JÖRO

Originally born out of a few stacked shipping containers in formerly industrial Kelham Island, this modern eatery has gone from strength to strength at its new location. Luke and Stacey Sherwood-French's Jöro is now housed in a 19th-century paper mill amid the rolling peaks of Oughtibridge Valley, complete with seven apartment rooms as well as a terrace coffee shop and bar. As the umlaut might suggest, Jöro’s sensibilities are generally Nordic in their embrace of rawness, fermentation, and simplicity of preparation; roughly translated, Jöro means 'earth', though the ingredients and flavours take more of a steer from Asian cooking. This clear ideology helps bring cohesion to a menu with references as diverse as Northern nostalgia (albeit with Swiss cheese-filled viennoiserie served with compressed pineapple), a touch of Sicilian rustic charm, obscure Japanese ferments, savoury French toast, and the comfort of a fresh-baked cookie finale, all within the space of an excellent-value, 90-minute 'Ö.5' lunch tasting menu (just one of three tasters on offer). Chalkstream trout – salted for 10 days and served with an Amalfi lemon remix of the Japanese yuzu ferment kosho –  has always been a Jöro highlight, but it’s a pleasure to see celeriac get its moment in the sun as well (here glazed in a ginger teriyaki and cooked over coals, served on celeriac espuma and under yet more, crispy, celeriac). Wines are accessibly priced and helpfully communicated (a pairing for our lunch menu was a bargain at £32), and there’s an impressively considered menu of non-alcoholic homemade sodas and juices – enough to form a pairing flight of their own.

JÖRO started life in a shipping container in 2016 but moved to a considerably larger and more upmarket location in 2024. This relocation marks a major milestone for Sheffield’s best restaurant, which is known for blending Nordic and Japanese influences in its inventive tasting menus. The new site, located near the edge of the Peak District in Oughtibridge, expands the JÖRO experience significantly. Developed by founders Luke French and Stacey Sherwood-French, the destination now includes two bars, an outdoor BBQ terrace kitchen and stylish accommodation. A much larger and better-equipped kitchen has allowed French - whose CV includes Midsummer House in Cambridge - to evolve his already finely-tuned and distinctive cooking style. New dishes include grilled Scottish scallops; salt-aged Yorkshire beef rump cap; whole teriyaki quail; and Hampshire trout with yuzu kosho beurre blanc, pike roe, parsley and ginger. The pair retain a presence in the city proper with the original JÖRO in the Krynkl shipping container development having been reimagined under their street food brand Konjö. As French puts it: “This new chapter lets us take everything further, without compromise.”