Welcome to restaurant 23 - West One complex

[johnfarrar_ 10]

Hello and welcome to restaurant 23, My names John Farrar and I am the head chef here, I have been in Sheffield for a short while now so thought it a good idea to write a little script on what my vision is here at restaurant 23.

 

I have spent much time searching up and down the country trying to find the best possible produce some sourced locally some sourced from a little further away, I use aubery and allen for my meat a very good butchers from leamington spa in the midlands, they provide me with all my meat. My beef is Aberdeenshire beef from the balmoral estate. My pork is free range and from jimmy butlers farm in Blythburgh, Norfolk he is the latest to be awarded pork farmer of the year (run by the Farmers Weekly.) Our lamb is Launceston, Devon and Cornish lamb from HR Jaspers processing company since 1930 this company have been supplying fantastic lamb, its farm assured which means that its stamped with a seal that assures quality right through the feeding, nurturing and slaughtering of the animal to insure a more palatable fuller flavoured lamb. Our birds are all French at the moment and come direct from Rungis market Paris which is the biggest and best market in the world, this market alone employs over 15000 people. We get corn fed free range birds which are much richer in flavour and a much greater product than I can find here at the moment. Our scallops now are been sourced from a man called john who runs a company on the isle of skye in Scotland, it’s a small company which I like because it means I can be specific in what I ask for, all the shellfish is individually hand dived so there not damaged or killed when been trawled through the mud as in many other cases, we get live scallops and if the tentacles are not moving then they get sent back . All the other fish is from either Grimsby docks or from Devon and Cornwall from one of our 3 fish suppliers.

Our vegetables are also from rungis we use a company called delifresh based in Bradford, West Yorkshire who go over to Paris to collect our orders every week, our herbs spices and food related chemicals are sourced from a local company called Msk who are expanding now at a massive rate all there products are individually sourced from the best primary suppliers in the world our saffron is from Kashmir and is absolutely amazing compared to its cheaper Spanish counterpart. The eggs we get are from italy just for pasta they are unreal I am quite sure there 10 times the luminosity of the sun, incredible!

 

Where ever possible in my kitchen we make everything fresh bread, stocks, sauces, pastas, ice creams, sorbets, flavoured oils I can’t emphasize enough that fresh is best so with much trepidation I have taken great time in selecting a menu that hopefully is varied enough for many different taste buds but exclusive enough to ensure time can be taken for you to enjoy every mouthful.

 

If at all you would like to give any feed back to me about the menu, after all were on a road trying always to make things better then please contact me

 

johnfarrar_restaurant23@hotmail.co.uk

 

Bon appetite John Farrar head chef at 23

[SHsheff 10]

A very informative introduction!

 

Welcome to the forum, John.

 

Hope your restaurant does well, it certainly sounds like it should do.

 

Any chance you can post a sample menu for us?

 

[carcrash 11]

Or some freebies

[discodown 11]

thats utterly fantastic.

 

its refreshing to see a chef who actually cares enough about his food to make sure its superb and even more refreshing to see a chef actually take a little time to speak to his punters. as an ex-chef i know theres plenty of head chefs who are firmly convinced they are the epicentre of cooking.

 

john farrar you have my respect

[JA5E 10]

Hi John,

 

My fiancee is having a meal on Saturday at 23 as part of her Hen weekend. She showed me the menu last night and i must admit it does look fantastic (wouldn't mind trying the cepes myself).

[Hook 10]

hello johno

 

*waves*

 

nice introduction, i'm gonna have to pursuade Jen to go for a meal. You'll have to post the menu up though :-)

[fnkysknky 10]

As above - any chance of us taking a peek at a menu. You've just made me very hungry

 

It's great that you've spent the time writing that up - other people would just get on with the job and not seem to care about it.

[hmr44 10]

Mmm, I had a conversation with a waitress who works at 23. She said it was delicous!

 

Ive only ever been in the bar area.

[Tony 10]

23 deserves lots of success. We ate there in the very early days and I can genuinely say that I had one of the best meals I've ever had in Sheffield, and I'm every restaurants nightmare sometimes

 

The first couple of months are usually a bit hit and miss for obvious reasons as the kitchen, staff, premises and customers find a level, but they absolutely knocked my socks off for a measly £40 a head!

 

You're not going to get a Winteringham Fields / Fischer's experience because you're in the middle of town, but it's a buzzing bar and highly competent restaurant serving food and drink that's bang up to date, well prepared and carefully cooked and presented.

 

Hey... they even got me drinking German wine again!

 

I really can't recommend it highly enough. Go!

[MrSkinner 10]

Ive been wanting to try 23 for a while now, living at west one and all. just need to find a girl worth taking

[threecolours 10]

Good to hear that Tony as Ive been there a few times a while back and also found it very hit and miss. Last time..some fish wasnt was cooked properly so sent it back. Fresh veggies were then bought back a good 5mins before the fish was returned!

 

Good response from the staff though - they never got funny about food being sent back and didnt charge for that meal.

 

Gotta say though other times the food was spot on...so Im gonna give it another go!

 

PS and the waiter/owner/guy in the restaurant (?) last time was very nice to look at too..

[Tony 10]

I think that a lot of restaurants struggle when the head chef is off... so always choose a bust night (not Sunday / Monday / Tuesday) in any restaurant.

 

I'm glad that you're going back threecolours, I will be too. Sheffield's a hard slog for restaurants that care about their product. We do need to support those that understand what they are doing and care about the event... produce, cooking, service, wine, ... the lot! Good luck to them.

 

I remember giving a great review to the predecessor of Ivory (Regent Terrace)... and they closed... what a shame!

 

Come on forumers... go... don't lose your great restaurants. Unlike a few others in Sheffield that rely on reputation rather than product, 23 is truly a great restaurant when it hits the spot.

 

I'll say it again... GO!

 

 

 

(I'll take a bottle of that rather unexpectedly nice Riesling as commission next time )