The differences between city and country living are almost incomparable. In the country a mans house is his haven, a place which he fills with all the resources he needs for day to day living. For some its a prize and a showpeice that he makes constant improvements to in order to better himself. As the most expensive item someone buys their house acts as an ultimate possession to show what a man has acheived. In a city centre people do the majority of their living outside their home, because the city is filled with everything they need, so their living space is more minimal. If he wants to buy bread, for example. he can go to the bakery, so there is no need for a breadmaker. He can buy his food as and when he needs it, so there is no need to fill his fridge with stock for the whole weeke. His home acts as a simple comfortable retreat where he can go for a good sleep and cook a good meal. This, I think is why city and coutry restaurants are so different. Probably the reason cumbria, for example has more michelin starred restaurants than Sheffield, Manchester and leeds combined. Most of the Sheffield restaurants are bargain buckets where you can have a large meal for cheap. Unlike coutryside restaurants they rely less on reputation and regulars because a larger amount of customers come from passers by. This brings me to the milestone.
Unlike most of Sheffield's other down to earth, comfort food eateries the Milestone is going for something different. Here I will review the food. Because of the lack of higher end restaurants in Sheffield the milestone has developed 'sun shines out its arse' reputation. It's one of the only Sheffield restaurants which pushes the boundaries and shouts about it. It's in the redeveloped modernised area of Sheffield called Kelham Island, filled with old factories that have been renovated into trendy office blocks. The setting for the restaurant is perfect, old high rise buildings and cobbled streets. The restaurant uses produce from local allotment owners, a novel idea and great way of sourcing local produce and developing links within the community. I have eaten in the restaurant 3 times to date and one point I have always found odd about it is there is a restaurant and pub run within the same building. The pub is on the ground floor and the restaurant is upstairs, run by the same kitchen and waiting staff. This makes the whole experience very confusing, as you don't know which menu you're getting. There is a lunch and dinner menu for the pub, an early bird menu and a dinner menu for the restaurant. I think this makes things much more confusing, and it would be better to just have one menu for upstairs and downstairs, lunch and dinner. Every time I have eaten there the upstairs restaurant has been closed, why?
The last time eating there I was disappointed at the poor value for money. It was average food for expensive prices worded on the menu to make it sound swankey and different. But then again I was used to cheap prices for the rest of the city and after going elsewhere have realised they are perfectly reasonable for england as a whole. So I felt the restaurant needed a third visit. I sat down and ordered the plaice with celeriac remoulade and brown butter sauce.The plaice came whole including bones so you had to go through the laborious process of de-boning it yourself, however the plaice was tenderly cooked and well seasoned. The plaice came with a spoonful of red onion pickle on the side, I'm guessing this is the celeriac remoulade? And the brown butter sauce? oblivious to where that was. As the dish came with no veg apart from the pickle I ordered a side salad. This lacked creativity! just leaves, no tomato, onion, oil, vineger, nothing. All over what would I award the restaurant?
Service: 8
Venue: 9
Food: 6.5
Local produce? Yes lots!
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