Upstairs by Tom Shepherd

A First Floor, a Doorbell, and a Dining Ritual

Bore Street in Lichfield offers few external signals of what waits above. You ring a doorbell, climb the stairs, and arrive in a 28-cover room that is contemporary without being cold: an open kitchen running along one wall, a dining floor where the sightlines are generous and the noise level stays manageable. The decoration is restrained — some fake foliage does decorative work without overwhelming the room — and a seat near the pass gives a clear view of the kitchen brigade working through service. This is the kind of space where the meal itself is the event, and the room is calibrated accordingly.

That calibration is worth noting because it reflects a broader pattern in how ambitious cooking is now framed outside London. Properties like hide and fox in Saltwood and Heron in Leith have made a similar choice: pare back the theatrical interior, let the food carry the weight. At Upstairs, that weight lands in a seven-course tasting menu format delivered Wednesday through Saturday evenings, with an additional lunch service Thursday through Saturday. Thursday lunch runs a shorter format, making it the most accessible entry point for first-time visitors.

The Structure of the Meal

Tasting menus at this level impose a particular contract between kitchen and guest. The sequence is fixed, the pacing is kitchen-led, and the burden of trust falls on the diner. What that means in practice here is a progression that moves from delicate and technically precise through to rich, weighty savoury territory, before a deliberate transition course eases the shift toward dessert. The kitchen has described this transition course as a palate bridge , something like puffed wild rice alongside a coconut rice pudding scented with Thai green curry spices and mango sorbet , which signals an unusually considered approach to pacing rather than simply stacking courses for impact.

Earlier in the meal, the approach is similarly purposeful. A barely cooked scallop in peanut sauce, which sits adjacent to satay territory without quite arriving there, has featured as an opening course, followed by poached Cornish cod set against kohlrabi ribbons and barbecued mussels in a Champagne emulsion. Portion sizes run larger than the tasting menu format might lead you to expect, particularly at lunch, where a main course might present Hereford beef across four preparations with aromatic notes of garlic, onion, tarragon, and smoke. The Jacob's ladder cut has drawn particular attention for tenderness. The overall mid-meal register is rich and intensely savoury, which makes the considered transition course all the more structurally effective.

Desserts have been consistently cited as a highlight across multiple sources. The 72% Araguani chocolate mousse with crème fraîche ice cream, pecans, and sherry is the standard-bearer, but the signature dessert from Tom Shepherd's Great British Menu appearance , 'No Ordinary Schoolboy', a tuck-shop construction of banana in white chocolate with caramel and rum, served alongside a banana and maple granola cake , remains on the menu and carries a narrative weight that most desserts do not.

Wine Pairing as a Parallel Argument

The wine pairing here operates as an editorial layer on the food rather than a standard accompaniment list. A Breuer Rheingau Riesling against the scallop, a Turkish Syrah-based blend with the beef, and a Liaoning Chinese ice wine alongside the banana dessert , these choices frame a consistent point of view: pairing by flavour logic and contrast rather than by conventional geography. It is the kind of list that rewards engagement from guests who are paying attention, and it positions Upstairs within a narrower peer set than its Lichfield postcode might suggest. For comparison, wine programs at places like Moor Hall in Aughton or L'Enclume in Cartmel operate from much larger cellars and considerably higher price points, but the intellectual framework , pairing as argument, not convention , is shared.

Where It Sits in the Broader Picture

The question of what a high-ambition tasting menu restaurant can achieve outside a major city is one that British dining has been testing for at least two decades. Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and Gidleigh Park in Chagford all represent different answers to that question , some destination-driven, some village-embedded, some reliant on hotel infrastructure. Upstairs occupies a different structural position: no hotel, no destination village cachet, a city-centre address above a family jewellery business. The 28-cover limit keeps the operation tight enough to maintain quality without the dining room becoming a production line.

A position in Harden's Leading UK Top 100 2025 confirms the kitchen's standing within the national conversation. That recognition carries weight because Harden's aggregates diner feedback rather than inspector visits, which means the ranking reflects sustained guest experience across multiple services rather than a single scored visit. The training lineage , including time under Michael Wignall at the Latymer, Pennyhill Park, and with Adam Stokes in Birmingham , sits alongside places like Frog by Adam Handling in London and Restaurant Andrew Fairlie in Auchterarder as examples of kitchens where established technical lineage produces cooking that competes with destinations carrying considerably more infrastructure behind them.

The more interesting tension, noted in the most recent Harden's cycle, is that the venue's own popularity has introduced friction. Ratings remained positive but attracted more qualifications than in previous years: a waiting list that stretches expectations, a pace of service that some found pressured, and a price trajectory that has moved upward. These are not unusual problems for a 28-seat restaurant that has attracted national attention, but they are worth factoring into a visit. The contrast with the informal warmth the room projects , staff described consistently as genuinely engaged , suggests the operational pressure sits at the booking and pacing level rather than in the cooking itself.

Planning a Visit

Upstairs is at 25 Bore Street in central Lichfield, a short walk from Lichfield City railway station. Service runs Wednesday evenings, Thursday through Saturday for both lunch and dinner, with Sunday and Monday closed. The Thursday lunch format is shorter and, given the booking pressure on dinner services, represents a more realistic entry point for new visitors. Table availability is limited , the 28-cover room fills quickly, and the waiting list is a genuine planning factor, not a formality. Lichfield's dining scene has grown around the restaurant's success; Larder and The Boat offer alternatives at different price points, and the full picture of what the city offers is covered in our full Lichfield restaurants guide. For accommodation, bars, and other planning, see our Lichfield hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide.