Sam’s is our favourite of the company’s three restaurants in the city centre. Whilst I’m not normally keen on restaurants in basements, this one with it’s Victorian feel seems to work. And I love the life-sized statue of L S Lowry sat at the bar. They describe their food as “classic British food with a modern twist”. So, no, this isn’t yet another “Modern British” place. But it is somewhere I’d probably take a foreign visitor to the city who wanted to try our local food.
And there was no better starter than “crispy pig fritters”. Balls of shredded piggy, breadcrumbed and fried and served up with apple puree, pickled quails eggs and mayo enhanced with a dollop of English mustard. The other starter was simplicity itself – a slice of sourdough toast, topped with surprisingly tasty heritage tomatoes and extra virgin rapeseed oil. The menu also says it comes with goat yoghurt which we asked to be left off – yoghurt and tomato just didn’t seem right to us. .
For one main course, there was their “famous” corned beef hash which, apparently, is ten days in the making. It’s a mix of tasty beef, creamed onion and potato. It was fine as it always is, but needed a tad more seasoning. It comes with crispy bacon and a poached egg. It also comes with a little dish of brown sauce, no longer stated as being housemade, but certainly a welcome addition to the plate.
The other main was a Barnsley chop, simply grilled and perfectly cooked as requested. Lovely sweet fat which had been crisped a bit. And it’s lifted by a scattering of soft,delicate sweetbreads and a scattering of peas and broad beans. Spuds were a chargeable extra - in this case a generous bowl of Pink Fir (or Fur as the menu wrongly has it), tossed in a little butter and chopped mint. One of tastiest new potatoes I know.
Desserts have never been brill here, so we didn’t bother trying them this visit.
