Fish for compliments
TASTES OF THE SEA: It might be 70-odd miles from the coast, but the Smith and Baker Dining Room has Amanda Wrag g hooked.
’VE always thought it incongruous that some of the best seafood is to be had is in restaurants about as far from the ocean as you can get. Lucky for us then that two of those restaurants are in Sheffield. A year or so ago I wrote about the Mediterranean, a wonderful little find on Sharrow Vale Road; it was a couple of hours of sunshine on a filthy winter night and the simple fish dishes were spot on. Seafood at Smith & Baker is fabulous too.
Richard Smith is one of Sheffield’s most well established chefs; his eponymous Crosspool bistro dates back to 1995 and it eventually became Artisan via Thyme. Along the way he scooped up Relish on Eccleshall Road, The Cricket Inn at Totley where Jack Baker was head chef, and a couple more. They joined forces with Jim Harrison, owner of Thornbridge Brewery in Bakewell to become BrewKitchen; Smith & Baker Dining Room is the new kid on the block.
You’ll find an interesting and diverse concentration of eateries on Eccy Road and it’s held on to a well-deserved reputation for independent eateries.
The Dining Room is an airy space, a little bit Skandi, a little bit Mid-Century Moderns; quite cool but not stark. Some walls have crazy wallpaper – it looks like a bunch of kids have been let loose with marker pens – it’s cute. Wood is blonde, hanging lights are those filament drops that are the rage and there’s cutlery displayed in boxes on the wall. Just at the point when I’m sighing and thinking ‘if I see one more set of spoons as decoration ...’ I take a closer look, and they’re vintage Sheffield, so the designer’s off the hook.
The menu changes daily – sometimes hourly depending on what’s left after the lunchtime service.
Given Baker’s Essex coast background it’s no surprise there’s lots of fish. The story goes that aged 11 he would go out on the boats with his uncles then help them cook the bounty on a fire outside his parent’s West Mersey beach hut. His eventual journey north has taken him via Windsor Castle where, amongst other royals, he was in charge of catering for the corgis (cheese scones and duck in gravy, if you must know) and Chesapeake Bay where he cooked for the likes of Matt