Item: Silver Plate
Rating: 4
Author: Christopher Hallam

For 16 years, The Silver Plate restaurant has nourished diners while nurturing Sheffield students' culinary talents.

Opened in 2010 at Sheffield College’s City Campus on Granville Road, The Silver Plate restaurant features fully equipped dining, bar, and kitchen facilities to train students in a realistic work setting.

The orange-glazed pork belly paired with delicate smoked eel, compressed apple, dill oil, and crisp rye — Creates a fantastic balance of sweet, smoky, and tart flavours at the Silver Plate at Sheffield College. | Iconic Media

placeholder image — The orange-glazed pork belly paired with delicate smoked eel, compressed apple, dill oil, and crisp rye — Creates a fantastic balance of sweet, smoky, and tart flavours at the Silver Plate at Sheffield College. | Iconic Media

The high vantage point offers diners scenic skyline views, particularly at sunset, creating a lovely atmosphere. Upon arrival, student staff warmly greeted my mother and I and led us to our reserved table.

Opened in 2010 at Sheffield College’s City Campus on Granville Road, the elevated location of the Silver Plate restaurant affords diners lovely city skyline views – Particularly as the sun sets. Photo by Chris Hallam | Iconic Media

No sooner have we been seated and have our coats taken. The tables around us provide a residual hum, in the absence of ambient music. The only noticeable element I felt was missing.

After we received our drinks, our waiter asked if we’d be ready for the first course. This six-course fine dining menu (£32.50 per person) takes you on quite the culinary journey, beginning with the exquisitely moreish arancini and parmesan shortbread.

Next up was the compressed apple, smoked eel, orange glazed belly pork, dill oil, and crisp rye. The smoked eel is carefully layered on orange glazed belly pork, delivering a crunch and sweetness that deftly matched the smoked eel.

The dill oil and crisp rye really accentuates the dish, while the tartness of the compressed apple complements the sweet pork belly and smoky eel.

The students at Sheffield College's Silver Plate restaurant served up the delicious Heritage beetroot with light, whipped goat’s cheese, toasted hazelnut, and sorrel | Iconic Media

This was followed by the heritage beetroot, whipped goat’s cheese, toasted hazelnut, blackberry gel, sorrel. This was definitely more to my mother’s taste than the eel, who loved how light it was, noting that the beetroot combined really well with the Boursin-like cheese and nutty elements.

After that we moved onto the roast Cornish halibut, cauliflower textures, girolle mushrooms, beurre noisette, sea herbs.

“Cooked to perfection,” mother cooed. She loved the sea herbs that “brought out the halibut flavours”. The girolle mushrooms were a fantastic addition. Our only negative note is that perhaps it was a little oily. It was my mother’s favourite dish, though.

“Cooked to perfection”, my mother cooed as she praised the sea herbs that “brought out the halibut flavours”. | Iconic Media

For our dessert, we began with the cherry and dark chocolate tart, cherry sorbet. The sweetness of the sorbet combines well with the bitterness of the chocolate and crunch of the shortcrust pastry. And this was followed by petit fours, a tasting selection of caramel bonfire toffee, a “simply divine” shortbread, Florentines and a passion fruit pâte de fruits – essentially a posh fruit pastille.

Our bill came to £80.60, including drinks. We added extra for a tip, which goes into a kitty for students on the food and hospitality courses there.

The evening was a treat. The service was impeccable, and every single dish was beautifully cooked and presented.