Upstairs by Tom Shepherd Review

Opened in October 2021 in the Staffordshire town of Lichfield by TV-featured chef Tom Shepherd, Upstairs by Tom Shepherd is a highly regarded restaurant, situated above his father's family-run jewellery shop. Having achieved a precious Michelin star just four months after opening (which it still holds today) as well as three AA rosettes, I was feeling pretty optimistic about seeing some top class cooking on show as I rocked up for lunch with my wife, on an unexpectedly sunny September Saturday.

One thing I should note is this is a very popular restaurant, and we booked over nine months in advance, so plan ahead if you're looking to visit (although there are cancellations which free up tables more readily of course). There is a £35 per person deposit taken when booking, which seemed perfectly reasonable to me given the popularity of the restaurant, and this had been pre-deducted from our bill at the end without issue.

As a town centre venue there's no dedicated parking, but there are plenty of pay and display car parks in the area; we parked at The Friary multi-story car park which is only a five minute walk away (and pretty cheap to boot). We arrived bang on time for our reservation (as instructed when booking, as there is no lounge area to wait first) and made our way upstairs to the dining room.

The welcome on arrival was warm and professional, and we were shown to our table along the back wall. I liked the overall feel of the room (complete with open kitchen) but I would say the space is fairly compact and they have crammed as many tables in as they possibly can here; we were closer than I would have liked to diners on either side of us.

As well as the noise generated by having that many people in a small space, they also pump out background music too, so although there's a relaxed vibe, it was loud throughout our meal and we did struggle to hear what the staff were saying quite often.

On offer at lunch is a single tasting menu priced at £120, with choices for the main and dessert courses, and the option to have the famed 'No Ordinary Schoolboy' (as seen on The Great British Menu TV show) dessert either in place of the dessert course or in addition for a supplement of £20; we opted to have it in addition to share alongside the main menu.

For drinks, there were a good range of aperitifs to enjoy with the snack courses with a wide range of cocktails (including three non-alcoholic choices) plus plenty of other options. I had a 'Thai Green Fizz' cocktail to start (gin and lemonade based) which was OK, my wife was more impressed with her 'Spring Garden' mocktail which she enjoyed.

In terms of drinks for the main meal, there's a solid wine list and three different levels of wine pairing ranging from £88 to £150; I went for the cheapest 'Discovery' pairing as to be honest it sounded the most interesting (despite being the cheapest). They also have a non-alcoholic pairing available (at £58) which is always good to see, so my wife went for that.

Lunch began with a selection of three snacks, all served at the same time. We went for the pecorino sable first, topped with a Tunworth cheese custard, honey gel and slices of Wiltshire truffle. This was a very pleasant combination and packed plenty of flavour. The chalk steam trout croustade served with caviar was tasty too, but the pick of the snacks was probably the delicious lamb tartare served atop a little lamb fat muffin with a slice of gherkin jelly for good measure.

Next followed a little pre-main-menu dish of red cabbage gazpacho with horseradish ice cream. This was a nice fresh dish and I get the intention in terms of kicking off the meal with something refreshing, but it was a little bit underwhelming in terms of flavour, particularly the ice cream which didn't deliver much of the promised horseradish punch. For some reason we were given an impractically small spoon to eat the gazpacho with too.

The bread course came next, in the form of little sourdough pikelets (half way between a crumpet and a pancake), served with marmite butter. These were fine and I understand the idea behind not serving just bread, but I'd much rather have had a decent potion of well made bread to be honest. The most memorable thing about the course was the fact my supplied plate for the bread had been visibly broken then (quite clumsily) glued back together; I know times are very hard in hospitality, but surely a restaurant at this level (charging these prices) can replace broken plates.

Next up was a scallop dish, served with a champagne sauce, dulse, yuzu gel and dried scallop roe dust on top. I really enjoyed this, the scallop was cooked well and although there were quite a few flavours going on, they worked really nicely together, it was a delicious dish and probably the strongest of the meal.

Anjou quail came next, served with carrot, vadouvan spices and kumquat. The quail was nicely cooked with a good sauce and a lot of pleasant elements, but the big chunks of kumquat really overpowered most of the other flavours, it just wasn't quite a combination that worked for me. The quail sausage roll on the side was delicious though and the best part of the dish.

The main courses came next, with the aforementioned choice of two options. I went for the dry aged Angus beef, served with a rich sauce and a variety of interesting purees. I really enjoyed this dish, the beef was lovely with the highlight being the braised short rib on the side. My wife had the other main course option of halibut with courgette and crab, which she wasn't as enthused by, but it was still enjoyable and an accomplished piece of cooking. We were also served a little milk roll to share with the mains, making use of the remaining marmite butter we'd been served earlier.

The crossover was a really interesting take on a Thai green curry, consisting of coconut rice pudding, mango, a green curry infused foam and puffed rice. I enjoyed this a lot; it was a cleverly conceived dish but most importantly it tasted great. It is though the kind of dish that won't be to everyone's taste and my wife wasn't as big a fan as me.

For the final dessert course there are two choices also; I had the 90% Madagascan chocolate dish, a coffee and chocolate mousse topped with a hazelnut tuille and mascarpone ice cream. This was a neatly constructed and tasty dessert. My wife opted for the other choice, a take on an eclair with English strawberries, whipped custard and ice cream with a drop of marigold oil. My wife enjoyed this, although the eclair pastry element was a bit overly chewy.

We had the 'No Ordinary Schoolboy' supplemental dessert served at the same time also; I'm not normally a fan of banana based desserts but I had to try this (I know, I know, I'm a sucker for TV dishes). The main banana mousse element was lovely, and the cake on the side was very tasty also. There's no way the version we were served would get perfect marks on The Great British Menu (as the famed original did), but it was still a very good dessert nonetheless.

To finish, my wife had a camomile tea and I had a white americano coffee; I'd wanted just a nice cappuccino but that wasn't an option sadly, and the coffee wasn't great to be honest, I'd pass if I went back. Before those were delivered our waitress brought over a very smart looking box of domed petit fours chocolates of various flavours; when I saw the box I thought we'd be able to choose at least four, but we could only select one each which felt unbelievably tight to be honest for a star level p4 offering, but such is life (the chocolates were OK).

And so, after collecting the bill (complete with a lower-than-average 7.5% service charge) a perfectly pleasant lunch came to an end. Overall we enjoyed our visit here; the food was good throughout albeit lacking as many standout moments as I'd been hoping for. The service was strong however; we were served by a variety of front of house and kitchen staff who were all very pleasant, the cramped noisy environment does hinder the staff though in terms of being able to communicate.

The menu pacing as a whole was OK but a couple of gaps around the middle courses were longer than I'd expected; at least the kitchen did coordinate well with the gentleman pouring our drinks, so I wasn't sat looking at wine getting warm for long periods at any point (always appreciated).

The drinks pairings were enjoyable also; my wine flight was interesting with wines from less well established regions like Uruguay and Morocco, and it was perfectly well delivered with all the wines being poured at the table. My wife very much enjoyed the non-alcoholic pairing too, which had some thoroughly drinkable and well thought out choices also.

I guess I'd summarise by saying this is a very good restaurant, but there were a few niggles for me I'd not been expecting. There's no doubt the celebrity status of the owner helps with the popularity here, and that's understandable (although he wasn't in the kitchen for our visit, and I would guess that's often the case due to other commitments) but it does feel a bit like there's no real desire to correct any issues, because they'll sell out every service regardless.

But look, you can't really argue with that approach in the current hospitality climate, so good luck to them. I wish everyone involved all the best moving forwards and although I wouldn't personally rush back for a meal any time soon, I'd have no objection to eating here again in future.