The Knowhere Guide

Eating and Drinking in Sheffield, South Yorkshire*

Sheffield, South Yorkshire Pubs, Cafes, Coffee Shops and Restaurants

Food

• Plenty of good curry houses around. The cheapist of which are on spittle hill (!) The Mangla is good. (but watch out for the locals trying to sell their whares!) Bukowskies on London Rd does a nice varied menue and has a v.laid back atmoshphere. + amongst other stuff has open mic nights on Sun PM.
• wetherspoons is always good value for money, but avoid lloyds number 1 as the bouncers and staff are less than friendly if you don't look like posh and becks.
• Trattoria Romana, Ecclesall Road-lovely Italian food. Chubby's for chips and Macdonalds for the kids. Also Yankees on Ecclesall Road.
• I just CANNOT believe that no one has mentioned Scotts Pantry on Glossop Road opposite the Uni! OK so its not a restaurant, but it is the best sandwich shop in Sheffield (possiblt the world - sorry I'm a fan) The prices are cheap and the food is fantastic, there has been many time I've been able to replenish oneself prior to a lecture after a night on the piss. Not just students use it too! Popular with all the office staff near by and workmen too. THANK GOD FOR SCOTTS!
• La Luna in Banner Cross does great Italian food - the best!
• Danums pizza on abbeydale road, near carterknowle road is amazing. 0114 2555606.
• Champs
• wetherspoons near cole brothers is the best one for cheap (and i mean cheap) food and beer. and it looks fancy as hell inside!
• No body has mentioned Santinos or Nonnas on Eccleshall Road. Both are fantastic. Santinos is a reasonably cheap place to eat and was done up a few years ago so it is now twice the size. The food is lovely. But for real and I mean REAL Italiano food, Nonnas is the biz. The food is out of this world. it's a bit pricey, but worth it. Even the pasta is fresh. They have a deli and a coffee bar up front, but be warned, go early. Cubana on Trippets Lane is quite good. They serve tapas with Salsa music playing in the background. The food is really cheap and tastes home cooked- not like the frozen rubbish you get in La Tasca. This is real food - and served by hunky Latin Americans.
• Do not i repeat do not eat any food from down the Wicker , rat ala carte is the main food.
• Curry houses round Sheffield are cheap and usually of good quality. Go looking around Crookes and other areas just outside the city to find good eats. "Taste of Kashmir" was a personal favourite during student days - very cheap, friendly and on the way home if you lived up in Crookes.
• This is the only place to get "Quality" (as in "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance) food...: "Broomheads chipshop" - cooked in lard (so no good for veggies)
• Nibbles Pizza in Broomhill. The best take-away in the world!
• Fat Poppas, round the corner from sumo is an excellent greasy spoon type, and really cheap with it.
• Veggies and fish eaters can try Cafe Ceres at Hunters Bar
• Best Restaurant is definitely El Sombrero - we eat there all the time
• NJ's the new bagel shop on Ecclesall Road! Brill cheap food, cokes in glass bottles and a free wurlitzer jukebox with classic tunes! An owner you can tell your problems to, like Sam on Cheers, and friendly regular customers. Mostly a secondary school and uni crowd during the week, weekends for family meals...great sunday breakfast...as an expat american, it's been my new home! (past Hunter's Bar roundabout, up the hill from Endcliffe park)
• For vegetarians, vegans and lovers of good food GO TO CHINSKIS! Chinskis can be found on the Abbeydale Road serving delicious, unusual and reasonably priced vegi and vegan food. Great atmosphere and friendly staff too!
• Harlequin Fish and Chip shop on Howard Street does THE best Fish and Chips on the planet and is the best way of reminding yourself what Sheffield's all about if you've been away for a bit. The Chef at The Forum cafe does not know how to cook bad food, the staff are brilliant and visiting generally leaves you with a huge smile on your face. Also there is a blinding Italian on London road - but I can't remeber the name. It is decked out in fully authentic seventis decor and is the ideal place to hold a Mafiosa get together; the pizzas are huge, wine comes in gigantic caraffes that you nee d both hands to lift and they stay open until you've finished. Which is cool. The Blue Moon Cafe is always great, as is In A Nutshell on Chesterfield Road. Cafe 9 at Nether Edge does loads of fantastic coffees and will have you smoking Gitanes Blancs within a week, and finally THE best place for take out Pizzas is Nibbles at Broomhill. For a full on Nibbles experience, order a Chef's Special on a warm summer evening and eat it either across the road outside The Broomhill pub, or in the Botannical Gardens down the road.
• If you like good food, then 'K Pasa' on West Street is a must! It is also very good value. Don't bother going to 'Indian Chef' on Crookes Road. Although the food is good, the manager is most unfriendly - as closing time approaches, he becomes most hostile to diners, babbling about them (no doubt insulting them) in his own language... most ignorant!
• Orchard Square can be expensive and it's gone downhill but great for getting away from it all, also a little cafe opposite the Peace Gardens, does the best sandwiches I've found.
• Italian:
  • A far better Italian restaurant, however, is Rossi's on Sharrow Lane, just off London Road.
• The best food shops in Sheffield are New Roots, on Glossop Road, Rice and Spice on Crookes Road and Bean Beanie on Crookes Valley Road.
• Fish'n'chips: Harlequin Fish Bar, Howard Street (opposite Hallam University)
• French(ish): Channings, Chesterfield Road
• Other places for curries:
  • Himalaya, Glossop Road
  • New India Garden, Chesterfield Road
  • Nirmal's, Glossop Road (pricey but yum)
• Just a word in favour of the recently extended Kashmir Curry House, Spital Hill, for good cheap nosh and lots of veggie options. You can buy good beer from Morrisey's East House over the road and take it over with you.
• 'El Sombrero' is a fabby Mexican restaurant just off West Street (near to the Jessop Hospital). The food is tremendous (the usual kind of prices) and the Marguaritas are the best I have ever had.
• THE best place to eat is Taste of Cashmir on Barber Road. Storming Pizzas, the best curries, and super friendly delivery blokes; ask them in for a cuppa!
• Why has no-one nominated Chubbys on Cambridge Street for this section? The weird secret recipe cheese sauce on their burgers is gorgeous. It's a stone's throw from the Drop and is the only place to go at 2 in the morning.
  Chubby's - the cheese is plastic crap - don't eat it!
• The meat pies from a shop in the Moor.
• There's an MDs, but it's meat.
• Safeways for the doughnut pig out.

Pubs

• For a good pub crawl try this: 11.am Rat and Parrot on West Street. Along West Street towrds uni, stopping in every pub along the way (should be about 10) Then into Bar 1, down the road a little bit more to the West End, and up into Broomhill. Firkin first, then South Seas, The Place, O'neills, Broomhill Tav, And then up to Ranmoor, via Ranmoor in and the big one before it. End up at Triplets wine bar at about 11pm nicely wankered! Nice one!
• the best pub in sheffield is the Globe (just up from the bus & train stations)
• Apart from the boardwalk (see venues) Try the Tuxido Blue on Sharrow lane. Very friendly hosts and something different every night (monday nights 4 open mic with some blindin' talent) Sun lunch is cheap + an acoustic session too. The Vine is very popular with the 'alternative' croud espessially pre club.
• boardwalk rocks, has bands on too.
• The Byron on next to netheredge shops is great. Pound a pint night on Mondays, thursdays and saturdays.
• We just love The Devonshire Cat on Wellington Street. It just has to be Devonshire Greens coolest pub. Loads of nice grown up people not being stupid or out of their minds on bad beer and alcopops. Great crowd and they say over 100 different beers. I've not seen anything like it anywhere. www.devonshirecat.co.uk
• The Yorkshire Grey The Rutland
• flares is a right laugh, go and funk out in your seventies gear!
• If you hate the Cavendish, you'll probably love The Beer Engine, which is next to the Safeway petrol place. It's a cosy place with lovely people, an ever-changing range of beer and cheap, filling food.
• The Dog and Partridge, Trippet Lane is loverly! -Original little cosy rooms, nice to have an alternative to the soulless barn-room neon townie hell-holes. 3 Tuns is ace too, and the Harlequin [Off the Wicker] -Cheap/sometimes FREE Pool! The Cavendish [West Street] is a vast, rowdy-student domain, but it does have a PIN-BALL. And the Grapes ,Trippet Lane is sound too.
• the fairways (Brinsworth)(o.k I know it's not really sheffied..but very close) on friday night 60 70 80's music played by the famous brian...and unlike any other dj I know...he does play ALL your requests!
• Other side bar, a great place to go before heading to the Corporation which is situated very handy right next door. Cheap drinks, good music, great atmosphere, what else could you ask for???
• West Street is the place to go for a pub run if you're a student. Every time I go back there seems to be a new pub there. They tend to follow the fashion, so there was a rash of "Irish" pubs, then cafe bars were springing up everywhere when I was last in town. Try the older ones for decent beer and less student types. The studenty bars are good, but can get completely chocka during the beginning/end of term and most weekends. Little local pubs have more character, better local beers and cheaper prices. Try the Fat Cat for a range of ales, or the Tap and Spile. Try the local drinks - you can't beat a good pint of "Barnsley" by an open fire on a cold Winter night. Or cask conditioned Stones..Mmmmmmmm...
• Lots of changes in the Sheffield Pub Scene. The New Barrack Tavern, Penis (don't laugh) tone Rd, Hillsborough, and the Sheaf View, Gleadless Rd, Heeley. (left just after the Railway bridge on Chesterfield Rd) both sell nice english and continental beers at reasonable prices. Half the pubs mentioned in the list have changed their names, usually to something stupid, and Wards brewery, sadly, is no more.
• The Matilda in Matilda Street has just become gay, and better than the Cossack. Not that that's saying much.
• the lescar, sharrowvale, the washington nr devonshire green
• The Fat Cat Kelham Island - great beer, good food, outrageously low prices.
• fat Cat, Red deer, any that sell beer....(not that poofy lager stuff in bottles)
• The Dog & Partridge on Trippet Lane is easily the best pub in Sheffield, a real Irish pub, not an artificial latest craze "Oirish" pub, a close second come Fagans, and the Fat Cat. The Frog & Parrot was okay about 10 years ago, when it was independent, shame about all the arty farty students (bless 'em), and the real ale bores - just drink it lads ! P.S. Just a quick mention to Wards brewery R.I.P., if Swallow Hotels didn't want a brewery why buy it in the first fucking place. It wasn't the best pint in town but by the time it closed (June 99) it was the only major brewery left. Best wishes Kelham Island Brewery, and more power to Mr Wickett's elbow.
• How old is this, the foundry & firkin is no longer a NEW pub, and it is also a good place to have a laugh with a mate! However, a newer pub on west street is the CAVINDISH, which is a great place for a laugh, with cheap beer (with a 'yellow card' available behind the bar, with an NUS card.), a choice of arcade games, apoll table, table football, and lots of people going to get tanked up before they go clubbing, or just going to get tanked up-as it has that kind of fun atmoshere where you just don't care!!! So if your ever in Sheffield check it out, you'll like what you find.
• Lamentable shortage of gay pubs in City centre. Only the Cossack, which can't decide if it's Arthur or Martha half the time
• Red Deer (back of West Street: Has Motorcycle meetings by the University of Sheffield at 9pm every Monday
• Berlins is not towny. I am a student (I come from Sheffield but don't study there) and I think it's fantastic for those people who know how to have a good time. Students who are stuck up there own rear ends and even use the word 'towny' give us all an undeserved bad name. Such students deserve to get beaten up by Sheffield's finest. Perhaps this is why they daren't go near Berlin's?
• Hmmmm, depends what you're after really. The Newt and Chambers is a good, lively city centre pub. Serves Wards, landlord Spence is a top lad (though has been known to handcuff members of barstaff from rival pub The Yorkshire Grey to lamp posts) and the lad who does the quizz on Mondays is bloody insane. The Washington is great, but I'm kind of loath to reccomend it; since people found out Nick Banks owns it its been over run. Use with respect. The Brown Bear's always alright - nice pint of John Smith's, but dodgy jukebox. The Howard is great all the time; friday nights give you the chance to see the World's Most Evil Looking Bouncers. Other good places: The Union, Nether Edge; The Vine Inn, Sharrow; The Red Lion, Heeley Bottom; The Hallamshire Hotel, Walkley; The (other) Hallamshire Hotel, West Street; The Frog and Parrot; The Dog and Partridge, Trippet Lane (and in the same vein but even better) Fagan's, up from West Bar. Great music, Tetley's, company, Guinness and also chips. Landlord Tom Boulding is a top bloke and will not throw you out if you've not finished by 11:20. Look out for the pub's resident dog. Avoid Like The Plague: The Cavendish and The Foudary and Firkin, West Street, and that other Firkin pub at Broomhill. This sort of thing is not big, or clever. Please help these places go bankrupt.
• The Vine on Cemetry Road is a good place to go. Nice mix of 'townie-baseball-capped' locals and 'begging-crusty-asking-to-get-beaten-up' students. I've lived in Sheffield for three years now (yep, i was a student) and I love it. I've always found it friendly as fuck, and to be honest, I've had more hassle from my own drunken student brethren than any locals. Sheffield, we love it.
• 'The Old Grindstone' on Crookes Road is excellent. There is a super atmosphere and the food is excellent!
• I'm a tad surprised that nobody mentioned The Dog and Partridge at 56 Trippet Lane. I spent many a great night in this most friendly of pubs. Very eclectic mix of people and very friendly staff.
• The Hornblower near the Forum was the best pub in town, it's changed now, to an Irish pub, it's still cool though.
• Woodhouse is THE pub crawl! Start up at The Angel (Pool tables etc.), casually stroll down to The Royal (watch for flying bottles!), sink some in The Stag, drown your sorrows in The George, get bladdered at The Brunswick, drop in to The Junction ....and it's not over yet! Then there's The Princess Royal (my personal favorite) and the Woodhouse Mill W.M.C. From there, you can get a bus to Handsworth, Darnall, Atercliffe or Town, if you're able, and continue from there. I live in Woodhouse and it cannot be beaten for booze!
• Bar One in the Union building at the University of Sheffield is just too cool! It boasts seven pool tables, many top arcade games, a large drinking area (of course), and at the time of writing John Smith's at only £1.22 a pint. Get yourself down there and see life as it should be.
• The best pubs to go to in Sheffield are as many people have already mentioned, the Fat Cat on Alma Street (and try the Kelham Island 'round the corner), the Red Deer on Pitt Street (a personal early evening favourite) and one that no-one seems to have mentioned, the Broadfield on Abbeydale Road, it's a bit of a way out but you can request your favourite beers and music for the jukebox and it never gets too packed. But whatever you do do not go to the diabolical Speakeasy just up the road. The Frog and Parrot is pretty abysmal now as everyone goes there and they're living off they're reputation.
• Why has no-one mentioned the Yorkshire Grey as being one of the best pubs in Sheffield? It's fantastic and it sells this cherry wine which is absolutely lethal. By the way I don't think there's a problem in Sheffield between the locals and the students: people should realise that without the students Sheffield would be dead.
• The Globe down by the station is a breath of fresh air. Designed after the 'Scream' by some famous painter, it has a cool atmosphere with plenty of good drinks (loads of flavoured Vodka, oh, and lagers and beers of course). It has the distinction of being one of the rare pubs in Sheffield which has a pool table! Not expensive and you can usually get on there just before closing time, hence the popularity of this pub. It also has the distinction of having a free Juke-Box, but don't think you'll get your songs on before closing time if you put them on at 10:30pm. This pub has games galore, and the sight of a one metre high connect four grid has some getting used to after a few beers have flown down. The pub goers are mostly students. However there is always a good atmosphere and fun to be had. The Globe is a scream, and if going to the Leadmill is ideally placed. In all, Mega once again.
• The new Foundry & Firkin on West Street. Mega. Loud, Big, Loud and Big again. I think that sums it up. Beers could be a bit cheaper, but what do you expect from a Firkin? Many chances to win T-Shirts from drinking many gallons of beer, but be warned, the Roger'n'out is to the most pleasant tasting beer in the world to drink in order to win a T-Shirt. Very good Music, and it has probably one of the best Juke-boxes in Sheffield. Must also mention the Sunday lunches. The roast Sunday dinners are truely brilliant, and also thrown into this cheap price is a substantial pudding as well. What more could you ask for on a Sunday after a night on the beers?
• You've got to mention the Happy Hour in Champs on the Eccleshall Road. All that can be said is 'Mega'! Without doubt it has the cheapest, strongest and best tasting cocktails in Sheffield. They have a wide range of various alcoholic drinks that would send the most horny elephant on heat to sleep. Happy Hour lasts 6pm to 9pm, but don't expect to notice the end as falling down and memory loss sets in! They have many TVs with various sports on them, with many additional sporting bits'n'bobs spread around the pub. Music ain't that bad, typical Friday/Saturday music! Other pub goers, well, can't remember cos when they are coming in sober, I'm off out crawling.
• The Best Thing in Sheffield is a pub-crawl starting at the Barracks Tavern (just south of the Hillsborough Barracks, Penistone Road), followed by the Cask and Cutler (Penistone Road, just near the Shalesmoor tram stop) and finished up by a trip to the Fat Cat (Alma Street). These are all fantastic real ale pubs with atmostphere and big ranges of good beer.
• Oh and a word for the Harlequin Inn, Johnson Street: very friendly pub. Live music especially Fridays. All the old crusties (like me) go there. Also the Washington, Fitzwilliam Street: musicians pub (Pulp's old watering hole).
• Morrisey's Riverside, Mowbray St is also a great pub with an upstairs function room & occasional bands. On the subject of beer, The Cask & Cutler (Shalesmoor tram stop) has great beer from obscure breweries and a no-smoking room.
• The best pub crawl in Sheffield can be performed through Handsworth and Attercliffe. Start off in the Norfolk Arms in Handsworth (a very hospitable place) and then catch the 52 bus, get off outside Corona and visit each pub on the main road. The best ones are the Travellers Arms, which boasts cheap pool and other requisites (if you're lucky) and the Greyhound which has a wicked jukebox and Caffreys on tap. Then finish off with a bag of chips in Darnall. Sorted.
• Small correction to pubs In Sheffield. The Frog and Parrot is lousy, (too packed, noisy and generally poncy) as is the Slug and Fiddle. The best pub in Sheff. is THE VINE on Cemetery Road. You might not think so to look at it, and it is getting worse, but owt is better than the bloody Pomona. Incidentally, if anyone is interested in a whip round to buy semtex for Meadowhell then I'll chip in.
• Also, how about some of the country pubs around Sheffield? There are lots of beautiful villages around the City and most have got interesting/value for money pubs. For example, try starting at Stannington.
• The Sportsman on Cambridge Street started shutting it's doors at 10:30 19/1/96. Why?
• And I second the recommendations for the Fat Cat and the Frog and Parrot. Probably the best two pubs in the city.
• If you want yet another Sheffield pub listing, I'm rather partial to the Red Deer, near the University just off Mappin St.
• The Porter Cottage, Sharrowvale Road, is getting a reputation for barring everyone for silly reasons.

The Rutland:

Top beer and ever so slightly camp since the much lamented Cossack (Sheffield's premier gay pub) closed down.

The Lord Nelson:

Dingy, yellow and dirt cheap

The Penny Black:

As rough as a badger's arse with as much character - well worth a visit.

The Queen's Head:

Not a nice pub but worth a look to see what brain-dead developers can do to a perfecty good beer shop.

The Fat Cat:

Great Kelham Island brewery beer, no pool table, pinball machine etc and wonderful pub food.

The Newt & Chambers:

On Arundel Gate, close to the Novotel monstrocity. It's got an absolutely fantastic pint of Wards there, and is within easy staggering distance of the Leadmill. It's a refreshing mixture of locals and some non-locals without any aggro. (Not that I've seen, anyway.)
Newt and Chambers is a top pub - Visit it now!

• [That comment is revealing in itself. Others disagree.] The Berlins comment (really towny), is a little unnecessary, not only students have access to the Web.
• Berlins, Eyre Street. Horrible Towny!!!
• Pomona, Ecclesall Rd (very good cheap drinks on Tuesdays)

• Nottingham House, Broomhill
• Fox 'n' Duck, Broomhill

Cafes and Coffee Shops

• Pepe`s next door to Star store as mentioned above, decent student hide-away.
• Airy Fairy - London Rd. Lovley cafe behind a fantastic little shop. Tasty grub reasonable prices, veggie/vegan etc. Simuni- One world cafe? london rd Nr airy fairy. cool world music etc. Tin Po cafe London RD - Chinese food (dim sum - yum!) + tea. Mmm, Nice.
• The new New Moon is great!
• forum cafe bar...it's niiiiice
• The Forum Cafe the best cafe in the world if u want a sefisticated cuppa and there are sum great shops there to which sell huge flares.
• Coffee Revolution Coffee.com RSVP
• There can only be one ppace to be seen drinking coffe in Sheffield- Nonnas on Eccleshall Road. Completely Italian, at the best of times you can talet spot - most of the Italian football players from Sheffield Wednesday hang out there!
• Why did Arnies on West street shut?
• Coffee Revolution on Eccleshall Road. Friends-esque style coffee shop. Gets too busy though.
• Devonshire Street has turned into a hotbed of swanky cafe's. As a student, I couldn't afford to go spending money on a good cup of coffee when there were pubs open, but they've given the place a more cosmopolitan feel. The forum's one of the older ones, with occasional live music.
• havana internet cafe division st
• nonna's; the coffe shop ' weston park museum/art gallery

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Last updated: 2008-06-23