dish to order: The tasting menu always kicks off with a small but mighty flavour bomb in croustade form
Joro’s black-led colour scheme belies the service's tone; every member of staff upholds Sheffielders’ reputation for genuine warmth. They’re also overwhelmingly knowledgeable, unwavering in every last detail of the 19-dish tasting menu and its eclectic drinks pairings. Head chef Luke French moved to Sheffield to work at an acclaimed gastropub, where he met his wife, Stacey. They’re a strong pairing; Luke’s in charge of the kitchen, but Stacey captains the ship, and the concept is very much a joint effort. The menu magically combines ingredients that would rarely end up in the same fridge, let alone the same dish, and uses them to create something so immediately satisfying that you forget every one of them. A sweet course listed as ‘Jasmine rice koji, Ohitachi soy, Miyazaki yuzu and Madagascar vanilla’ may sound borderline medicinal, but that’s completely forgiven with every multi-textured, soy-drizzled spoonful of what’s essentially a very exciting crème caramel. Treat yourself to a night in one of the seven mini-apartments upstairs so that you can admire views over the River Don while you attempt to find room for breakfast.
Address: Main Rd, Wharncliffe Side, Sheffield S35 0LB
Website: jororestaurant.co.uk
No Name
Best for: Dinner dates (at any stage of the relationship)
Dish to order: Never skip the starters, they’re the most fun
When a venue is proudly BYO and cash only, you might assume it's best left to thirsty, penny-pinching students. But Crookes’ flatshare population has grown up, its high street has become downright boujis, and No Name is the local restaurant that typifies its youthful taste for the finer things in life. The tiny room – 20 covers at absolute max – is decorated with sensible levels of kookiness: framed vintage sheet music, a taxidermy squirrel wearing a studded choker, an A2 print of Andy Warhol’s ‘Mick Jagger’. The playlist is knowingly fun, too; your main course might be accompanied by a bossa-nova cover of Boys Don't Cry.
The menu is brief, intriguing and always satisfying first and foremost. We’re talking bistro classics that have read Bon Appetit: baked celeriac with creamed goats cheese, black garlic and seed ‘soil’ on the starters list, slow-cooked pork cheeks with smoked mash, cavolo nero and bourguignon sauce on the mains. The service is delightful, the room bubbles with chatter. It’s a British bistro experience for the young at heart.
Address: 253 Crookes, Sheffield S10 1TF
Website: nonamesheffield.com
North Town
Best for: Laid-back weekend belly-filling
Dish to order: Melanzane alla parmigiana
You know that trattoria you found in Puglia where the staff treated you like a long-lost cousin? This is the Sheffield version. North Town delivers the sort of hefty Italian classics that make you smile as they arrive and sleep more soundly afterwards. There are classic pastas, of course, and sharing platters of antipasti, but pay attention to any seafood options, especially tonno alla griglia – a charred tuna steak served with perfectly sweet-and-sour caponata. Make time at the start of your meal (and maybe also the end) for a Negroni.
Address: 699, 701 Abbeydale Rd, Nether Edge, Sheffield S7 2BE
Website: northtown.store
Pellizco
Best for: Getting the party started
Dish to order: Soy and sesame-glazed cauliflower tacos
Proof that Sheffield’s street food scene can really get things off the ground, Pellizco proved the quality of its Mexican-inspired menu from their bright orange food truck and their stint at Neepsend food hall, Cutlery Works. On a sunny day, the combination of an outdoor table (in traffic-free Dyson Place) and their watermelon tepache and rosemary margarita delivers an instant holiday. From the very first dunk of a tortilla chip into the salsa roja, you’ll know that the food is joyful, too, with British ingredients providing the heft for Mexico’s tangy fruit flavours and fiery chillis to dance all over. This is a clever kitchen in a fun-loving package – the food equivalent of Carlos Santana in a mariachi band.
Address: 8 Dyson Pl, Sharrow, Sheffield S11 8XX
Website: pellizco.co.uk
Lan Zhou Pulled Noodles
Best for: Casual catch-ups over comfort foods
Dish to order: Biang Biang Noodles
Named for the Chinese city that’s famous for its beef noodle soup, this insalubrious kitchen and canteen-style room barely even qualifies as an actual restaurant, but definitely do not let that keep you from its glorious noodles. Piping hot bowlfuls of aromatic broth hide tender slices of beef shin and neat swirls of soft, spaghetti-sized wheat noodles – potentially the world’s best hangover cure – while wide, flat hand-pulled noodles are used for their biang biang noodles, which are fiery with chilli oil and contain an astonishing amount of raw garlic (in a good way). It’s cash only, the chopsticks and cutlery are brought in plastic takeaway boxes, and the room is always the same temperature as outside (even when it’s sleeting), but this is the meal you’ll be telling people about for weeks.
Address: 202 West St, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S1 4EU
Domo
Best for: Wholesome celebrations
Dish to order: Burrata Fumada in sa Fogu di Pistoccu (Smoked burrata with honey and pistachios)
The on-point interiors in this grand ex-warehouse in Little Kelham make it a really special setting for big occasions, though in honesty, the service is so warm they’d make you feel comfortable if you rocked up hungover in your PJs. There’s a passion for sharing Sardinian culture behind every detail at Domo; chef Raffaele’s aunties made the hand-woven baskets that decorate the bar, and the house wines come from vineyards local to his family home. That Sardinian enthusiasm is what makes them find such remarkable produce. Tender, gently smoky slices of tuna carpaccio that melt in the mouth; plump burrata that oozes as soon as it sees a fork; wild boar that makes the richest ragu to fill their house-made giant tortelloni.
Address: Eagle Works, 34-36 Cotton Mill Walk, Little Kelham St, Sheffield S3 8DH
Website: domorestaurant.co.uk
Roku
Best for: Edible elegance
Dish to order: Rainbow dragon roll
A serene one-room restaurant off a cobbled lane in industrial Neepsend, Roku is an unexpectedly chic shrine to Japan’s finest food and drink. Shelves are lined with pretty sake bottles, and focus is immediately drawn to the chef’s counter, where two people are preparing sushi and sashimi with the concentration of an adult doing paint-by-numbers. And those sushi rolls are works of art, purely to help you enjoy their flavour all the better (rather than to encourage you to share photos afterwards). If you’re in more of a comfort food mode, it’s sirloin katsu curry to the rescue. No wonder many see it as on of Sheffield's best restaurants.
Address: Unit 6, 92 Burton Rd, Sheffield S3 8BX
Website: rokusheffield.co.uk