The menu hasn't changed much since our last visit, we smiled, and, sure enough, The Dish They Can't take Off, crepes with flambéed bananas, is on the blackboard.

There are a lot more of those dishes at Ceres, on Sharrowvale Road, Sheffield, opposite the school, such as bourgignonne and steak with a pepper sauce.

Not all the best cooking is at flash or fancy places, nor does it have to be expensive.

Take Ceres, a French-influenced cafe by day which, on Fridays and Saturdays, turns into a little bistro.

It's a proper bistro with a menu full of classics but don't start to yawn. Jean-Paul is a relaxed cook and a good one.

What do you think? Post your comment below.

You won't find your plate full of competing flavours but just a couple doing their job admirably.

Add to this that you can bring your own wine and end up with a bill for two for three courses at a shade over £30 and then you don't mind that the loo is at the bottom of the garden.

Jean-Paul, you might have guessed, is French, from near Chamonix, where they ski, and he took over the place with his English wife Caroline some eight years ago.

His first impressions of Sheffield might have been coloured by the fact that he had never lived in a town before, let alone a city, but he's got to like us – and speak English.

"But I can't get used to the weather," he says.

His cooking spoke for him first and those in the know soon appreciated his pastrywork – he was a pastry chef before Ceres – and the delights of his French onion tart.

The cafe has just eight tables, four up and four down an extremely steep flight of stairs, the reason everyone who works there is slim.

The downstairs room seems to have been done out forever in red and yellow with a couple of blackboards. It's a bit bright and I suspect if Caroline had not been at home minding the couple's two children she would have dimmed the lights and put some candles on the tables.

But there's enough atmosphere. Our dining companions in the small room include a young couple wrapped up in each other and a middle aged couple wrapped up in their newspapers over a pot of tea.

Cafe Ceres doesn't really do starters unless you opt for a half portion of salad or soup.

We do. The onion soup (£2.75) is intensely flavoured with a sweet edge and a couple of cheesey croutons while my wife's pan-fried goats cheese salad (£3.50) comes with half a roundel fried beautifully crisp and melting hot inside.
More on next page.


Cafe Ceres, 390 Sharrowvale Road, Hunters Bar, Sheffield.
Tel: 0114 267 9090.
Bistro menu Fri and Sat 4.30-7.30pm. BYO £1.50 corkage. Gentle music. Credit cards. Outside toilet. Street parking.
Cafe Ceres is closed until April 7.
n My star ratings (out of five):
Food 4
Atmosphere 3
Service 4
Value 5
Bistro category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.


READ MORE
Your letters.
Today's features.
Latest sport.
Main news index.