Hickory's Smokehouse Sheffield — Restaurant in Sheffield

The first thing that I am going to say is WOW !!! When I found out that Hickory’s was coming to our area and so close to us, I am not gonna lie I was a little bit giddy ! I had wanted to visit and try the food from this restaurant for a long time . So the excitement scale was off the chart when it came time to come in for our meal ( although we felt a little bit cheated that you snuck it open early as we were away for the opening ! ) and our booking was for the original opening day. When we walked through the door we were both blown away by the transformation of what to be frank was a dingy pub. The greeting by the slightly over enthusiastic server was great but after she explained it was her very first shift we understood her exuberance of helpfulness, we promptly got served the super tasty popcorn and the water to drink, and then the menu was explained in great detail along with recommendations from both the drinks and food menu. I had down a fair bit of research before our visit so I knew exactly what I wanted and my Fiancée picked her choice. I went for the platter for one and my partner went for the mac n Cheese with chicken, and chips !! Double carbs !!! The drinks arrived A game changer and an alcoholic root beer float for me, the root beer float was really nice however less ice and more liquid would have been better for the £8.50 it cost ! My partners Game changer was apparently very nice.

The food arrived and WOW ! It looked amazing I was truly overwhelmed by my platter of delicious looking meat, and the Mac and Cheese was massive too.

Now onto my first gripe 😒 I did not get one of the famous Hickory’s bibs and yes the inevitable happened I dribbled the super tasty sauce down my shirt ! Grrrrrr.

However this is a normal occurrence so it didn’t detract from the taste sensation that I was devouring ! The flavours absolutely blew my mind the gravy was like nothing I had ever tasted before, each piece of meat just simply melted in my mouth, a special mention must go to the triumphant sausage which was so flavoursome and my god it has cheese in it too !!!

Super crispy skin on chips accompanied this meaty wonder along with two trays of pickles to clean your palette from the richness of everything else in front of you.

My partner was struggling with her huge portion of Mac n Cheese and it unfortunately beat her, I plowed on through and completely finished mine.

An amazing meal that was a wonderful treat. And a treat it definitely was, as our bill was £86 for the pair of us, which when you take off the quiet expensive and very tasty cocktails was actually good value as we both were left absolutely stuffed and no way was a dessert possible.

I do have a couple of points of feedback for the management team, firstly the music was way too loud and everyone around us was pretty much shouting at each other, which made it slightly uncomfortable.

And the next point that left a particularly sour taste in my mouth was the automatic inclusion of a 7.5% tip, if as a customer I feel that the service given warrants a tip then surely that is my decision, and I should not have to go through the gauntlet and frankly embarrassing situation of asking for it to be removed. In this case I was suitably impressed by your server and I left the tip in place.

This review would have been a full 5 stars if the points I have mentioned had not occurred.

We will be back as the food is truly amazing and I sincerely hope that my feedback is taken on board.

Thanks for a...

Hickory’s Smokehouse, Sheffield

Recently, we paid a visit to Hickory’s in Sheffield, which has been open a few months now. It’s located just a couple of minutes from home, so I’d been looking forward to trying it for a while.

From the moment we arrived, the experience started well. We were greeted warmly and shown to our table, where we were welcomed with three boxes of complimentary popcorn and a piece of brisket each – a really nice touch. The brisket at this point was soft and delicious, a promising start to the evening.

There were four of us dining, and with alcohol included, the overall pricing was reasonable. We began with the prawn tostadas as our starter. The toppings were lovely – fresh, flavourful, and well-balanced. Unfortunately, the tostadas themselves let the dish down. They were stale and soft, lacking the crisp crack you'd expect – more like a bag of Doritos left open overnight. The texture was oddly gummy, which was disappointing.

That said, the management team were absolutely brilliant. They took the tostadas off our bill without hesitation and, after trying them themselves, pulled them from service completely. That level of responsiveness is rare and deserves proper recognition.

For mains, we ordered the tasting platter – a hearty spread that included a Jacob’s Ladder rack of ribs, individual ribs, beef ribs, chicken wings, a large sausage, brisket, beans, pulled pork mac and cheese, cornbread, and what I think was a kind of gravy or jus. Most of it was really tasty and well-prepared, with standout flavours and good portion sizes.

However, the brisket in the main platter didn’t live up to the welcoming strips – it was quite chewy and a bit of a letdown. Again, we flagged it with the team, who were more than happy to apologise and even sent us home with four replacement strips of brisket, which was a nice gesture.

The drinks – a mix of gins, tonics, and beers – were all spot on, and the final bill came to around £155, though that didn’t include the starters. So realistically, if you had everything with drinks, you’d be looking at £170–£180 for four people. Given the amount of food and alcohol, I’d still call that good value.

Ambience-wise, Hickory’s has nailed it. The music, decor, and overall vibe are just right – relaxed but buzzing with personality. Everything was clean, the place felt well looked-after, and the staff were faultless – friendly, efficient, and attentive without being intrusive.

If I had to score it, I’d give:

Food: 7/10 – Tasty overall, but a few quality issues held it back.

Service & Staff: 10/10 – Genuinely outstanding.

Ambience & Cleanliness: 10/10 – Couldn’t fault it.

The one thing that stood out unexpectedly was the condiment selection – loads of sauces, especially hot ones, and clearly well thought out. It’s a small thing, but it left a big impression.

Overall, it’s a good place for barbecue, but not quite the showstopper I was hoping for. With a bit more attention to consistency and seasoning – it was all quite sweet – it could be something special. But not right now.

I think maybe the team that supports the new opening restaurant, have left and things are slipping. It happened to papas over the road, my first review was complimentary, the second it had slipped. Let's hope they can keep in top of the...

We finally ate here last night after much anticipation. We had previously attended the Nottingham restaurant and loved it so we were thrilled when the Sheffield restaurant was opened! Our table wasn’t quite ready when we arrived at 7:30pm which was fine as we got drinks in the bar. One of the managers escorted us to our table - we were placed in the back by the exit to the play area.

The server came over and introduced himself and brought one bag of small popcorn to share between 6 adults.. we asked for more but he stated it was only one bag per table. He asked us immediately if we wanted to order and we requested a bit more time. We didn’t see him again for 25 minutes after this. As we were in the back were no servers coming to check our area and we were having to get up and look for the servers to ask for our order to be taken. The starters arrived and they were tasty, our main meals arrived around 45 minutes after the starters at 9:15pm. We ordered a mixture of items - one couple ordered the beef short rib, my dad ordered the pork belly, myself and partner ordered the bbq platter and my mum ordered the rump steak with poutine tator tots. The rump steak was chewy, full of grissle and hard to eat, this was reported to the server after 15 minutes and having to go and search for him. The manager came over and said that the chef had tasted it and agreed it was a bad batch of steak. She was offered something else but she didn’t want anything, they insisted she had a dessert as they didn’t like to see her sat with nothing whilst we all ate. The manager suggested she tried the strawberries and cream ice cream, she stated she would bring this across. It never arrived and the server never came back. The beef short rib meal was delicious, we all tried a piece and it was soft and tasty. The pork belly was also really good! The bbq platter was extremely disappointing. The ribs were delicious, the beef short rib was extremely tough and chewy, the coleslaw had a very bitter, sour taste. The pit beans were incredibly sweet and the chicken wings were over cooked. We informed the server that the food was average and the service was a bit disappointing. His demeanour changed after this and we were suddenly met with another server who was much friendlier. The new server asked if we wanted the bill and we asked if we could look at the dessert menu. The frozen custard in Nottingham was so delicious we wanted to try it here also! The desserts arrived promptly and they were nice but nothing to shout about. My mum reminded the server about her free dessert and he brought it over and then ended up charging her for it. They did however remove it from the bill after being reminded it was an apology dessert for a poor main.

Service: needs a lot of work, being put in the back of the restaurant meant that all of the tables here were struggling to get service. Food: some of it tasted like it had been stood on a hot plate for too long? It tasted warmed up? Left a lot to be desired. Atmosphere: the music was good but it was really loud. I love country music but you couldn’t hear yourself or the rest of the table speak. When the server didn’t visit the table he had to shout at us...