The Closed Shop, Sheffield

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23112312@N08/2212880140/

I was out with 3 old friends for a few cheeky drinks around the outskirts of Sheffield and needed a good start to the day. Our first pub of the day was The Closed Shop on Commonside on the western edge of the city and it did food so it made a lot of sense to have the fish and chips at £7.95.

The pub has been recently taken over and was very clean but unfortunately on our visit the beer selection wasn’t anywhere near as exciting as it had been on their Facebook profile recently, but this was just a little bad luck on our behalf.

The fish was big and came with an equally large amount of sturdy skin on it which has to be scraped away and discard before I could start eating. The fish was pretty fresh if a little damp with some water coming out of the flesh but was cooked consistently throughout. The batter had a good deep colour and had a great flavour to match the fantastic crispyness.

The chips were yet again not chips but wedges. However, they did have a great flavour although as usual with my taste in the fried potato I would have left them in the fryer for another 60 seconds.

There are two images of the meal. This one clearly shows the frozen peas that arrived on the southern side of the plate and were simply dull. It also shows the overindulgence in the world of green leaves which was simply over the top and wasn’t eaten. Unfortunately, the salad replaced the lemon wedge which is a terrible shame.

The tartare was utter nonsense. Having has the stupid deconstructed tartare at the Clive outside Ludlow this was almost as bad. It was basically some sliced gherkins placed on top of a small, shallow mayonnaise container. I did have some of the mayonnaise with my chips but it was another very poor attempt at what should be a straightforward addition to a fish and chips meal.

The salt and vinegar was in packet form and the meal was washed down with an uncomplicated standard bitter.

The second image is a long shot of the meal with a bottle of Henderson’s Relish included. The object of the photo is really just to show you a bottle of Henderson’s relish.