PEOPLE go giddy over champagne, don't they? We do. We've just ordered two glasses of rosé at £8 a pop, perched at the glitzy, glittering bar of the Walnut Club Champagne Bar and Grill.
What's the point of coming to a place like this if you don't drink shampoo?
Never mind that we could have got a bottle from Woolies and still had change from £16, we're just pleased to get in.
We'd heard you had to book and just couldn't walk in off the street but the restaurant manager says the opposite.
When I check with owner Richard Mills later he confirms it. So where had the story come from? "We like people to book, particularly towards the end of the week, because the place can only hold 200."
It's certainly popular. We'd tried to get a table a couple of times at Richard's spin-off from the Walnut Club at Hathersage and failed.
The room looks big and the decor is mostly LED lighting, cleverly done: uplights, downlights and backlights.
The centrepiece is the bar, a blaze of colour itself. Three chandeliers hang over it.
Around are clustered booths, separated by what appear to be string curtains.
You can peoplewatch, from the bar or from the tables, or make yourself dizzy by looking at a wall with a speeded up film of New York traffic.
The many staff, dressed in black, are all very friendly, instantly turning on high wattage smiles if you look in their direction.
The tables are another talking point. In the middle of each is a sunken ice bucket, which makes it a bit difficult to reach across. The walls glow an aquatic blue. Hope they don't blow a fuse.
You'd hardly do that looking at the menu, which charges £5-£10-£5 for three courses and, being as this is an offshoot of Richard's Walnut Club at Hathersage, it's organic and eco-friendly.
Otherwise you can order little plates of tapas or lash out on steaks.
The 5-10-5, devised by the Walnut's Nick Wilson and cooked by Paul Soczowka, is very well cooked for the money, although I have a limp start.
Moules mariniere comes, wrongly, with cream, (that's moules a la crême, lads) but I ask for them without. Not bad but the liquor needs to be more reduced for flavour when you dip your bread.
My wife's goats cheese roulade, constructed with spinach and red pepper, then pan-fried (must be tricky) comes with a splodge of tapenade and with subtle flavours.
"This wouldn't be right with an overpowering cheese," she says.
The kitchen is on top form with the slow roasted pork, as tender as a baby's bum, topped with a little vanilla-ry apple sauce. The skin has been pressed and crisped into two triangular wafers.
For a tenner it's great value although my wife reckons her Goan fish curry (salmon, monkfish, swordfish and even a scallop) is better. The flavours are clean and lively with a delayed chilli kick, while the coconut and almond rice is a fragrant luxury.
An assiette of five desserts (or mini sweets as the menu has it) is a steal for a fiver while I have a larger portion of the sticky toffee and date sponge. The dates give the dish a toothsome texture.
This was a good meal in a relaxed and sophisticated atmosphere.
WALNUT CLUB CHAMPAGNE BAR557 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield.
Tel: 0114 267 6566.
Open all week noon-11.30pm. Sunday lunches. Credit cards. House wine £13.85. Water £3.45. Soft music. Disabled lift. Street parking.
My star ratings (out of five):
Food 4
Atmosphere 4
Service 4
Value 4
Middle market category. Do not compare ratings between places of different style or price.
READ MOREMore food news.
Your letters.Today's features.Main news index.Latest sport.The full article contains 650 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
