A bitter taste as food guide pans Sheffield

Rivals Leeds have 15 and even Huddersfield has three.

Sole survivors are Richard Smith's upstairs-downstairs combo Artisan and Catch at Crosspool - rated five out of 10 - and Neil and Anne Allen's Greenhead House, rated two, at Chapeltown.

Out go Chris Kent's Blue Room at Woodseats and Rafters at Nether Green.

It's the worst Sheffield showing for some years and the Good Food Guide doesn't make life easy for people like Sean O'Toole, boss of the newly-formed Sheffield Area Restaurateurs Forum.

He's taken up the cudgels on behalf of local restaurants after complaints it takes a long time for to get noticed. He said: "I don't think the Sheffield public are that pro-active with the Good Food Guide. They are guided more by the local critics." He's planning a month in which diners write in to recommend local restaurants.

Sheffield's pride is salvaged by Tessa Bramley's The Old Vicarage at Ridgeway, just outside the city boundary, which, like Fischers at Baslow Hall, is listed among the country's Top 40 restaurants.

Michael Thompson's Druid Inn at Birchover, and Riverside House at Ashford in the Water, are both given the heave-ho from this year's edition after a number of years in the guide.

The area's only other new entry, among 300 nationally, is the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire's Devonshire Arms at Beeley where Alan Hill's cooking rates three out of 10.

All other entries and ratings are as last year - The Cavendish Hotel's Gallery restaurant, Rowley's at Baslow, and The George Hotel at Hathersage.

Hugh Cocker's Old Post at Chesterfield also rates a mention.

The Good Food Guide's Nicola Frame denied the guide was sniffy about Sheffield.

She said: "We've only got space for 1,200 restaurants and when new ones come in the ones at the bottom of the scale go out."

The guide was quite democratic.

People could write in or put their comments online and, if an exciting new restaurant was found which others didn't know about, inspectors would be sent.

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