Steeliac

Tag: Gluten free restaurant review

  • Mavi Ruya

    Mavi Ruya

    For years, there was a little-used supermarket on Abbeydale Road in Nether Edge. Having changed hands at least once, it was eventually closed for good. We were incredibly surprised to hear it was being converted into a Turkish restaurant and couldn’t see at all how it would work.

    How wrong we were! Mavi Ruya is buzzing! We tried to book for a family meal one Saturday evening, but we couldn’t get a table, so we had to opt for Sunday tea time instead. When we arrived, they were turning away some speculative would-be diners. They are clearly doing something right.

    Once you step inside, you’d have no idea you were standing in an ex supermarket. They have gone to town on the design, with authentic-looking floor tiles, geometric wall surfaces and eye catching light fittings. The first things that greets you are a huge counter displaying all their meat on massive skewers and a wonderful chargrill spicy aroma.

    Once seated upstairs, we were given menus that appeared to have gluten free dishes marked on but it looked like they had only got as far as the mezze dishes. There were plentiful GF options here, with hummous, baba ganoush, halloumi and mushroom, prawns, Turkish sausage and others. However, the charcoal grill main courses didn’t seem to have any GFs. When we asked our waitress, we were told that although most of the meat elements are gluten free, many are served with bread and / or rice containing vermicelli. However, they do have a separate chip fryer, so any of the main courses can be served with chips instead, or baby potatoes. Phew! (Another significant component of the menu is Turkish pizzas, which are definitely not gluten free, but there remained plenty to choose from.)

    A dish very quickly arrived containing some very pillowy-looking bread in between two dips. Obviously that wasn’t gluten free at all, but we were immediately offered an alternative of the dips with cucumber sticks instead. To be honest, my initial reaction was disappointment about the lack of a gluten free bread for dipping, but in reality, we were better off with cucumber given the gigantic meals we were about to devour!

    We ordered a selection of mezze to share for starters, thinking they would be fairly tiny plates, but they were really quite big portions. You can’t really tell from the photo above, as I’ve only loaded up a one-person sized amount. But in all honesty, a couple more mezzes between us and we wouldn’t have really needed main courses.

    So we ate the starters reasonably slowly (the service was pretty fast) and they were all lovely. The halloumi was really soft and perfectly crisp on the outside, and the baba ganoush was deliciously light. We all enjoyed the garlic-y Turkish sausage. I’m not a big fan of mushrooms, but I’m told they were excellent as well.

    Then we had to prepare ourselves for our massive main courses. I had ordered Ali Nazik, from the specials, which is lamb shish served with baba ganoush* and a tomato sauce (with chips intead of rice) and SteelyMcSteel had the regular lamb shish, which came with a mountain of salad and chips (instead of rice and bread).

    * I’m starting to sound obsessed with baba ganoush, but in my defence, the menu described the ingredients of baba ganoush separately, “Chargrilled aubergines, garlic, tahini, yoghurt and lamb shish” so I was expecting lamb and chargrilled aubergine.

    I’d have been less over-faced with the shish and the salad, without the chips! However, it tasted brilliant and I did manage to polish off most of it.

    Needless to say, we didn’t have a dessert, but I don’t think there were many options there other than ice cream.

    Mavi Ruya
    593 Abbeydale Road Sheffield S7 1TA

  • Rafters

    Rafters

    I’ve been itching to write this review since June (!) when we went to Rafters with some dear friends, and I’ve finally got round to it.

    Of course, Rafters isn’t your average tea out – it’s a high end dining experience, so very much in the market for particularly special occasions (like a small lottery win!) But oh my goodness, what a meal.

    The entrance to the restaurant is very unassuming. There’s a discreet shop front at the corner of where Hangingwater Road and Oakbrook Road meet, in Nethergreen, and you go straight up a flight of stairs to the dining room, which has an intimate feel with only 26 covers, exposed brick walls and an open kitchen.

    Sheffield is well reflected all though the design, with, according to the website, locally made tables and pottery, Sheffield cutlery of course, and handmade place mats from Portland Works.

    The meal was a six course tasting menu* (they also offer a four course version), which also includes some little extras like this pretty little amuse bouche – downplayed on our menu as a ‘snack’.

    I was a bit nervous about how a tasting menu would accommodate a coeliac, but I needn’t have worried at all. Having advised of the requirement on booking, the staff were all over it, and my dishes looked almost identical to everybody else’s. There were some obvious tweaks (e.g. my trout came with a tomato broth instead of tomato ponzu) but I have no complaints at all on that front and my versions didn’t seem second class. Everything looked, and tasted, spectacular.

    Below are three of the savoury dishes: chalk stream trout with sesame and tomato broth, cauliflower cheese and hogget with courgette, sheep yoghurt and elderflower. The elderflower apparently came from a tree outside the restaurant – you don’t get many more local ingredients than that! There was a fourth savoury dish of halibut with white asparagus and dill, but I must have scoffed that without taking a picture.

    The two desserts were equally dainty. Amalfi lemon with soured cream and extra virgin olive oil, and English strawberry with lemon verbena.

    It was all an absolute pleasure. In particular I enjoyed NOT having to scour a menu for tiny GFs or quiz the staff to check if they seem to understand about cross contamination. I had every confidence I was being well looked after.

    We emerged from Rafters back into the real world several hours later, and slightly sozzled, having also indulged in the wine pairing and a cheeky cocktail at the start. It was all magnificent and I can’t wait to go back.

    * Six courses for £95 per person (I didn’t want to spoil the run of the text by including that up there.)

    Rafters Restaurant, 220 Oakbrook Road Sheffield S11 7ED

  • The George, Hathersage

    The George, Hathersage

    I’m really getting into the swing of going out for tea again! I recently went with some friends to The George in Hathersage – somewhere I’ve been meaning to try out for a while. It’s a relaxed, traditional-style bar and hotel in a 500 year old stone building in the Peak District – but only a few miles out of Sheffield, and in easy reach by train. Apparently, it’s been under new ownership since June 2021, so I’ve no idea whether it’s changed much since Covid. The website suggests ‘dated decor and antiquated ambiance’ have been updated.

    I had a quick look at the menu before we went and it’s quite extensive – lots to choose from and well over half of the dishes were marked gluten free or gluten free option. (I’ve linked to the February menu here, so I’m not sure how long that link will work, but you can navigate from the home page.)

    Starters include dishes like crab pate, courgette & sweetcorn fritters, bourbon-spiced belly pork, but I opted for the spicy halloumi with a honey and sesame dressing. It came with spinach, pine nuts, carrots, spring onions and a balsamic glaze. The flavours were great, although perhaps the halloumi was slightly over for my liking. But we didn’t wait too long to be served and I was still enjoying my G&T when the starter arrived. (They have a whole load of local gins to try.)

    Our server was understanding about me being clear why I’d gone for a gluten free meal, and happily made a note for the chef.

    The main courses were equally varied, ranging from your trad. English fish and chips to a delicious-sounding pork fillet stuffed with sage and chorizo and wrapped in pancetta. That was my second choice dish – one for next time! They also serve pizzas and the menu states GF bases are available. As I was with friends, I didn’t quiz the server on how the pizzas are cooked to avoid cross contamination or ask the many questions about the fish and chips. And there’s teriyaki salmon on the menu, which I’d definitely want to find out more about. So it’s worth assessing the coeliac safe credentials of some of the dishes. Having said that, I do have reasonably high expectations they know what they are doing, and there was tonnes of choice.

    I went for a confit duck leg with stove potatoes, celeriac puree, braised red cabbage, broccoli and apparently a blueberry duck jus. I wouldn’t have known there was blueberry in the jus, but the whole thing had lovely, rich flavours and the duck fell apart, as should be expected.

    I didn’t want a full dessert, but I find it hard to resist the dessert menu, just to see! So I ordered a George Gourmand with a glass of dessert wine, which was supposed to be three miniature desserts. Sounded perfect – just a little something sweet to satisfy the taste buds.

    When it came, it was enormous! For scale, the strawberry in the photo is one of the biggest I’ve seen. Under that is a sticky toffee pudding, there was a chocolate log type of thing, a coconut ice cream, a mango sorbet and a meringue! This was definitely a situation where less would have been more – I found it a bit over facing. But I battled on through most of it and it all tasted great. There was more than enough to satisfy two people.

    Overall, we had a lovely meal with great service and a nice atmosphere. The place was packed out so it’s clearly very popular. I reckon it would be a good place to go with the family – there’s definitely something there to please everybody.

    The George, Main Road, Hathersage, Derbyshire S32 1BB

  • Bills

    Bills

    ***Update – now closed***

    We went for a pre-theatre meal at Bill’s in the centre of Sheffield. It’s a chain restaurant and bar with a good gluten free offer of European style food. The interior of the restaurant has a slightly industrial look and feel with exposed pipes and cable trays, mixed with fancy chandelier light fittings – very trendy. We found the staff to be really attentive and it was a nice experience overall.

    Bill’s has what they call an “avoiding gluten” menu that has plenty of choice from burgers through main courses like fish pie and risotto, and a couple of interesting salads. The menu and website do unfortunately contain the usual disclaimer about allergens being present in the kitchen. But the staff seem fairly switched on about allergens, and I’ve been happy to eat here.

    I opted for a spiced cauliflower and butternut squash falafel bowl, which came with pickled red onions (a favourite of late) and a turmeric and mint soy yoghurt as a dressing. I often like to try a vegan dish, especially when it’s packed full of flavour like this.

    The restaurant is open from 8am (9am on Sundays), so it’s a good spot for breakfast or brunch as well. The gluten avoiding breakfast menu includes a variety of cooked breakfasts, egg-based options and even a stack of pancakes. Worth a try!

    Bills, 2 Paul’s Place, 127 Norfolk Street, Sheffield S1 2JF

  • La Mama

    La Mama

    We met some good friends for tapas at La Mama on Abbeydale Road a few weeks ago when it was still warm outside. We haven’t been here for a long time but remembered it being great. The atmosphere on a Friday evening was buzzing. With the music, decor and summer warmth with the patio window open, an hour or so in and we felt like we were on holiday abroad.

    It’s a South American rather than Spanish tapas restaurant (albeit plenty of similar dishes), so I started off with a classic Pisco Sour cocktail.

    Plenty of the menu is gluten free (with clear labelling on the main menu) so there was lots to choose from. We started with an antipasti platter, olives and Manchego. There’s a link to the menu here but I think they change it so it might expire after a while.

    So then we had some red wine and got chatting, and I forgot to take pics of the mains. Classic. But we had vegan nachos, green beans with garlic and paprika (they were ace), patatas (or rather Papas) bravas, of course, tortilla and a chorizo stew. It was all fabulous, so we ordered a bit more that we didn’t need. And a second bottle of wine…

    I tried the plantain for dessert, which was interesting… I think of plantain more as savoury, but, well, deep fry it and serve it with chocolate sauce and you can’t go too far wrong.

    My husband had the more traditional Crema Catalana, which looked great.

    And then we rounded it all off with another cocktail. Pandemic? What pandemic? It was so lovely to be out socialising with delicious food in a buzzing atmosphere. Highly recommend this place.

    La Mama
    238 Abbeydale Road, Sheffield, S7 1FL

  • Wagamama’s new menu

    Wagamama’s new menu

    August marked our first meal out in Sheffield in quite a while. We’ve hardly been into the city, but as a gift we had been booked on a CluedUp mystery game, where you have to solve a mystery by interrogating virtual suspects in various geolocations around Sheffield. It was a fun way to spend some time, although we were all glued to our screens for most of it!

    During the game, we dropped into Wagamama in Leopold Square for a late lunch, as I had seen they’ve expanded their gluten free menu (choose the ‘non gluten’ section on their menu page.

    Whilst not the most extensive gluten free offering, Wagamama do put some effort into allergens, with a separate menu for gluten free (and one for vegan) and all allergen orders taken by a manager. So it’s quite a reassuring place to eat.

    We shared some salted edamame, and SteelyMcSteel and I shared some prawn kushiyaki as a starter (or side dish, as they come from the kitchen in any order).

    For mains, I had a ‘Shiok’ chicken, which is chicken marinated in turmeric, garlic and ginger on coconut and lemongrass dressed rice. It’s served with a tangy pickled slaw, radish, lime and coriander. It was dry rather than saucy, but wonderfully fresh flavours. And there are no filters on the photo – it really was that colourful.

    I washed it down with a fun looking can of East By East cider, made from supermarket surplus apples – what a great idea!

    SteelyMcSteel had a mahoosive bowl of chicken ramen. It was actually so big it defeated him. And it would have fed us both, to be fair.

    Despite not really having room, I decided to try the new GF dessert, a flourless chocolate orange cake with miso caramel ice cream. It was lovely but it certainly wasn’t light! A very chocolatey torte, rather than a cake. The strong chocolate drowned out the delicate miso flavour of the ice cream a little, but it was nice to try something with some imagination.

    I’d certainly say Wagamama was going in the right direction.

    Wagamama
    2 Leopold Square, Sheffield S1 2JG

  • El Toro

    El Toro

    *** UPDATE: CLOSED DOWN***

    I’ve generally accepted that when I go out for a meal, the gluten free choices can be fairly limited in comparison to the regular menu. So I was delighted to find the gluten free offering at El Toro in Broomhill was over 90% of the menu.

    El Toro is a Spanish tapas restaurant, where you order and share lots of small dishes. The extensive choice is chalked up on menus around the walls, with plenty of meat, vegetarian and fish dishes. (Some of the dishes feature on their early bird menu, where you can have 3 tapas and a drink for a set price before 7pm.)

    We began with a cocktail – I had a mojito – whilst we decided what to order. Our assortment of dishes included patatas bravas, meatballs, Catalan duck, lamb stew, goat cheese salad and spinach Catalan. I was glad to hear they have a separate fryer to ensure their food is not cross-contaminated.

    The food came fairly quickly and was all great. Our tapas staples, patatas bravas and meatballs, were as lovely, as expected. The Catalan duck was delicious – well flavoured and falling off its bone and the goat cheese was very creamy. All in all, a great selection, and it’s so enjoyable to share all the little dishes.

    You can’t fail to notice the giant meringues in a display cabinet when you walk through the door. These are enormous, and come in a selection of flavours including almond, chocolate, strawberry and pistachio. I think all are gluten free except the lemon one.

    In the photos are the almond and strawberry meringues. They were delicious and light, with a gooey texture in the middle of the almond one. Definitely enough to share!

    El Toro
    129 Newbould Lane, Broomhill, Sheffield S10 2PL

  • The Rising Sun

    The Rising Sun

    The Rising Sun pub in Fulwood has launched a new menu and I was pleased to be invited to try it. The pub, owned by the local Abbeydale Brewery, had a refurb a couple of years ago, with an extension and full catering kitchen, which has allowed them to be quite creative with the menu.

    There are plenty of options marked as gluten free on the menu, with a couple of snacks and starters, over five main courses and a couple of puddings. The staff were knowledgeable about cross contamination, and they have a separate fryer for chips and gluten free food from the other fried items, so the chips are gluten free, although accidentally not marked as such on the menu.

    We started off with a Caprese salad, which looked very appealing with its coloured heirloom tomatoes, pea shoots and mozzarella. There was plenty of seasoning and not too much oil, so it tasted as lovely as it looked.

    Our other starter was cauliflower (and lentil) fritters, with a homemade mango and lime chutney. These were great – rather substantial and really nicely flavoured. I might have a bash at making these myself!

    For mains, carrying on the curried theme, I ordered masala spiced cod fillet, with braised lentils, pickled carrot and a coconut cream sauce. I thought this was excellent. The cod was cooked just right and the spicing was bob on for me. Bags of flavour, particularly with the additions of creamy sauce and the tangy carrot. 

    Our other main was a slow roast lamb belly with fresh peas, roasted baby carrots, confit new potatoes and a minted yoghurt. It’s very unusual to see peas in pods these days, and goes to show they’re using lovely fresh ingredients. I’ve not had lamb belly before, so this was interesting to try and we really enjoyed it.

    Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for a pud but there was a pineapple upside down cake and a lemon pavlova on offer, which is a bit different from what might normally find in a pub.

    Definitely worth a trip out to Fulwood. And it was great to see a whole load of local suppliers listed on the menu.

    The Rising Sun, 471 Fulwood Road, Sheffield S10 3QA

  • Bistro in the Barn

    Bistro in the Barn

    ***Sadly closed down in 2022***

    I generally don’t go out for Sunday lunch because, as a coeliac, what’s on offer is rarely as good as I can make at home. We tend to have a roast most weekends – usually chicken, beef or pork, sometimes with Yorkshire puds and stuffing (which are rarely gluten free in restaurants), always with mountains of veg and roast potatoes.

    Unusually, we found ourselves in the position of needing to be near Barnsley last Sunday, so we took the opportunity to try out Bistro in the Barn, which is a gluten free specialist restaurant that used to be a cattle feeding barn. It’s right on the edge of the Peak District with fabulous scenery all round. A little outside of Sheffield, but worth the stunning drive out into the countryside.

    As well as being a gluten free specialist, they are also gin enthusiasts, so there was a whole menu of gins to choose from – great way to start the meal! The food was lovely and pretty much everything is gluten free, which is a joy, of course. No ring binder of doom to trawl through here…

    We started with a complimentary appetiser of parsnip and apple soup, which was a really nice touch.

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    There was a mix of traditional and some more interesting starter choices. I had a satay chicken. Boy #1 had a huge bowl of creamy garlic mushrooms, and dad had a chive cake with pear and melted stilton, which had a great texture.

    For mains, several of us opted for the slow cooked beef cheek with mash and the boys both had salmon with a creamy chorizo and pea sauce. I would have chosen the beef cheek in other circumstances, but I opted for the roast beef, to see how it compared to my home cooked Sunday roast.

    I have to complement the Yorkshire pudding, which had a really good structure and made me think I need to experiment with my recipe. And the rest of the meal was lovely, too. The meat was delicious, and there was plenty of gravy, which I love.

    Even though we were stuffed, a few of us found room for a pudding. The boys are always drawn to sticky toffee pudding, which I’m told was fab, and not a scrap was left. I tried the apple tart, warm with cream, which tasted delicious, although the pastry didn’t benefit from re-heating.

    All in all, we had a great meal. It was really relaxing not having to worry about cross contamination and we were spoiled for choice with all the gluten free options.

    Bistro in the Barn, Hazlehead Farm, Lee Lane, Millhouse Green, Sheffield S36 9NN

  • GF banana fritters at Hui Wei!

    GF banana fritters at Hui Wei!

    I was very, very excited to hear Hui Wei have started doing gluten free banana & pineapple fritters – what a treat. Their gluten free offer is going from strength to strength!

    We took the boys for a quick tea in the week so we could try them. We chose lychee ice cream with the banana fritters and mango & passion fruit with the pineapple. They were absolutely lovely.