23 Bar and Restaurant wins "Best Restaurant" at Eat Sheffield awards
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Bar 23 Receives “Best Restaurant” Award, Galaxy 105FM, February, 08
Sheffield made a splash on Yorkshire’s nightlife scene after a local restaurant was recognized as the region’s Best Restaurant in the Galaxy Nightlife Awards 2008.
Thousands of listeners from across Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire made their recommendations, to help the Bar 23 win the title of number one venue region-wide!
The yearly awards allow Galaxy Yorkshire listeners to show their appreciation for the places that play an essential part in their lifestyles.
Galaxy Marketing Manager Jimmy Endicott said: “We try and work closely with lifestyle-related businesses across the region, so it’s fantastic to know places our listeners really rate.” He added “Thanks to all our voters for getting involved and congratulations to the winner of 2008!”
Sheffield Telegraph, Friday, September 7, 07
IT’S probably easier to acquire spring
lamb and home-grown strawberries at
the beginning of December than to find
an unemployed cook, as Chris and Jonathon
Hawkins discovered when their head chef
walked out at the busiest time of the year.
There was nothing for it but to roll up their
sleeves and get stuck in – which, as chefs,
they were both more than competent to do.
The pair were in at the deep end, with
restaurant 23 at West One in the Devonshire
Quarter booked solid for the festive season.
But if you can survive in December, the
rest of the year is an absolute doddle. And
the cousins not only survived, they thrived.
Chris and Jonathon have become inured to
being left in the lurch by head chefs: their first
one upped sticks just days before the official
opening 18 months ago. Now they have
decided to take matters into their own hands.
“We’re really enjoying it, honest, it’s fantastic!”
says Chris. “We’re quite confident
now that we’ve got things right.
“We went down the road of having seven
chefs in the kitchen and making warm bread
every day, but it wasn’t what people wanted.”
Jonathon nods: “We became a Saturday
night occasion restaurant. We realised we
were too expensive and we couldn’t compete
but now it’s great.”
On the face of it, 23 hasn’t changed much.
The mezzanine restaurant is still achingly chic
with its chocolate brown walls, dark wood
designer furniture and unusual arched ceilings,
bathed in a fiery glow of gold, orange and red.
It still has that distinctive buzz drifting up
from the bar below (although the gallery is now
curtained off to deaden some of the noise), and
it still has an air of sophisticated intimacy.
The à la carte menu is as smart as ever –
fresh, contemporary, with a European
flavour – but forget the fancy price tags.
That’s where things have changed.
Two courses will now set you back just
£15 (a tenner at lunchtime), or three courses
for £17, and that’s Monday to Friday not the
usual midweek discount. On Saturday it’s
£23 (natch) for a three-course dinner, while
traditional Sunday lunch is £13.95.
“Business is so much better now and
we’re really enjoying it. What happened did
us a favour,” says Chris, a Geordie who has
done time at Whitley Hall, Aston Hall,
Menzels and the Regency at Ecclesfield
since arriving in Sheffield 23 years ago.
He has taken over as head chef but lessexperienced
Jonathon has proved a worthy
deputy, holding the fort admirably while
Chris was away on honeymoon last month.
They are also training their own commis,
former cocktail barman Josh Jacobs, who
volunteered to help out when they needed a
chef and then begged to stay on in the
kitchen.
All this change could have been a recipe
for disaster but the food at 23 is as good as
ever. The cousins, it seems, are on a roll –
and a nicely buttered one, at that.
The wine list is admirably short and modestly
priced. We settle for a fruity, fullbodied
Chilean merlot at £12.50 (great
legs!) and settle back to digest the menu.
There are always one or two specials on
offer: tonight’s is lobster thermidor, an
unmissable treat at a supplement of just £2.
It’s terrific, in a juicy, buttery kind of way,
with a bonus of succulent tiger prawns on
top and a bed of creamed potato to stop the
shell from sliding around the plate.
My companion is spoilt for choice, with
deep-fried goat’s cheese, chicken liver parfait
and chicken chorizo salad all on offer.
He plumps for saffron risotto: a superbly
rich and creamy concoction, heavy on the
parmesan, with a good dose of tarragon,
topped with chargrilled leeks.
Main-course chicken is equally well
received: a plump breast stuffed with
spinach and mozzarella and served with
tomato basil sauce. It’s a subtle combination,
not too rich, not particularly inspired, but it
works well and it’s nicely done.
My pork fillet is blushing pink in the
centre, wrapped in smoky ham and carved
alongside a meaty bratwurst sausage tinged
with an unusual but pleasant hint of aniseed.
It comes with intensely-flavoured mushroom
sauce and tangy wholegrain mustard mash.
Veg include a good old-fashioned mix of
beans, sugarsnap peas, cauliflower and broccoli
florets, new potatoes and chunky carrots,
all cooked to perfection. They cost an
extra £2 but they’re worth it.
Complimentary fresh-baked bread is no
longer part of the deal either, nor are chocolate
truffles with the coffee, but that’s fair
enough at these prices.
We’re pleasantly sated but tackle a dessert
between us. Orange crème brûlée is delicately
flavoured and perfectly set; a work of
art presented in pristine white china on
slate, alongside a dish of razor-sharp lemon
sorbet. Spot on!
We finish our meal with great Americano
coffee and milk. Dinner for two, excluding
wine and service, is £38.
Verdict: Top-notch food at great value
prices in one of the hottest restaurants in
town – 23 marks out of 23.
Sheffield Telegraph March 24, 06
"23 is the latest addition to the West One
complex, a bar with uber-stylish mezzanine
restaurant serving contemporary food in the
fine-dining mould.
The restaurant is a triumph of retroinspired
chic, with dark walls, polished
wood fittings and arched ceilings painted
red and lit with the fiery glow of gold
flourescent tubes. Its smart, sophisticated
and comfortably elegant, even if the upholstery
does look like the remnants of the Von
Trapp family curtains.
"Its all about the chemistry" says the
slogan printed on the drinks menu. That
apparently refers to the mixology of the
cocktails (23 of them, naturally) and the
clever use of culinary ingredients, as well as
to the more ethereal blend of style and ambience
that make up the new bar and restaurant.
The result is a contemporary flavour
that the owners were after, seasoned with
influences that bear a distinctive hint of the
various contributors experience.
The eclectic wine list extends to several pages, ranging from
a Chilean cabernet sauvignon at £12.50 to
Cristal Champagne at £185. We enjoyed a
light, quaffable Rioja Otonal at £13.50 and
two individual bottles of sparkling water at
£2 each.
Service is good, if a little over-zealous.
The still-warm bread rolls were delicious - onion seed, Hovis or pain rustique,
with oil, balsamic and butter - but the plate
was whisked away before our starters had
even arrived.
The cooking is spot on, despite the fact
that 23 has been open less than a week.
Smoked Bolsover duck breast (presumably
that refers to the smoking process rather
than the provenance of the unfortunate fowl)
was perfectly pink and served cold with a
salad of lettuce, peas and fig puree.
Main course bavette of beef sounded
identical to the dish we had enjoyed at Boho
only a couple of weeks ago (quelle coincidence!).
That was great - but this was better:
succulent, rare and meltingly tender, with a
red wine sauce, shallot puree, sauteed new
potatoes and chunky-cut runner beans
simply bursting with old-fashioned flavour.
Pan-fried fillet of turbot could not quite
match up. Its dense, white flesh was superb
and the subtle flavour went well with delicate
fluted girolles and creamy white bean
veloute, but the effect was masked by salty
Alsace bacon which, even finely chopped,
was just too overpowering for the other
ingredients.
Portions are sparing enough to leave room
for dessert - happily, as it turned out.
Classic Granny Smith apple tart was less
traditional than it sounded, the pastry base
topped with moist chunks of apple in a pool
of butterscotch sauce, big, juicy blackberries
and vanilla-esque tonka bean ice cream.
Sticky toffee pudding was firm-textured
with a thick, buttery sauce, Agen prunes and
the highlight: an exquisite Earl Grey ice
cream whose delicate fragrance was the perfect
foil for the syrupy sponge.
We finished the meal with good strong
Americano coffee and truffles.
Our bill, excluding drinks, came to £51.50
- minus 25 per cent discount under an introductory
offer that runs until the end of next
week.
Verdict: If its all about the chemistry then
23 has hit upon the formula for success in
Sheffields blossoming city centre."
