[title]
Please note, Fayre Share has now closed. Time Out Food editors, February 2019.
The punning name says it all really – Fayre Share is a bright, breezy space, making much of the fact that all the dishes are offered in four sizes to encourage sharing. A bit gimmicky? So is the food. Veggie dishes were the meal’s strength. There was a delightful starter of grilled mixed courgettes with goat’s curd and a side order of mixed, vibrant greens, cooked to perfection.
But a simple menu of favourite British dishes – shepherd’s pie, sticky wings and ribs, roast chicken, steak, sea bream – offered many dishes that missed the mark, particularly the meats. A pork chop billed as ‘grilled’ came slathered in an intense herby sauce that managed to muddy all the robust flavours of an otherwise beautifully cooked Barnsley chop. Scraping the barbecue sauce off a pile of ‘hot and sticky’ wings and ribs, which were neither sticky nor hot, revealed pale flabby meat on overcooked wings and fatty, tough ribs.
The dessert menu offered some fun touches – among them Arctic roll and chocolate rice pudding. Add in attentive service on the right side of friendly and there is every chance that Fayre Share will eventually become, as its website claims, ‘food worth gathering for’. For now, this jury is out.