Guyshi BBQ Sheffield: Stoke the conversation on braziers of burning coal at this fun dining experience

Editor’s note: Shortly after The Star’s visit and this review being published, Guyshi BBQ was visited by the FSA and their food hygiene rating was upgraded to five stars. As you’ll read, this well reflects our experience in this review, despite the preamble about our ‘experiment’.

Guyshi BBQ & Bar was visited by The Star because it and a few other spots in town were at the intersection of a few criteria. That being a) they had to have a Google Review score above four stars – and b) it had to have a FSA food hygiene rating of one star.

It’s true. In an experiment, the newsroom wanted to pair off an assessment by the food health inspectorate with the popular vote. We made a venn diagram out of restaurants well liked by the public but disparaged by the folks in white suits, then threw a dart and picked a place for dinner. There are a number of such restaurants in the Steel City – this week’s venture took us to Guyshi BBQ & Bar, on West Street. And, to make it clear right at the start, we had a very enjoyable, very reassuring time.

The bar’s black spot with the FSA, if you read their online page, was down to “management of food safety” – a.k.a. essential paperwork and systems. “Hygienic food handling” and “cleanliness” were all up to scratch. I know not the gritty details nor much about food prep oversight, so here are the facts – Guyshi opened in September 2022, earned a scolding in November, it is now March, and I had a good time.

Guyshi is a Japanese barbecue joint and quite the experience. Amid comfortable seating and a cosy interior, your table is fitted with a firepit as the bed for a brazier of blazing coals brought out from the kitchen, and, for a pretty penny, you get to char your food yourself.

"What if we don’t cook it right,” said my mate as he anxiously eyed the superb, colourful line up of octopus, cheesy scallops and sweetcorn we ordered off the lunch time set menu.

"I have to assume it’s already cooked,” I said, making it up. “Idiot proof, you know.”

To make him feel better (bless him, he just doesn’t know how to cook), I used the tongs to thrown on sweetcorn cobs, as they would make good practice run.

You get the hang of it pretty quickly, and it’s ritualistic fun to tend to what’s cooking. As I say, we went for the seafood set menu and it’s a blast to barbecue your own octopus tentacles and stoke the conversation until they “look about ready”. Each dish was brought out quickly and laid up on a gorgeous layout. I suspect it’s even better with more people to pick a variety, so do bring more people if you can.

As I said, it’s a pretty penny. £40 on the (terrific) seafood menu gave us about one ear’s worth of corn, two scallops and four bits of octopus… well, it was wise to also order a vegetable udon to split (which, itself, was absolutely 10/10 delicious, honestly just visit for one of these). You’re paying for the experience, not the portions, it would seem.

We as a newsroom ended up at Guyshi as an experiment, and they very much looked after us. I hope they shake off the teething problems from November, and I will be back for more soon.