Silversmiths, a decade later

It’s been 11 years since we last went to Silversmiths on Arundel Street in what’s known as Sheffields “Cultural Industries Quarter”. Back in 2015, it was brilliant for gluten free, but it subsequently went through a series of ownership changes and different chefs and for a while lost its gluten free offering altogether.

The most recent revamp retains their focus on locally sourced ingredients and refined cooking but the menu is more gastro-pub / a-la-carte than fine dining and small plates. Happily, it now has a great selection of gluten free dishes on the menu again, so it was time to give it another visit.

The summer menu was fairly limited, but I don’t mean that in a bad way at all as sometimes long menus can be a bit overwhelming. This one contained five starters, six mains and six desserts to choose from and just over half of those were marked gluten free, as well as most of the sides (including the beef fat chips). Price-wise, it was quite reasonable, with £7-12 for the starters and £20-25 for mains.

For a starter, I ordered Korean beef jerky, which came with a pickled slaw and fried shallots. I was absolutely delighted when the waiter came out to say our food would take a little longer than normal so they could be extra careful on the cross contamination. That’s exactly the kind of reassurance I like. And we didn’t even have to wait that long really.

The flavour of the beef was brilliant, with a warming blend of spices that contrasted well with the pickles, although I will say it was maybe a touch too dried; it certainly wasn’t easy to stab – but I still enjoyed it. If ordering again, I’d probably opt for the curried scallop or the braised fennel with goat’s cheese, which I’d struggled to choose between.

My main course was red mullet, which was cooked beautifully and served with lemon herb potatoes, samphire and a pineapple and red onion salsa. The dish tated excellent, with the fish cooked perfectly, lovely, salty samphire, and the tangy salsa was absolutely delightful. The only problem was that the fish was a bit on the small side – in the picture, those potatoes were not massive.

My husband chose the steak, which was also gluten free, and a much more generous portion as you can see in the photo. That came served pink with carrots, mushrooms, potato cubes (not the technical term!) and a Bearnaise sauce.

I wasn’t planning to say anything about the dinky fish, but my friend took it upon herself to mention it to the staff and they did acknowledge it was a bit on the small side. To make up for this later, they said my dessert would be on the house, which was a nice touch, and much appreciated.

Here is said dessert – a very rare thing indeed, a gluten free lemon meringue pie, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was a very decent slice, with freshly blow-torched soft meringue on the top. It went down very nicely with my Bakewell tart cocktail to round off the meal and a lovely night out.

So a very different experience to last time, but I would recommend it. Great-tasting food, plenty of gluten free options and what felt like a very reasonable price.

Silversmiths
111 Arundel Street, S1 2NT