It appears to be Christmas season now and so our work lottery syndicate members took the £50 winnings from the last year (I’m sure we’d be better just putting a weekly £1 each in a pot and then spending that at Christmas, but then we really would never win the jackpot…) and headed to Ego on Surrey Street. I have been a few times before, the first being for our engagement party with a bunch of our closest friends. After that I was on their mailing list and therefore have never paid full price for their food. On my birthday we got a free 3-course meal. On our engagement anniversary we got a free bottle of prosecco. And in October I got an email saying that if we booked on a Monday during November and ordered from the Christmas menu we could get a free bottle of wine. Each.
Louise and I arrived shortly before 7 so made good use of their ‘2 for 1 bellini’ offer and got ourselves some fizzy to start the evening.
The rest of our party soon arrived, and orders were taken quickly and efficiently. The Christmas menu had a good variety of food, although not much choice for the vegetarian in our group. Starters were a choice of Soup de Jour (Italian Vegetable), Grilled Goats Cheese, Chicken Liver & Rosemary Paté, Prosciutto and Melon or Smoked Haddock Risotto. Main course choices were Beef Bourguignon, Pan Roasted Turkey Escalope, 8oz Sirloin Steak, Slow Roast Belly Pork, Sautéed Salmon Fillet or Festive Nut Roast. For dessert there was Traditional Christmas Pudding, Tiramisu, Classic Crème Brûlée or Warm Chocolate Brownie.
I chose the Grilled Goats Cheese for a starter, which came on toasted brioche with a beautiful, fruity chutney. The cheese was grilled to perfection and I’m still thinking about that chutney. It was the perfect size for a starter.
For my main course I chose the Slow Roast Belly Pork. There was a short delay between the mains being brought out and getting the (inclusive) vegetables to go with them, but it didn’t really impact on the evening. The pork belly was good, but I have to be honest, I was rather spoilt a couple of weeks ago by some superb belly at Silversmiths, and Ego’s offering didn’t quite measure up. The top wasn’t quite crunchy enough, and the fat wasn’t quite melt-in-your-mouth enough, for my taste. Don’t get me wrong, it was still very good, and came on a bed of black pudding and gorgeous spicy chorizo, just not quite as good as the last version I had.
I had the Christmas Pudding with brandy butter for dessert. The pudding itself had a texture closer to Christmas Cake and was perhaps a bit too dense to really be pudding, but it had all the right flavours and spices in all the right ratios. The brandy butter was more like a white sauce than what I would normally expect, and there was less of a taste of brandy in the sauce than in the pudding itself, but it was still very tasty.
The choice of free wine with our meal was either the house white or house red, and it was perfectly drinkable.
So, once again, Ego didn’t disappoint. The service was efficient and friendly and at no point did we feel rushed, despite half of our party arriving a little late. The food was delicious, the vegetables included in the price (which is how it should be on set menus), and the portion sizes just right. I felt nicely full by the end.
Whether you live in Sheffield, Bramhall, Heswall, Kenilworth, Lichfield, Liverpool, Lytham or Stockton Heath, I recommend getting yourselves on their mailing list… there’s always some deal or other to be taken advantage of. Sadly, they have taken their gambas pil-pil off their main menu. They did the best in Sheffield for a while.
Information about all Ego Restaurants can be found at www.egorestaurants.co.uk
Ego Sheffield
88 Surrey Street
Sheffield
S1 2LH
Tel: 0114 278 2004
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