Make a New Year’s Resolution to visit Sheffield where the food scene is having a moment. Check out new places and attractions to tempt every palate – and revisit and some old favourites
1. Cambridge Street Collective
Food halls are destinations in themselves and are perfect in winter when we want shelter, warmth and nourishment. Cambridge Street Collective (CSC), in city centre Cambridge Street, is the new kid on the block from Matt and Nina Bigland, the forces behind the well-established indy food and drink hub Cutlery Works at Kelham Island (another must-go location on our list). CSC is the UK’s largest purpose-built food hall with 20 diverse kitchens and four bars under one roof. It was named Best Food Hall 2024 at the British Street Food Awards.
Inside you can wander the globe, tempted by tastes from all corners of the world. Highlights include Palestinian flavours direct from the Baity Kitchen, Greek favourites from Gyros Express, Chinese street food from Tang, and El Chapo, bringing Mexican staples with a modern twist. Open daily. cambridgestreetcollective.com
During a visit to CSC, do pop just across the way to the newly-opened indy shopping outlet, Leah’s Yard, home of the queue-worthy Chocolate Bar, (from local bean-to-bar artisan chocolate maker Bullion), which is an all day cafe-bar specialising in ‘craft’ drinking chocolate where you can concoct your own hot drink from a Wonka-worthy menu. chocolate-bar.co.uk
Other food halls to check out in the city include:
(*) Kommune in Angel Street – boasting culinary options from Japanese, Chinese and Mexican fare, to Italian, English, and American cuisine – with a coffee shop and bar too. Closed Mondays. kommunesheffield.com
(*) Steam Kitchen – the monthly street food market in vast industrial warehouse The Steamworks at Randall Street, off Bramall Lane, features different local vendors every month. For upcoming dates visit: thesteamworks.co.uk/street-food-market
(*) Sheffield Plate – at Orchard Square in the city centre with six street food vendors selling plates of food reflecting global flavours. With two bars too. Open daily. facebook.com/SheffieldPlate
A selection of plates from Baker’s Yard which opened at Kelham Island in April. Photo: Supplied
2. Kelham Island
This area of Sheffield, alongside neighbouring Neepsend, is now a food and drink jackpot that just keeps giving. Awash with some of the city’s best -loved spots for eating and drinking – not least the award-winning Cutlery Works food hub – it’s no surprise this is a buzzing destination, with seemingly always something new to experience. Here’s our pick:
(*) Bakers Yard – opened in April, this ‘micro bakery’ at Little Kelham, just off the corner of Alma Street, has already made it into the Good Food Guide 2024. Drool-worthy displays of sweet and savoury bakes – influenced by the seasons – will prove impossible to resist. Look out for flatbreads and focaccia sarnies, and daily soups and lunch specials. Open Monday to Saturday, 8am-4pm. On Instagram: @bakersyardbakery
(*) Restaurant Norse – based in a shipping container in the city’s trendy box park Steelyard Kelham, this new fine-dining spot is winning rave reviews for its chef’s tasting menus combining Scandinavian and Asian flavours – with wine and sake pairings available too. restaurant-norse.co.uk
(*) Factory Floor – has established itself as one of the best, and certainly one of the most unusual, bars in the city. Set in a former spring factory in Burton Road, Neepsend, it is the UK’s first ‘drip bar’, meaning it uses drip methodology to flavour its spirits. Add to this the fact that it also makes its own sodas and you have the perfect ingredients for some unique cocktails. If beer is more your thing, Factory Floor also offers tank craft beer fresh from the brewery next door. And if you are feeling peckish, you can order food straight to your bar stool from neighbouring restaurants Roku, specialising in Asian fare, and B’Reyt Dough, celebrated for its wood-fired pizzas. factoryfloor.bar
3. Park Hill
Some of Sheffield’s best indy cafes, restaurants and bars are gathered in clusters within distinct neighbourhoods, with Nether Edge, Sharrow Vale and Crookes all good examples.
To that list, add Park Hill – the 1960s Brutalist housing estate that towers on one of the city’s ridges directly behind the railway station. A stiff walk from the station brings great views across the city and a choice of trendy – and delicious – eating and drinking spots.
The much-loved South Street Kitchen – which began life in 2018 – is a lo-fi, two-storey cafe, with an all-day brunch menu full of inventive veggie and vegan choices as well as homemade kombucha and cold brew coffee. Open Friday evenings also. southstreetkitchen.org
Just metres away is The Pearl at Park Hill, which opened just over a year ago. The Pearl is a new outpost for the team behind Bench, the popular neighbourhood bistro and bar in Nether Edge. The Pearl specialises in cocktails, craft beer and natural wines and bar food such as house-spiced crisps, grilled courgette skewers, and spiced chicken flatbread with tahini pickles and chilli. Open daily. pearlatparkhill.co.uk.
Last February, the same team also opened Bench La Cave, right next door to The Pearl. La Cave is a versatile food and drink concept: a bakery by day, wine bar by night – and bottle shop all day long. Sourdough is on sale alongside a choice of sweet treats and sandwiches during the day. By early evening, the venue becomes a wine bar serving natural wines by the glass as well as craft beers with a French-cafe-inspired menu, with choices such as Burrata with brown anchovy and chilli, beef tartare with oyster mayonnaise, and 24-month aged Comte and garlic honey. Open Wednesday to Saturday. benchsheffield.co.uk/lacave
4. Jöro
The most anticipated food story for 2025 will be the relocation of Jöro – widely recognised as Sheffield’s best restaurant – to a new base at Oughtibridge Mill on the edge of the Peak District.
Luke French and his wife and business director Stacey first opened Jöro in 2016 in the Krynkl shipping container unit at Kelham Island, serving a blend of Nordic and Japanese-inspired food and picking up multiple honours, including a Michelin Guide listing.
Jöro mark II promises to be a much bigger affair, offering two bars, an all-day dining terrace, outdoor kitchen, bedrooms, and a deli shop.
The new restaurant will open for a soft launch from December with the rest of the venture following in the new year.
Guests will have the choice of two menus: the Express Tasting Menu, available at noon from Thursday to Saturday, or the Signature Tasting Menu, on Wednesday evenings or from Thursday to Saturday for lunch and dinner.
There will also be a new terrace menu, with dishes cooked over birch wood and charcoal, and featuring the likes of grilled Scottish scallop, salt-aged Yorkshire beef rump cap, and whole Teriyaki quail, served alongside snacks, salads and bread. Desserts will include Basque blueberry cheesecake, Yuzu meringue pie and a choice of soft serve ice creams, such as pistachio, caviar and salted butter rum caramel.
The site will also be home to Shop by Jöro, a deli shop within the mill, selling a range of everyday ingredients including teas, coffees, Jöro’s own wine and gin, and cured meats. The shop will also sell produce used in the kitchens at Jöro, such as barrel-aged soy sauce.
Sister outlet Konjö, the Asian-inspired street food concept at the Cutlery Works at Kelham, will take over Jöro’s vacant site at Krynkl. jororestaurant.co.uk
5. Take a food and drink tour
Cities across the world offer a variety of culinary tours – and Sheffield is no exception.
Sophie Barber has a background in hospitality and marketing and launched her first food tours in Sheffield in 2019, based around Kelham Island. A Taste of Kelham and the Kelham Food and Beer Tour run every Saturday.
In the summer she added two more to her menu: A Taste of Sheffield and the History and Brunch Tour.
The first is a four-hour guided walking food tour of the city centre visiting five venues and taking in landmarks and places of interest. Guests enjoy four small plates and a “special drink tasting session”. The tour aims to uncover the hidden gems serving some of the best food in Sheffield while highlighting iconic buildings and landmarks such as Fitzalan Square, Sheffield Cathedral, Sheffield Library and the City Hall – providing historical context and interesting facts along the way. The tour concludes at Bullion Chocolate’s new cafe Chocolate Bar in Leah’s Yard, where guests will hear about bean to bar chocolate making and enjoy dessert. The tour will run twice a month.
The History and Brunch Tour, which runs monthly, combines a two-hour historical walking tour of the city centre followed by a one-hour brunch stop at Birdhouse Tea Company – in the heart of the Steel Town’s industrial quarter – where guests enjoy a pre-ordered main brunch dish and hot or soft drink.
Branching out further, Sophie now offers a monthly Cookery School Experience, hooking up with the Blend Culinary Foundation at the Cambridge Street Collective.
Added to this, an innovation for 2025 will be the Sheffield Food Tours self-guided option, accessible via an app that can be bought either as a gift or available to download and use straightaway.
sheffieldfoodtours.co.uk / kelhamislandfoodtours.co.uk
