FOOD REVIEW - London Club, 33 Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 2LG. Tel 0114 270 0655.
YOU know that TV series Life on Mars where a cop finds himself back in time? It's happening to me when I visit local restaurants.
Chefs are turning back the clock and discovering the joy of retro.
Steaks are back in a big way but so are other dishes on the menu.
Take Cary Brown's new London Club grill room on Surrey Street, in what was once Tuckwood's, the city's oldest restaurant at 145 years until it closed nine years ago.
He's not exactly doing plate pies but there are plenty of steaks, spatchcocked chicken and chateaubriand for two.
But what's this on the starters, French onion soup? He does soup so infrequently that when a fraudster sent in a cleaning bill claiming a waiter spilled soup on his trousers in a previous restaurant Cary could tell him to take a running jump.
Here's shrimp cocktail (very close to prawn) and corned beef with brown sauce. And wait until you get to the desserts.
There's banana split, knickerbocker glory and peach Melba. That's just gone off the menu but we can do you baked Alaska, sir.
I seem to be reviewing a new Cary Brown eaterie every month. But with the opening of the London Club, with his original financial godfather Bob Ball, Cary has downsized. He's closed The Limes at Barnsley and no longer consults for a Derbyshire pub. He's actually not cooking day to day but has the knack of finding chefs to interpret what he wants.
In this case it's Sheffield-born Mike Davis who takes on his first head chef role after spells in London with the Royal Opera House and Institute of Directors, among others. The premises, with the art deco entrance and two parallel dining rooms, have failed to prosper since Tuckwoods but this looks promising. The leather-backed bucket chairs in the waiting area are so comfy we don't want to move.
For a Friday night the place is quiet but there is time to admire the gilt mirrors and mirrored doors, Vetriano prints, crisp white napiery and amenable staff. But the cutlery's not Sheffield-made.
We start with little amuss, tiny pastry cones of salmon and creme fraiche and a miniature Caesar salad, alive with flavour. Breads are good, particularly the sourdough baguette. I've got the corned beef (5), a stick of highly flavoured pressed meat garnished with pickled baby carrots and blobs of fruity brown sauce. Better than Daddies!
My wife's got the shrimp cocktail (6), very retro, but we also could have had seared sesame tuna, crab cakes or a chicken liver and foie gras parfait.
You can't go to a grill room and not have steak. My 10oz rib eye (14), served medium rare, had been aged for 21 days or more and was, quite honestly, terrific, tenderness itself. Be advised, though, meat is rested so generously some might find it cool.
It comes with all the trimmings, grilled tomatoes with a herbed breadcrumbed topping, flat mushroom and watercress garnish.
You get a choice of sauces in with the price and mine was a classic slick bearnaise in a jug. Chips are chunky and I shared a creamy spinach side-dish (both 2.50).
The menu offers surf and turf (fillet with lobster or prawns), calves liver, braised ribs or a slate of fish from lobster thermidore or whole Dover sole to skate wing with brown butter and Cary's classic, crispy fried monkfish.
Or there is my wife's sea bream with chargrilled vegetables (12), crisp of skin and almost briny in flavour.
Sweets (5) are fun. The Baked Alaska has dainty brown peaks, sugarwork strings on top and traceries of chocolate piercing an honour guard of raspberries. The lemon tart is a decent effort.
Why five stars for food when cooking steaks is not the greatest test of a chef's skill? It's done so well. Almost every element shone.
In fact our night was difficult to fault but I'll try. The place needs a coffee machine and we sent back the jugged water. Seems they had trouble with the pipes.
We paid 54.50 for food and 9.90 for two large glasses of house wine.
Food Review
33 Surrey Street, Sheffield S1 2LG. Tel 0114 270 0655.
Open Tues-Sat 5-10.30pm, Sun 12-6pm. Credit cards, Licensed. Street parking. Web: www.londonclubsheffield.co.uk
My star ratings (out of five):
Food *****
Atmosphere ****
Service ****
Value *****
Middle-market category
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