Right, it’s been over a week. I’m no longer too full to write about this feast. Seriously, it was a whopper. As I  start writing this, I’m on the crosstrainer at the gym, still trying to repent after last Wednesday’s epic tea.

I’ll start by confessing that, despite passing Fahrenheit at least twice a day en route to/from work, I’d never actually stepped inside the restaurant (or the Genting Club, the casino to which it belongs) before. No real reason, just I’m not much of a gambler and I’ve always been a bit blind to it. I know that will seem unbelievable, given its location under the Cheesegrater car park (FYI, the third coolest car park in the world, doncha know).

But usually when I go past, I’m either on the bus about to arrive at the office and frantically searching my handbag for my door pass- I refuse to accessorise my outfit with a lanyard, despite its obvious convenience- or else I’m on the bus home, WhatsApp-ing my other half about what’s for dinner (always thinking about the next meal).

So when the lovely people at Fahrenheit dropped me a line, inviting me over for dinner, I was really excited to check the restaurant out. I’d heard good things from other people, so knew we were in for a treat.

Fahrenheit and the Genting Club both opened in 2012. Fahrenheit has its own entrance off Arundel Gate and feels really modern and spacious as soon as you step in.

We were greeted by smiling staff at the very well-stocked bar, and shown to our table by Restaurant Manager Sophie, who was super-nice and helpful in telling us about the menu and the restaurant itself.

We were seated in a nice booth, with a great view of the kitchen, as well as being a prime location for people watching as other diners came and went:

We ordered two starters and went halves on them- I am fortunate that my Other Half is ok with sharing food, as I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on either of these.

The pan-fried scallops with chorizo were served on a chorizo & coriander risotto (£8). There were three huge, meaty scallops, that tasted fresh and had been delicately cooked so they were not like chewing on rubbery pucks. The risotto accompanying them was good: the rice still had a bit of bite to it and had a generous smattering of chorizo throughout:

Our other starter was the honey and soy glazed pork belly, served with a cucumber & spring onion salsa (£6). Like the scallops and chorizo, this was beautifully presented:

As you can see below, there was a really good ratio here of meat:fat on what was a generous slab of pork. The belly didn’t make me feel sick as it sometimes can when it’s on the fattier side. The stickiness and sesame flavour was complemented well by the salsa, which was very tasty and obviously prepared by someone with excellent knife skills, as the ingredients were all finely and evenly chopped:

It had been recommended to us to try a steak for mains. Fahrenheit has one of the few Josper grills in Sheffield. This is basically an indoor barbecue which can reach temperatures of 1000 degrees Fahrenheit (hence the restaurant’s name). There are 7 different mains on the menu which are cooked on the Josper, including the steak of the month, which is what we went for. This was an eye-watering 1kg Tomahawk steak, served with Fahrenheit sauce, onion rings, chips, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. At £30 and easily big enough for at least two people*, this was great value and you could practically hear the “thud” as this beast was set down on the table:

I’d not encountered the Tomahawk cut before. Named after the axe which it’s said to resemble, the Tomahawk steak is an on-the-bone rib steak, cut from the fore-rib and with the entire rib bone left in, which is French-trimmed to add to the presentation and overall theatre.

In a word- WOW. There was a lot of meat here. It wasn’t until after we’d ordered that I started to worry about how intimidating trying to split 1kg of steak might be, so it was a great help that the chefs had pre-portioned it for us into four decent sized steaks and then some.

We each had a little jug of the restaurant’s signature Fahrenheit sauce to have with our steak. This is a bourbon and chilli sauce that brought a delicious kick to the meal. Though the jugs the sauce was in looked small, there was a very good portion of it and I actually had some sauce left.

We’d ordered the steak to be cooked medium, and it was done perfectly so:

We’d been quite greedy ambitious when ordering and, as well as adding some sides of sweet potato fries and Josper-roasted corn on the cob, we also decided to try the Josper-grilled black tiger prawns with garlic and chilli (£6):

The skillet that these came in helped them keep warm until we were ready to get messy. You might think that £3 per prawn is pricey- but, again, these were huge and meaty (and were generously coated in very tasty flavoured butter). I was very grateful for the finger bowl that we’d been brought alongside the prawns, especially as we had corn on the cob as well to add to the messiness.

Our many accompaniments included:

• Onion rings: these were *huge* with a really nice batter on them. They were slightly dough-y in places but we both liked them.
• Chunky chips: perfectly cooked and just what I love with a steak.
• Corn on the cob: nice enough, nothing special really- but how special can you really make corn on the cob? I mean, we mainly ordered it to feel like we’d had some “veg”, anyways.
• Sweet potato fries: a perfectly passable version of what must be the most crowd-pleasing side of the 21st century so far.

Nice touches here included that there were proper linen napkins; that we were brought proper steak knives not long after we’d ordered our food; that we were brought warm plates ahead of our steak arriving; and that I was given a choice of mustards to have with my steak.

We couldn’t quite finish the steak, but after having a breather, we decided that we couldn’t walk away without trying the peanut butter cheesecake (you can see why I spent much of the next day feeling full!):

As you can see, like all of Fahrenheit’s food, dessert was nicely-presented. The salted peanut brittle was great, I thought (though a bit too bitter for my OH; no worries- more for me). We both agreed that we wanted more strawberry jam (the red smear you can see on the plate). The cheesecake itself was smooth and not at all claggy, with a base that held together well, rather than crumbling at the first graze of a spoon. We left a clean plate behind and ordered our taxi, fit to burst and ready to unbutton trousers as soon as we crossed the threshold at home.

My favourite thing about the atmosphere in the restaurant was that you could completely forget you were, technically, in a casino. It genuinely felt as though we were just in a nice restaurant, not a nice restaurant in a casino. The gaming floor/casino area is very separate to the restaurant and is located on a lower level. You can’t see much of it from the restaurant, nor hear it; there was literally no noise from the casino in the restaurant. There was some music playing in the restaurant- some modern pop/chart hits- but not too loudly. We didn’t visit the casino part on our visit and it is entirely possible not to, if you don’t fancy a flutter. Fahrenheit’s separate entrance off Arundel Gate makes it feel very much like a standalone restaurant. There’s also an entrance off St Paul’s Place (next to Smoke BBQ). The bathrooms were as nicely-presented as the main restaurant and the whole place has obviously been well-looked after since opening.

As well as coming in for amazing steaks (they currently have an offer where two sirloin steaks and a bottle of wine will set you back just £20- bargain!), they have a brilliant value set menu available Sunday-Friday, where you can get 2 courses for £12.95pp or 3 courses for just £14.95. You can chuck in a cheeky bottle of vino for just £10 on top, too. And it’s not the sort of set menu where the dishes are all made using cheaper ingredients than the main à la carte menu: in fact, the whole set menu is made up of dishes from the à la carte menu, including the scallops with chorizo that we devoured on our visit. If you think that the scallops are £8 on their own as a starter… well, we’re talking seriously good value. They don’t even charge a supplement if you choose the steak on the set menu, unlike most other places.

Fahrenheit also have a great event space available for private hire. Situated just behind the restaurant area, this is entirely screened off and has its own bar. It can accommodate about 200-250 people in one large space, but can also be split into smaller spaces, too, using clever folding walls. This is a popular space for anniversary parties, cocktail masterclasses, hen dos and other. There is a great big screen here which they’ve used to screen sports, as well. I was really impressed at the versatility of this space- and also that it was so separate from the restaurant and casino.

As it’s within the casino, Fahrenheit is for over-18s only, which is a major selling point for some and, for those with children under 18, makes it a great choice for a child-free date night.

We really enjoyed our night at Fahrenheit and were particularly impressed with the quality and size of the steak. The only thing that would make it better for me would be for Fahrenheit to use more local suppliers (the nearest they get is that their butcher is Manchester-based)- I hope they’ll be able to consider this in future.

The food and atmosphere made for a good night out and I really enjoyed being able to see into the kitchen and check out the centrepiece Josper grill from the comfort of our table. Many thanks to Ashleigh, Sophie and the Fahrenheit team for having us as their guests and I’ll definitely pay more attention to Fahrenheit in future; I may just order more modestly next time!

*- I say this is easily big enough for at least two people. Sophie recounted the tale of one customer who managed to polish off the Tomahawk on his own- and then went on to get stuck into his companion’s steak, too. So this is also an ideal choice if you’re all about the protein gains or fancy a Man vs Food-style challenge!