Firstly, Relish’s food challenge on Ecclesall Road is not for the faint hearted. It’s just about the biggest portion of food that I’ve had in front of me in one sitting.
The challenge is a massive burger (which has to be split into two because it falls over), 1lb of fries, hot wings, a pile of onion rings, coleslaw, a coke float, and now there is a portion of mac & cheese.
I was told that nobody has completed the challenge since the addition of mac & cheese, so the opportunity to be the first was incentive in itself. Then there is the time limit of 45 minutes, sounds like a lot, but it goes quicker than you think.
What happens if you win? You get a free t-shirt, a winners certificate and pride of place on the “conquerors” wall of fame. If you loose? Pay £30 for the meal, a losers certificate, and place on the “wall of shame”.
The food was quick to come and my first impression was that I would be able to do it, yes it did look big, but I’m a big eater as it is.
There is a lot of different tastes and textures in the burger too so it doesn’t get boring. The burger has to be split into two otherwise it doesn’t stand up. Although it is meant to be one big burger, the two you get are completely different.
It’s a good burger! This makes the challenge so much easier, who wants to eat a lot of something that doesn’t taste nice after all? The only negative is that I don’t like sour cream. I only found out that the burger had sour cream when I had a massive mouth full of the stuff.
The hot wings are probably the easiest bit to do. I found that they were good to just keep my eating flow going at a steady pace, but was a break from throwing down big mouthfuls of food.
I got to the halfway point with no signs of slowing, it is when I stopped eating to “let the food go down”, and chat with the manager that the momentum had been slowed and I struggled to get into an efficient eating rhythm again.
I decided to tackle the colossal portion of fries. I found this part pretty easy, after about 5 minutes, I had eaten the whole lot. Soon after I had eaten most of the onion rings and had began eating the mac & cheese, which by this time had gone cold.
The excitement had taken its toll and I had lost track of the amount of time I had left, however, there is a cute “bing” noise that sounds when you have exceeded the time limit.
Obviously I had lost the challenge, not significantly, but the time had come for me to swallow my pride and have my photo taken to go on the dreaded “wall of shame”.
The restaurant itself is really nice, it has a cool American theme going on inside and they play cool music. I felt completely comfortable and like I could relax. The staff are really friendly and I had a good chat with the guys there.
I would like to return one day, and I hope that I can move myself from the “wall of shame” to the “conquerors” wall.
Here are the details to Relish, give it a go if you dare?
Relish 371-373 Ecclesall Road Sheffield S11 8PF
Sharrow Vale Mail 