Ego, Sheffield City Centre

I know this one is a chain, which normally I don't review, but it is a restaurant I hadn't been to before.  Ego is a Mediterranean restaurant, next to the winter gardens and one of the precious few restaurants in town that I could find that had a pretheatre menu on a Tuesday.  Two courses for £12.95 (James has fixed the laptop so I now have a pound sign) or three courses for £14.95.

We were seated next to the window (which I happen to like) on a square table.  The chairs were comfortable enough but they were tricky to sit up in to eat.  I had grilled goats cheese to start.  It was very salty (I am a salty sea dog) and served on toasted brioche.  It was a light dish and piping hot throughout.  The only complaint I have is that there wasn't enough of the chutney and balsamic syrup to fully balance out the cloying texture of the cheese, but that's just nit-picky.  Overall I really enjoyed the starter and thought it was just different enough to stand up to it being a chain restaurant.  James had the pate (naturally) and he enjoyed it a great deal.  It came with a chutney that was served in a really cute little glass lever top jar!  That was the best thing for me, I wanted to steal it (but I didn't!).

For a main I had the salmon in a cream mustard sauce.  It was a tad bland but the texture of the fish was superb.  Perfectly cooked and flaky yet moist.  James had the steak (again, naturally!) which he requested cooked rare.  James is a steak fiend and will judge a restaurant based entirely on how they cook their meat.  Whilst he was pleased it wasn't overcooked, it was closer to blue then rare.  It needed to be hot through.  The vegetables were shared between us which I liked, they were al dente which I don't normally like but with the softness of the fish I needed the bite of the vegetables to alleviate the dish somewhat.

I didn't have a dessert of my own.  I'm THAT kind of girl.  So I was handed James' fork and shared his tirimisu.  I'm a giant tirimisu fan.  The dish was soaked with Kahlua.  I understand it has to have a healthy whack of it to make the taste right but it was drenched.  You pressed on the creamy top and it leaked out.  James quite enjoyed it but it was just too much for me.  I prefer a bit more emphasis on the creamyness then the coffee liquor.

I would recommend Ego as a pretheatre venue, not least because it is bang opposite the Lyceum and Crucible.  It was good for a chain and I would go back.  I imagine they would cope quite well with large groups (but I have nothing to base that on).  7.5/10.