What’s your earliest food memory?
Eating really juicy fresh figs in the Rialto market in Venice.

What is your favourite comfort food?
Spam fried rice, fried egg, baked beans and chilli crisp. It’s a dish appropriated from my British-born Chinese wife. It has become my favourite way to start a Sunday.

Coffee or tea, and how do you take it?
Double espresso or cortado. I throw it back and rarely savour it, I’m afraid.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
Probably working in IT; I have the right look!

What’s the best thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
A chance to meet the producers of amazing produce, wines, cheese, charcuterie - the list goes on. And of course, getting to taste them all.

What’s the worst thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
Being squeezed by the economic, legislative and social climate of the last 10 years. Sometimes it seems governments of every stripe are actively trying to choke small businesses.

What’s the next restaurant on your hit list?

The Ninth on Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia. Jun Tanaka is an excellent Chef whose food I have eaten before; I am keen to see how this translates to a neighbourhood concept.

What in your opinion is the best food destination in the world and why?
Diver XO in Madrid. The most exciting food and wine experience I have ever had; really next level, fun but without pretension. A restaurant that was clearly very technical, but that didn’t distract as I was lost in the heady flavours. A perfect balance between luxury and experimentation.

Name a restaurant dish that you’ve particularly enjoyed in the last few months. Olive Oil Sponge, Red Mayan Chocolate at Mare in Hove. The desserts in general were a highlight, both in flavour and texture.

It’s your birthday - how are you celebrating, food and drink-wise?
A picnic of rock oysters and a lovely grower’s champagne. Fino Sherry and some Jamón Ibérico, Cantabrian Anchovies and some sourdough bread. Cold roast chicken, romaine lettuce, lemon aioli with a bottle of white Burgundy. Maybe a tiny bit of Roquefort and a mouthful of Sauternes to finish.

Sam Pryor is chef/owner of Fourth and Church in Hove.

Bank Holiday Round Up

Make the most of the end of the summer this bank holiday weekend with some special food and drink events around the city. On Friday, chef Whyte Rushen, who ran the critically acclaimed Whyte’s restaurant in Hackney, brings his ‘world tour’ to Patio for one night only, 4 pm until late, serving seafood, wine and cocktails. Booking link in Patio’s Instagram bio but there will be some space for walk-ins. From Friday until Monday, Ricekiller are popping up at The Brick with their ‘fusion filth’. The short but enticing menu includes Currywurst Musabi (burnt leek oil rice, bratwurst, nori and curry ketchup) and to drink, Kernel Rice Lager or Otherworld Yuzu/Sudachi Lager alongside The Brick’s usual great line-up of beers. Walk-ins only.

On Saturday, Riddle and Finns are running an interactive Oyster Masterclass at their beach restaurant where you can become a shucking expert and learn all about molluscs. Book here. On Sunday, VOYA are staging a Sunday sessions bank holiday special from 2 pm-10 pm. There’s music all day from Liam & Elina (VOYA), Richard Masters and Tom Laroye as well as snacks and classic drinks at ‘damn good prices’. Wild Flor’s Sunday Lunch Club is back in time for the August bank holiday. Starting at 1.30pm, the restaurant says that it’s chef George Upshall ‘on a plate, metaphorically speaking; allotment goodies and peak season produce paired with easy-going but remarkable wines at a leisurely pace in a cool setting.’ For more details and to book, click here.

Jonathan Ray’s Wine Selection: Artelium Curator’s Cuvée

Have you been to Artelium yet? If not, for heaven’s sake go before the wretched rains come. It’s a blessed spot. Take the train to Plumpton and then walk through woods and farmland for around 30 minutes and, bingo, there you are at Artelium, surrounded by vines with glorious views of the South Downs.

You can taste Artelium’s entire range and have a darn fine meal whilst you’re doing so. My current pick of the pops is this remarkable traditional method Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Meunier blend from 2019 (the previous vintage of which won Gold at the Decanter World Wine Awards), made for them by none other than that deliciously bonkers Irish genius – Dermot Sugrue.

It’s a cracking fizz and no mistake, full of toast, baked and fresh apple and touches of creamy citrus. And if you can’t enjoy it in the verdant splendour of Artelium itself, grab a bottle (£85) at Embers in Brighton’s Lanes and dream happy thoughts.

The details
2019 Artelium Curator’s Cuvée, Sussex (12%vol)
£38 (75cl) from artelium.com or drink in at Embers for £85.

Jonathan Ray is the Brighton-based drinks editor of The Spectator and drinks columnist of The Field and Spear’s.

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club:
Zhug Margarita from The Crazy Goose

Enjoy at the restaurant or make at home

‘Margaritas are something we have always done well, and this is our freshest, smokiest, and punchiest of the bunch,’ says Douglas Thick, Group Bar Manager at Black Rock, the Brighton restaurant group that includes The Crazy Goose as well as Burnt Orange, The Salt Room, Tutto and The Coal Shed. ‘The drink was created by our duty manager, Connor Dineen, who used the new Cazcabel Jalapeño Tequila and combined it with a Zhug-inspired agave that carries on the fire-fuelled DNA of the food of the restaurant.’

Ingredients
35ml Cazcabel Jalapeño Tequila
35ml Zhug agave
15ml Ginger syrup
25ml Lime Juice

To make the zhug agave, blend coal-charred habanero chillies into agave syrup with parsley and coriander. Add to a cocktail shaker with the tequila, ginger syrup and lime juice and ice; shake hard, then strain into a chilled rocks glass with a homemade chilli salt rim. Top with a flamed Padron pepper (flamed right in front of your eyes at the restaurant), eat the Padron, sip the margarita and relish the kick to all your senses.

The Details
The Crazy Goose, 8 Boyce's Street, Brighton, BN1 1AN
01273 929079; thecrazygoose.co.uk

Out of Town: Dongnae, Bristol

Meg Houghton-Gilmour says, ‘Dongnae is the gifted and talented kid at school, who is always winning awards and making everyone else look bad. She’s infuriatingly talented, perfect at everything she turns her hand to, flawless, amazing. And you know the worst bit? You can’t even hate her, because she’s just so charming. She gets under your skin with her impeccable Korean barbecue and moreish banchan, she blows your mind with the flavours she’s fermented in the back yard. But trust me when I say Dongnae has not peaked in high school – she’s going to go all the way. Just you watch. You’d do well to befriend her now, before she makes A-list status.’

The details
Dongnae
5-7 Chandos Rd, Redland, Bristol BS6 6PG
dongnae.co.uk

Meg Houghton-Gilmour is the publisher of The Bristol Sauce.

In my repertoire: chef Anthony Raffo of Stem on fermentation

‘Fermentation elevates things to another level. When I had my restaurant in London, every dish had something fermented on it. If you’re creative, instead of it tasting off or funky, you can make it taste like something incredible. For example, I would ferment Crown Prince Pumpkin, blend it, add it to a stock syrup and make a sorbet. When you eat it, it tastes almost like a Solero - papaya, mango and passion fruit. And that came from just fermenting a squash.’

The details
Stem
41 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2BE
01273 435582; stemhove.co.uk

OctoberBest 2026 save the date

I am delighted to reveal exclusively to subscribers and readers of Serving Up that OctoberBest will return this year. It will run from Saturday 10th until Sunday 25th October. Full details of the line up, offers and how to book will also be revealed first in a future edition of Serving Up, so make sure you subscribe using the button below if you are not already signed up.

Brighton’s Best Restaurants Awards and guide 2026

Brighton’s Best Restaurants Awards 2026 will be announced on our Instagram account @brightonsbestrestaurants week commencing Monday 21 September and will build up to the reveal of our new website, guide and brand identity on 25 September. There will be no new 30 best list. In its place, will be a brand new awards scheme and guide designed to help you find the best restaurant for every occasion. Details of the awards scheme and how it works will appear in a special editon of Serving Up on Thursday 18 September, and a round up of all the results will appear in the newsletter dated 25 September, so be sure to subscribe to ensure you are among the first to know.

Brighton’s Best Restaurants new brand

This week, I’ve taken delivery of our new logo and all the related assets of Brighton’s Best Restaurants new brand identity. I genuinely cannot wait for you to see what designer Alex Olford of bread+butter has created. You will see it in every aspect of Brighton’s Best Restaurants, including the website, guide, awards, social media posts and window stickers. The new brand is ultra modern, colourful and striking; it gives us a cohesive identity and brings it bang up to date. I believe it will help us be perceived as the leading regional restaurant guide in the country.

I will of course be sad to see the original ‘bulbs’ logo go. It was concieved by BBR co-founder Euan MacDonald (Euan is no longer incolved with BBR) who initially offered it as a draft just to prompt other ideas but we all instantly loved it and stuck with it for a decade. Thanks Euan! The new brand will offically launch on 25 September with the new website, but aspects of the brand will be teased before then so keep an eye out here and on Instagram.

Jonathan Ray’s Wine Selection: Réserve de Gassac Rosé

In this ridiculous weather, it’s vital to keep up one’s liquid intake and, as I sit here sweltering, I can’t think of any fluid that I’m craving more than a large glass of this, ice cold.

A beautifully judged blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan from mighty, much-lauded, family-owned Mas de Daumas Gassac in the Pays d’Hérault, it’s deliciously approachable, full of wild strawberry fruit, a touch of spice and more than a hint of garrigue herbs.

The Guibert family make great wine – not for nothing is the estate known as the Lafite-Rothschild or Latour of the Languedoc – and put as much effort into this, their entry level, as they do their fabled top cuvées.

The Réserve de Gassac Rosé is the perfect vin de soif, available for £13.95 a bottle at Seven Cellars in Brighton Station or for £39 over lunch or dinner at peerless Wild Flor in Hove.

The details
2024 Réserve de Gassac Rosé, Langedoc (12.5%vol)
£13.95 (75cl) from Seven Cellars or drink in at Wild Flor for £39 (also available by the glass at £8 or 375ml carafe at £24.)

Jonathan Ray is the Brighton-based drinks editor of The Spectator and drinks columnist of The Field and Spear’s.

Brighton’s Best Dish: Baked cod with crab samosa at The Little Fish Market

Chef Duncan Ray has been producing memorable meals at his stylishly converted fishmongers since 2013. A recent visit proved that he’s in better form than ever, with a tasting menu that platformed spanking fresh sea food of the highest quality with panache and creativity. I particularly enjoyed the cod, baked to pearlescent perfection and served with a knock out one-two combination of a light curry sauce contrasted and lifted by a passion fruit gastrique. The Dorset crab samosa lent some crisp texture and yet more seafood flavour. Banging, as we food writers say.

The details
The Little Fish Market
10 Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS
01273 722 213; thelittlefishmarket.co.uk

Out of Town - Juniper, Arundel

I made a trip to Arundel last week to check in on a couple of Brighton expats. Matt Price, formerly head chef of The Coal Shed has opened The Townhouse restaurant with rooms with his wife Jennifer. They are doing great things there; the ten course tasting menu is brillliant. I’ll write more about them in a future edition of Serving Up after my review for the Observer Food Newsletter has run in a couple of weeks.

While we were in town, we took the opportunity to have breakfast at Juniper cafe and bakery. One of the partners there is chef and baker Ollie Darby, formerly of Wild Flor in Hove (I hope you got to try his dish of veal sweetbread, peas, almonds and sherry cream sauce while he was cooking there, it was historically good.) We were so impressed with our egg and bacon focaccia sandwiches (pictured above. I mean, just look at the rise on that! The crust and crumb were perfect; I’m not sure I’ve ever had better) that we took home a loaf of their sourdough (house bread at The Townhouse; it is superb) as well as some custard doughnuts, purely for research purposes of course. We are looking forward to returning to try their regualrly changing lunch menu that includes the likes of crab tagliatelle with courgette and basil. They also serve set menu dinners on evey third Thursday of the month. One for your diaries.

The details
Juniper
27 Tarrant Street, Arundel, West Sussex, BN18 9DG
07719 386405; juniperarundel.co.uk

It’s Brighton and Hove Pride this weekend (1st and 2nd August), the UK’s biggest Pride event. Raye and Diana Ross are headlining Pride On The Park in Preston Park but there’s plenty of food and drink on offer elsewhere in town worth singing about. B’Neen have a special takeaway menu on offer both days that features batata harra bowls - crispy spiced potatoes tossed with herbs and chilli with a choice of toppings including ras el hanout spiced chicken. Patio is celebrating its first Pride with passionfruit margaritas (2 for £16, available Saturday only). Patio’s outside space will be open from 11am-7pm with music all day. Stem are celebrating Pride with brunch, all-day DJs, cocktails, craft beer, wine, sunny snacks and say they are ‘generally spreading the Pride love.’ Shelter Hall is making a long weekend of it, starting this evening at 6pm with Drag Music Bingo hosted by Brighton drag royalty @kandikrushdrag & @the.amethystlove with a pint of @lonkerodrinks on arrival (18+). On Saturday and Sunday, expect DJs from 1pm–11pm (10pm Sun) and food from the hall’s seven kitchens. A Pride Bottomless Lunch is available on pre-booked tables. It’s going to be busy, but Shelter Hall say they will do their best to accommodate walk-ins. Finally, La Choza have created the DRAG-ON (see what they did there?), a dragon fruit margarita made with their house pour tequila @eljimadortequila.

Baby Bao opens in Kemptown

It’s been a decade since Adrian Geddes first traded under the name Baby Bao. He started out serving street food in 2015 at various spots in Brighton, including the late lamented Street Diner. Baby Bao is a well-established favourite at The Pond pub in Gloucester Road, where it will continue, but now has its own stand-alone premises on the former site of Chikini on George Street in Kemptown.

While there’s some cross over with The Pond, the launch menu at Kemptown has plenty of new (to us) items with a selection of five bao buns including soft-shell crab, fennel salad, taratar sauce (£8), grilled coconut tofu, som tam, green curry mayo, peanuts (£7.5) and crispy squash, house mayo, daikon (pictured above - £7.5), plus snacks such as grilled chicken skewers, coconut, peanut sauce (£9) and fried chicken ayam goreng, sambal (£11.50). Wines kick off at a very reasonable £26 for a bottle of Little Cricket Grüner Veltliner from Austria, plus there’s Lost and Grounded beers, and some spicy cocktails including a tamarind paloma.

The details
Baby Bao, 3 George Street, Kemptown, Brighton, BN2 1RH. 01273 787833
See Baby Bao’s Instagram account babybao_uk for opening times.

Chef Phil Bartley brings Plates to the old Gingerman site

Chef Phil Bartley (Carne, The Golden Lion Group) has announced that he is taking over the former site of The Gingerman in Norfolk Square and opening Plates in late August. The kitchen will be headed up by the former chef and sous chef of Dill in Lewes, which held a Bib Gourmand from Michelin before its closure earlier this year.

‘The Gingerman’s a bit of a Brighton institution, so we want to change it up a bit. It’s big shoes to fill,’ says Bartley. ‘It will be a small plates restaurant with sharing dishes as well. We’ve got Kieran and Max from Dill coming on board. It’s going to be quite eclectic. We’re sticking to local ingredients, so we’re going to be using a lot of dayboat fish. There will be lots of nice cocktails and a fully English wine list, mainly from Sussex. There will be some decent music, we’re going to put some nice speakers in. The main thing we want to do is relax it a little bit, make it a little bit more casual and a bit more affordable.’

The details
Plates, 21A Norfolk Square, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 2PD

Jonathan Ray’s Wine Selection: Foxglove Chardonnay

Well, goodness, isn’t this a little beauty? Produced by twin brothers Jim and Bob Varner (of Varner Wines fame) as part of their more approachable, easy-going Foxglove range, it’s a Chardonnay of immense style and extremely genial price (for Cal Chard). Made from top-quality grapes drawn from both Santa Barbara and Edna Valley, it spent three months in stainless steel on stirred lees to give a bit of oomph but is otherwise delightfully un-buggered about, with minimal intervention, no oak and no malolactic fermentation.

The result is deliciously poised and pure, more Burgundian than Californian, with fresh ripe citrus/pineapple fruit, a whisper of baked bread and just a touch of honey. It’s a perfect summer wine, yours to take away for £22.99 at Butlers Wine Cellar in Kemptown, or £51 to drink at your table at Fourth and Church in Hove, two fabulous establishments that should be on every wine lover’s list.

The details
2019 Foxglove Chardonnay, Central Coast, California (13.8%vol)
£22.99 (75cl) from Butlers Wine Cellar or £51 to drink in at Fourth and Church

Jonathan Ray is the Brighton-based drinks editor of The Spectator and drinks columnist of The Field and Spear’s.

Brighton’s Best Dish - Onion Ring Chaat at Kitgum

Kitgum opened in their new home in Hampton Place, just off Western Road, at the beginning of July. We gave them a week or two to bed in, then couldn’t resist booking in for lunch. They’ve done a great job with the place, with a bold purple colour scheme, smart bare wood tables and a large dining counter. There is also a DJ booth, now seemingly obligatory for all new Brighton restaurants.

From the concise menu of six snacks and eight plates, we enjoyed the crispy puris (£4 each) stuffed with tender pigeon peas and topped with either whipped cod’s roe or tahini (we’d recommend one of each, they are both ace); some excellent K.F.C. (which we assume stands for Kitgum Fried Chicken) with a spicy karahi sauce and mixed pickled salad (£14); a very tender bavette steak with an addictive scotch bonnet butter with a rounded fruity heat that won’t blow your head off; some fantastic Gujarati spiced potatoes and, just so we had enough carbs, a plump disc of pav (soft and fluffy Gujarati milk bread.)

We couldn’t miss out on the onion ring chaat, two of our favourite things brought together in a mad stroke of culinary fusion genius. About the size of a lifebuoy, it was a crunchy tamarind-tangy delight. We’d rush back for it, as well as the awesome-looking grilled lamb chops with kalio sauce. Owner Fayaz tells me that kalio is a meat curry, traditionally eaten at Ismaili weddings, and flavoured with saffron, yoghurt, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and burnt onion paste. I haven’t come across that dish before but can’t wait to try it.

The details
Kitgum, 3 Hampton Place, Brighton BN1 3DA
01273956751; kitgumkitchen.com

Out of Town - Burro, London

The critical consensus about upmarket Italian resaurant Burro in Covent Garden has been overwhelming positive, verging on ecstatic. The first solo project from chef Conor Gadd, co-owner of the much-loved Islington Italian restaurant Trullo, has been lavished with praise. Grace Dent called the duck and porcini ragu ‘possibly one of the best dishes currently being served in this pasta-stuffed postcode’ while the Observer’s food editor Holly O’Neill described it as ‘an urbane West End restaurant with the warmth of a local favourite’. William Sitwell said it is ‘crazily good’ and Tom Parker Bowles proclaimed Burro ‘an utter delight’ and ‘up there with the best’. In his typically restrained manner, Giles Coren said, ‘This is great, rustic Italian in a beautiful airy space with plenty of easy West End glamour. One for the ages.’

So when we booked in for a Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago, we knew it couldn’t possibly live up to all that hype. All we wanted was a couple of plates of pasta, some nice wine and a relaxing time. We got all that, and a lot more. Burro is an absolute stunner. It’s hidden away in a courtyard close to Covent Garden market. There’s a lovely secluded terrace for al fresco dining, but, because this was out first visit, we really wanted to experience the dining room.

The press release says Burro is “part Irish country house kitchen, part 1950s Italian bistro” but the expansive high-ceilinged room felt more sophisticated-Manhatten to me. It’s a beautiful space with walls painted in faded red and dusty yellow hung with plenty of artwork, including a work by Gadd’s fellow Irishman Dan Ferguson. Well spaced tables are covered in white linen and the mid-century chairs and velvet banquettes add more comfort and style. We started with drinks at the bar that overlooks the courtyard. There are fully laid up tables too, probably used as overflow, but I’d be tempted to request one when we return (as we surely will) as it’s such a lovely space.

The food is simple but incrediby delicious. A panzanella featured some of the ripest, most flavorsome tomatoes I’ve ever eaten in this country, and was bursting with summer flavours. Courgette and tender squid fritti came with an aioli as rich and velvety as the banquette I was sitting on. But it was the pasta dishes, Gadd’s speciality, that stole the show. The strozzapretti alla gricia was a materclass in Roman minimalisim. Dressed only in a sauce made of rendered guanciale (cured pork jowl), black pepper, pasta cooking water, and Pecorino Romano, the depth of flavour was extraordinary. The hand rolled pasta ropes had an extraordinary texture too; firm and slightly chewy that made them very pleasurable to eat. The fettucini with duck and porcini ragu is a riff on the Trullo signature dish of pappardelle with beef shin ragu and is bound to become a Burro signature too. Not an obviously summery dish like the panzanella, it nevertheless hit the spot with it’s rich meaty intensity.

We skipped secondi, but only because we’d already eaten well, not because Gloucester Old Spot pork chop, borlotti beans and salsa verde or rabbit saddle with slow cooked green beans, chicken liver and confit tomato didn’t appeal. Next time for sure. The tiramisu doughnuts we shared to finish were underwhelming; a little on the stodgy side, perhaps underproved. But they were nevertheless enjoyable. If you’re not an expert in Italian wines, you may want to do a little research before you go or you’ll be in three figure territory before you know it. However, Cantina Andrian, ‘Finado’ Pinot Bianco 2024 at £48 was good value for such an elegant wine.

Burro might be flavour of the month but it has timeless classic written all over it. Service is utterly charming but runs with the efficiency of a Michelin star restaurant. I’m not going to claim Gadd makes the best pasta in London, because there are so many great Italian restaurants in London that I’ve never been to (Trullo included, I need to put that right) that I’m simply not qualified to do so. But what I can say is that I’ll remember that strozzapretti in particular for a very long time. Burro was an absolute joy and I’d return in a heartbeat.

The details
Burro, 2 Floral Court, Floral Street, London, WC2E 9FB
0204 580 1495; trattoriaburro.com

Curing Rebels co-owner and former chef Will Murgatroyd began making his own charcuterie more than 15 years ago in the cellars at his Hove restaurant The Meadow, inspired by Stephen Harris at The Sportsman in Kent. After the restaurant closed, he continued to make charcuterie for his events business The Herb Kitchen. In 2020, when COVID hit and no events could be held, he pivoted and founded Curing Rebels with fellow chef Richard Judd. The business has recently moved into a larger space at the Hove Enterprise Centre near Hove Lagoon which is now HQ for both Curing Rebels and The Herb Kitchen.

What’s behind the name Curing Rebels?
I think there’s just got to be a rebellious edge to charcuterie; that’s kind of what we’ve always thought about it. We’re not trying to be wacky with flavours, that’s never our intention. We just go for flavours that work really well together.

What are some of your favourite products at the moment?
Goan beer sticks, which is a snacking salami, great with a cold beer and perfect for when you’re watching the World Cup. It’s based on a pork vindaloo recipe inspired by Alan Sperring’s pork knuckle vindaloo at The Chilli Pickle. We do a Basque-influenced pork loin which is one of Richard’s brainchilds. It’s cured in pimenton and cuttlefish ink for around three weeks and the smoked for four or five days. It’s then aged for about four months. It’s a really amazing product. It’s the one that everyone goes back to all the time.

I believe that pizza is quite a big thing for Curing Rebels?
We work with Fatto a Mano in Brighton. In London, we supply Weezie’s, a new pizza restaurant in Eccleston Yards near Victoria. We’re very much focused on quality pepperoni, using great produce for it. We want to use really good welfare supply chains for it. We’re not overly fussed on it being a perfectly cupping pepperoni and things like that. It’s more about flavour balance and texture. We’ve got a few more pizza products coming out later on this year. I think the pizza industry in the UK is epic right now. The quality of the pizzas in the UK are comparable to New York and Naples. I think there’s some brilliant producers here now.

How did you get involved in Curio bar in Preston Circus?
Myself, Ollie Hyde of The Flower Pot and Paul Gibson of Curio Wines and Spirits have been friends for a long time. We did a pop-up together a few years ago called Night Shift at Seven Dials where the Gail’s bakery site is now. We were looking for a permanent site, and then Curio came up. It was a project just do something fun together. It’s been good to get the Curing Rebels name out to everyone in Brighton, and it kind of just grew from there really. It’s been open two years now, and we’re gradually elevating the offering there as we’re growing. It’s still bar-led, but we know that there’s an opportunity to have a bit more of a food offering in there, not just charcuterie.

How can people learn more about how to make their own charcuterie?
We do workshops. They’re on Saturday mornings. They’re great fun. Between four and six people come in, have a quick cup of tea and then make some salami and have a great time.

The details
Curing Rebels
Unit 13, Hove Enterprise Centre, Basin Rd North, Brighton BN41 1WR
curingrebels.com

Curio
1 Clyde Road, Brighton, BN1 4NN
01273 457719; curio.cafe

Brighton’s Best Dish - Smoked Lamb Ribs at B’Neen

To be honest, we could have picked any one of the sharing dishes from our recent lunch at B’Neen at The Star pub for this feature. Husband and wife team Sarah and Salim describe their food as ‘Middle Eastern x North African x Mediterranean inspired small plates’; we’d describe it as uniformly delicious. Za’tar fried chicken with spicy mayo was crunchy and tender in all the right places; mushroom and celeriac shawarma tacos were a revelation and an absolute flavour bomb with smoked tomato confit, pickle, lemon tahini sauce and B’Neen’s own chilli crisp; and courgette, feta and chickpea fritters with preserved lemon and herb yoghurt were a very superior riff on falafel.

But we’ve chosen the smoked lamb ribs because, according to a recent post on their Instagram account, the ribs have been one of their most popular specials since day one and they’ve now earned their place on B’Neen’s new summer menu. It’s easy to see why: meltingly tender, subtly smoky meat, layered with flavourful fat, contrasting with a sweet pomegranate glaze and whipped labneh for lactic freshness. Sweet smoky meaty dreams are made of this. At £14.50, the ribs are the most expensive thing on the menu, with nearly everything else priced at £10 or under. Oh, and you must order the sticky toffee pudding with clotted vanilla ice cream (we shared one between two) it is ace. There are sea views, recently refurbished and cosy surroundings, great beers and great service. If you haven’t yet been to B’Neen, you are in for a real treat.

The details
B’Neen at The Star
16-17 Kings Rd, Brighton, BN1 1NE
starandgarterbrighton.com

Jonathan Ray’s Wine selection:
Everflyht Wylde

A brand new addition to England’s wine scene, a sparkling rosé from the excellent single estate that is Everflyht, Ditchling, in the South Downs National Park.

A blend of Chardonnay and Pinots Noir, Meunier and Gris, it’s made by the Charmat or Prosecco method rather than the traditional or Champagne method, but don’t look down your beak at it because you’d have to have a heart of stone or be the snootiest of wine snobs not to be seduced by its cool packaging, it’s sexy pale pink hue and its vibrant, juicy, wild strawberry fruit.

It’s a wine for beach parties, picnics, barbecues and, well, just hanging out, and if a jaded old soak like me - hardly its target market - finds it irresistible, then I imagine you will too. Just £22 a bottle retail, it can be enjoyed on the terrace at Babble on Hove seafront for a very genial £8.50 a glass or £38 a bottle.

The details
Everflyht Wylde (11.5%vol)
£22 per 75cl bottle from everflyht.com
Also available at Butlers Wine Cellar, priced £25

Jonathan Ray is the Brighton-based drinks editor of The Spectator and drinks columnist of The Field and Spear’s.

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club:
The Therapist by Janis Zemnikis at Kindling

Order at the bar or make at home

The Therapist is one of the signature summer cocktails at Kindling restaurant. Bartender Janis wanted to create something fresh and summery, with tropical fruit balanced by a hint of almond and cherry. And the name? Well, everyone needs a therapist now and then, and Janis likes to think there’s no better therapist in town.

Ingredients
20ml Cherry Maraschino Liqueur
15ml Bacardi Blanco
15ml Disaronno
25ml Lime Juice
20ml Sugar Syrup
50ml Pineapple Juice

Method
Shake all ingredients with ice, then double-strain into a chilled large coupe. Garnish with three drops of bitters and a dehydrated orange slice.

Out of Town: Lyla, Edinburgh

If you are looking to celebrate in style, there are few better places than Lyla. Chef Stuart Ralston’s elegant restaurant with rooms, set in a magnificent Georgian townhouse in central Edinburgh, currently holds a Michelin star, is rated ‘Exceptional’ by the Good Food Guide and appeared at 33 in this year’s National Restaurant Awards top 100 list. Ralston appeared on Great British Menu, and his CV includes Gordon Ramsay’s 2 Michelin-starred restaurant in New York (now closed) and a stint as chef de cuisine at Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados. In addition to Lyla, Ralston also runs the more casual Noto, Tipo and Vinette restaurants as well as Vivien cocktail bar, all in Edinburgh.

The ten-course tasting menu began in the beautiful bar with its centrepiece ceiling light designed by Tom Dixon and glass-fronted ageing cabinets with ingredients for the menu, including Yorkshire rump of beef and whole kingfish on display, as well as jars of ferments and pickles. A series of three snacks included an Alp Blossom cheese, onion and quince ‘sandwich’, painstakingly decorated with edible flowers.

That sort of attention to detail was maintained as the meal continued in the elegant dining room where you can see Ralston and his team at work in the large open kitchen. Highlights of the meal included kingfish with katsuoboshi and dashi (a black radish ‘rose’ interwoven with slices of kingfish and served with a potent dashi stock); langoustine “fish and chips” (a plump langoustine cooked in katifi pastry with burnt apple ketchup taking the place of HP sauce); an umami-packed and perfectly set chawanmushi with pea and ham, and a stunnng dish of finely sliced squid seved in a deeply flavoured onion and pepper broth.

Lyla is without question one of the best restaurants in the country and in the top echelon of fine dining alongside places like Core by Clare Smyth, Moor Hall and Woven at Coworth Park. It’s not a cheap night out by any means, but it really delivers a special and memorable experience. It’s one I hope to repeat soon.

The details
Lyla
3 Royal Terrace, Edinburgh EH7 5AB
0131 285 8808; lylaedinburgh.co.uk

Lyla has re-launched their accomodation with four completely refurbished and individually designed rooms. They make the perfect base for exploring the city. You are in the New Town, a few minutes’ walk from Queen Street and right in the heart of the city, yet tucked away in a beautiful Georgian terrace, sequestered with a sense of calmness and quiet that feels special.

Dinner starts from £185 per head. Overnight stays for two including dinner are £715, while room-only rates begin at £345, both including breakfast. Bookings can be made at lylaedinburgh.co.uk.

Brighton’s Best Restaurants dined and stayed at Lyla as a guest of the house.

And the winner is . . .

Thanks once again to everyone who took the time to nominate their favourite places to eat for Brighton’s Best Restaurants Awards 2026. Further news about the awards, our new website with searchable restaurant guide, and OctoberBest will be announced soon. From the nominations, we identified those who also subscribe to this newsletter. We put all those email addresses into a spreadsheet and used a random number generator to select a line. That line was 22, and the winner is Lisa Overton. Congratulations to Lisa, who will receive three Phaidon cookbooks, a pack of goodies from Curing Rebels, a distillery tour from Brighton Gin and a gift pack of Ridgeview English sparkling wines. Our thanks to all of them for their amazing generosity. If you want to be eligible to enter future subscriber-only competitions, use the button below to sign up for free.

How did you get into hospitality?
I was born in Brighton so Voya always felt like a homecoming for me. I was in London for best part of two decades. I started up there as a graphic design student but I started working in bars very soon after arriving. By my second year of uni, I was running one of the very first All Star Lanes bars, one of the foremost bars in London, certainly for a whiskey collection. I found myself in charge of a really high level team at a very young age and it propelled me into what was a love affair with hospitality, but bars have always been the foremost string to my bow.

I was running high volume bars such as The Box and then working for Michel Roux Jnr in his first bar above his Roux Parliment Square restaurant. It was a nice opportunity for me to understand a bit more about the food world. The kitchen was run by Professional MasterChef winner Steve Groves, and there was a certain Jamie Halsall working as a sous chef, who is now at Cin Cin. I was head bartender and bar manager at Hawksmoor Spitalfields at the time when it was on the verge of winning its first awards as the best restaurant bar in Tales of Cocktail festival. I then worked as a consultant for various spirit brands, running experiential events, but primarily becoming a drink stylist and then ending up being a drinks developer for various restaurants and I did that for about seven years.

How did Voya come about?
Lockdown was the great leveler, it was a chance to come back to Brighton, spend some time with family, and that’s how Voya began. My passion for the crossover between hospitality, food, drinks and music had really been cultivated over years of being in London when we used to run parties in Peckham. We had a lot of vinyl at that time, a lot of big record collections. We wanted to try and build a sense of ‘let’s go out and dance as well as be part of the food and drinks world’, and that paved the way for how Voya was set up. We’ve always talked about trying to merge a classical cocktail bar with small sharing pan-European/Asian plates and set up a DJ booth that isn’t just a trestle table in the corner and with the right acoustics and the right intention of the thing.

At the start of Voya, we were only doing week on, week off, two services per month and we kind of created a rod for our own back. People weren’t quite sure when we were open and then it became this elusive beast. Although we’ve been open for a couple of years now, our full time service only started last July, so we’re approaching our first birthday of permanency. I feel that the foundation of Voya is a more stable and we’re here to stay.

I run this fifty-fifty with Elina who used to run Oseta cafe which was previously on the site that is now Voya. Out head chef is Tom Hardy, and yes, that really is his name, who has worked at places like Plateau, The Set and El Bollilo (now Mare). We’ve got Ed Warner who is effectively a general manager for us here. One day he’s sous-sommelier to me and the next day he’s supporting Tom in the kitchen as a sous chef. He’s a dancer by trade and a wonderful floor server by nature.

Music is a key element of Voya and the fusion of cocktail bar with small plates and DJ booth that you’ve pioneered in Brighton has proved to be very influential in the cityn. Do you have a favourite genre of music or a favourite artist at the moment that you particularly love?
At the moment, one of the things that I’m really most moved by is a label called Gondwana, which is run by Matthew Halsall. Anything on that label is brilliant. In particular, I would say there’s some wonderful interpretive flute jazz coming out from the likes of Chip Wickham, who is originally from Brighton. An album to listen to during our setup and breakdown at Voya is often Matthew Halsall’s An Ever Changing View - an incredible blend of spiritual electronica and jazz to keep us grounded.

Are you a coffee or tea person and how do you take it?
I am a coffee person and I take it strong and I take it milky. My usual order is a cortado. Brighton has an unbelievable wealth of brilliant coffee shops and coffee roasters, but when I think about locality and quality, I think mostly about Coffee at 33. The owner Taras is Ukrainian and has been on Trafalgar Street for quite a long time. He has another place in Lisbon and he’s just opened 33 Ways near to Preston Park. I think what those guys are doing there on a micro scale with minimalism and real curiosity and quality is really impressive. They bring in interesting single varieties, they roast their own beans and they bake a lot of their own pastries. We actually serve their house espresso here at Voya. That’s my kind of coffee.

What’s your go to restaurant in Brighton?
A Persian restaurant called Shayan on Western Road. They are quietly doing delicious food in a very traditional sense. There’s always a seat and you go there knowing that you’re going to get looked after with a little bit of love.

What is the next restaurant on your hit list?
The Plimsoll in Finsbury Park, London. I think what’s a really interesting space at the moment is the way that pubs are evolving into more simplistic food bistros again but with slightly more considered plating. It’s not so much the gastropub reemergence, but it’s kind of a new version of that, which is quite fun. One of the most comfortable places you could possibly be at is in a pub, and I think places like The Plimsoll are really leading the charge.

What do you think is the best food destination in the world?
I’m a sucker for French cuisine, but in particular, I think Marseille is an amazing place for food. It has been a real eye-opener for me in terms of its mixed cuisine with elements of North African and coastal French. It’s just a wonderfully expressive, vibrant place to go and have food and just explore.

What is your drink of choice?
If it’s a cocktail, then A classic daiquiri - as simple as a good white rum, lime and sugar. That’s really the perfect beverage. Otherwise, nothing quite beats a really well-made, long fermented pilsner or kolch.

Who do you most admire in the restaurant industry?

I think there’s a lot to be learned from Danny Meyer’s school of thought and his book Setting The Table. His restaurants, like Union Square Cafe in New York, have always been a big inspiration regarding the hospitality style that I’ve always talked about. It’s enlightened hospitality; about having an emotional, empathetic connection to every person that comes into the same space that you occupy.

The details
Voya
34 North Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1YB
voyabrighton.co.uk

Brighton’s Best Dish: Malay Fried Chicken at Baby Bao

You’ll no doubt have tried the bao buns at Baby Bao at The Pond. The Classic Gua bao, filled with with braised free range pork belly, cucumber, peant and spring onion and the Confit Duck with hoisin, cucumber and spring onion were as light, fluffly and delicious as always when we visited last week. But perhaps even better was the Malay style fried chicken - super crispy, and served with a rich condensed milk-based sauce, balanced with plenty of chilli, garlic, lime and fragrant curry leaves. It was insanely great. We’d also highly recommend pairing it with the Baby Bao chips, the quintessential ‘loaded fries’ topped with an umami bomb combo of miso mayo, sriracha, hoisin, peanuts and spring onions. Just to make the whole thing even more appealing, during the World Cup, The Pond are offering Unbarred Brewery pints at £5 a pop. Back of the net.

The details
Baby Bao at The Pond
49 Gloucester Rd, Brighton BN1 4AQ
01273 974174; thepondbrighton.com

Jonathan Ray’s Wine of the Month:
2025 Herència Altés Garnatxa Blanca

Blink-and-you-miss-it Brunswick Fine Wines, a few doors down from the Theatre Royal, is a joy. As befits the 2023 Decanter Best Regional Wine Shop, South-East, it has some extremely tasty bottles on its shelves and, with prices starting at around 12 quid a bottle and going up to £8,420 (for 1893 Ch. d’Yquem since you ask), there’s something for pretty much everyone.

This little charmer, which features on the lists of both The Crazy Goose and the hidden Japanese gem that is Fumi in Circus Street, is right up my alley. Made from organically grown Garnatxa Blanca by Rafael de Haan and Núriá Altés (brother and sister-in-law of Brunswick’s co-owner, Carlos de Haan), in Terra Alta, Spain, it’s fresh and creamy with white blossom on the nose and plenty of waxy peach, apple and apricot on the palate. It’s disarmingly drinkable and goes as well with TCG’s upmarket pub fare as it does with Fumi’s posh sushi.

The details
2025 Herència Altés Garnatxa Blanca (13%vol)
18.95 per bottle (or £12.12 if you buy 6)
Available from Brunswick Fine Wines, New Road, Brighton and online at brunswickfinewines.com

Jonathan Ray is drinks editor of The Spectator, drinks columnist of The Field and Spear’s, former wine editor of both The Daily Telegraph and GQ and author of a dozen best-selling books on wines and spirits. He has a PhD in history and lives in Brighton.

Get to Apairy before it closes in August

We were very sad to see Alistair Bell’s recent Instagram post annoucing the closure of Apiary, the restaurant and cocktail bar he opened with his wife Noemi in 2024. In an emotional piece to camera, Bell explained that Saturday 29th August will be their last service and that the reason for closure was that ‘we’re simply not busy enough to keep going . . . .Everything’s expensive, which would be fine if we were busy, it would help us cover our costs, but quite simply not enough people are coming through the door.’

If you can, get down to Apiary to sample their wonderful ‘honey laced food and drink’ (the Bells are bee keepers and will continue to offer their Bee Experience Days) before the 29 August and help give Apiary the send off it deserves. The news comes in a week when The Guardian reported that ‘nearly 25% of pubs and restaurants lose money’, trade magazine The Caterer said that ‘one in six hospitality businesses are at risk of closure’ and the Tom Kerridge fronted VATs The Problem campaign launched to the public. Andy Burnham has made some hospitality industry-friendly noises but it’s still a matter of wait and see what he actually does if elected. So don’t wait around for politicians to make up their minds, do your bit and order a Honeygroni or two at Apiary. See you there.

The details
The Apiary
50 Norfolk Square, Brighton, BN1 2PA
07517087072; apiary.co.uk

Awards update

Thanks to the many hundreds of you that have nominated your favourite restaurants in Brighton and Hove for Brighton’s Best Restaurants Awards 2026. I’ll announce the winner of our £300 food and drink bundle of goodies in the next newsletter. All the nominations will now be considered by the our expert culinary panel headed up by me. The restaurants invited to take part in OctoberBest this year will be notified as soon as possible and we’ll announce the line up once they have confirmed their participation. Then, in early September we will announce the awards, which will have a brand new format this year, to go along with our new brand identity, new website and restaurant guide. It’s all very exciting and I hope you are going to be wowed by our new look and format, which I hope will raise the profile of Brighton’s independent restaurants even higher and making finding the perfect restaurant for any occasion much easier.

Andy Lynes
Director and founder of Brighton’s Best Restaurants

Out of Town: Wangs, Bristol

If you need to show someone that Chinese isn’t just chow mein and sweet and sour chicken, take them to Wangs. This feel-good, neighbourhood joint has taken Bristol by storm since the couple behind it renovated what was previously a fruit and veg shop, and with the recent arrival of an authentic Cantonese charcoal roasting oven shipped over from China, it’s only going from strength to strength. The menu reads like a mission to redefine regional Chinese cooking - make sure you order the pan fried turnip cake and the house pickles, all washed down with a Sichuan-inspired cocktail, of course.

The details
Wangs
66 Bath Buildings, Montpelier, Bristol, BS6 5PU
wangsnoods.com

Review by Meg Houton-Gilmour of The Bristol Sauce.

You will almost certainly have seen the Tom Kerridge-fronted VAT’s The Problem campaign for a cut in the rate of VAT for hospitality businesses to 10%. Not everyone is convinced it’s the ideal solution (Dan Neidle of Tax Policy Associates has written a lengthy article about the issue that posits some interesting alternatives), but what the campaign does extremely well is bring into focus the increasingly dire situation that the hospitality industry finds itself in. A perfect storm of rising operating costs, increases in tax and wages, and reduced consumer spending means profit margins are being squeezed like never before, and businesses across the country are closing at an alarming rate.

Chef Dave Mothersill of Furna (pictured above) recently posted on Instagram that, ‘I’ve realised that there’s no shame in admitting that keeping afloat in this industry is, at the minute, extremely difficult. Business is really fu**ing tough . . . .our bookings are down and our costs are higher than they have ever been, by a wide margin . . . . the long and short of it is that we need to be busier.’ James Thomson of Wild Flor in Hove replied, ‘Could copy and paste this across the City, I’d imagine. It’s a horror show at the moment’, and mangetoutbrighton commented, ‘Good people of Brighton and surrounding areas please support your independent restaurants or they will be gone. 😢 every pound spent literally makes a difference.’

The cost-of-living crisis means that for many people, disposable income is harder to come by than in previous years and eating out has become a less frequent activity. But if you have the means, now really is the time to get out and eat. If you’ve been thinking that you’d love to try out a recently opened restaurant but haven’t yet got there, or that it’s been too long since you visited an old favourite, it’s time to make that booking or chance a walk-in.

I’ve been running Brighton’s Best Restaurants for a decade and have been writing about restaurants for nearly 30 years. I know that what makes a restaurant great is the passion of the people behind it. Yes, they are entrepreneurs, they are business people, they are skilled chefs and front-of-house personnel who go to work to earn a living, but they also love what they do and really care about their customers. So go on, show Brighton’s restaurants you love them too and take advantage of some of the great value menus and offers that are available right now.

Below is just a sample of what’s available (apologies to any restaurants I’ve left out. Drop me a message and I’ll aim to include you in a future issue), so follow Brighton’s Best Restaurants and all your favourite restaurants on Instagram for all the latest news. Then, in years to come, when someone asks, ‘What did you do in the great hospitality crisis of 2026?’, you can look them squarely in the eye and reply, ‘I had a really, really good time’.

And just a reminder that there’s still time to support your favourite local restaurants by nominating them for Brighton’s Best Restaurants Awards 2026 by using this link. Anyone can nominate, but only subscribers to Serving Up will be entered into the draw to win a bundle of food and drink goodies worth £300, courtesy of Curing Rebels, Ridgeview, Brighton Gin and Phaidon cookbooks. If you’re not already a subscriber, use the button below to sign up, we’d really appreciate your support.

The menus and offers

B’NEEN at The Star

Given that seafront pub The Star is from the same people behind The Pond (home of Baby Bao) and The Hampton (Easy Tiger), it’s no surprise they’ve got a cracking resident kitchen. B’NEEN offers the flavours of North African, Middle Eastern, and the wider Mediterranean cooked up by husband and wife team Salim and Sarah. The keenly priced menu of sharing dishes starts at £6.5 for whipped labneh topped with seasonal vegetables and also includes crispy chicken wings with honey harissa butter sauce (£9).
Book at starandgarterbrighton.com

The Chilli Pickle - Sunday Indian BBQ

The Chilli Pickle are launching their brand new Sunday Indian BBQ just in time for Father’s Day this weekend. The £29 per person menu sounds incredible and includes papdi chaat vindaloo butter wings, BBQ king prawns and much more. Enjoy on the restaurant’s sun roof terrace. Available this Sunday 21st June and every Sunday after.
Book at thechillipickle.com

Food by Howie x The Roundhill - Pasta and Wine Wednesday

Food By Howie are busy. No sooner had they taken over the kitchens at The Greenhouse in Hove, they’ve announced that they are the new owners of the much loved Roundhill Pub. There’s an all new 100% vegan menu that includes dishes such as chard harissa hispy cabbage with butter bean cream (£10) and on Wednesdays, any pasta and a glass of any wine costs just £10. And they’re showing the World Cup footie, if that’s your sort of thing.
Book at theroundhill.co.uk

The Flint House - weekday set lunch menu

The Gingerman group’s celebrated small plates restaurant has always been great value (I can’t get enough of their sweetcorn fritters with jalepeno mayo (£6)), but did you know that they offer a weekday set lunch menu that’s just £15 for two courses and £22 for three? Salt cod croquette with garlic aioli followed by roast aubergine, tahini dressing, pomegranate, ricotta salad and crispy buckwheat sounds pretty damn fine to us. And make sure you bag a space on the roof terrace.
Book at flinthousebrighton.com

Furna - Table 35

From Thursday 2nd July, fine dinning restaurant Furna are offering Table 35; that’s 10 seasonal sharing plates at £35 per person. Available for tables of 1–8 guests, the larger the table, the more generous the sharing plates. You can also add 3 cocktails for £35. Available every Wednesday and Thursday after the launch date.
Book at furnarestaurant.co.uk

The Hole in The Wall Street Party Saturday 20th June with food by No No Please and Sugardough

The rather brilliant The Hole in The Wall pub are celebrating their 5th anniversary from today with a weekend of activities including a street party tomorrow (Saturday 20th June). No No Please are breaking out the BBQ and offering the likes of Szechuan ribs, aubergine ribs and Singapore smash pots. Prices are to be confirmed but we’re sure they’ll be great value. What we do know for sure is that NNP have teamed up with the wonderful Sugardough on a chicken larb sausage roll collab which sounds like a winner at just £4 each. There’s just 100 available so arrive early. The fun starts at midday with food available from 12.30pm until it runs out. Check out theholeinthewallbtn for the full schedule of events for the weekend.

The Hole in the Wall, Queensbury Mews, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 2FE. 01273763961.

The Set - MAD menu Wednesdays

The Set are now settled in to their smart new digs on the former Kitgum site, a few doors up from where they were at Café Rust. A recent meal saw chefs Dan and Marcin cooking their socks off; they are arguably producing their best ever food. You won’t want to miss the full experience, 15+ courses for £99, but if you’re after a bargain, the 6-8 course MAD menu served on Wednesdays costs just £45 and might include salt beef with fermented Chilli Hollandaise.
Book at thesetrestaurant.com

Stem - canapé menu

Many congratulations to Stem for their inclusion in the Michelin guide this week. Help them celebrate by indulging in their canape menu. Priced at £5 per canapé, the choice includes chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche and red onion and cured trout with lemon gel and sprout kimchi.
Book at stemhove.co.uk

The Vine House - new a la carte menu

The Vine House is the brand new wine bar, restaurant and wine shop opening in Kemptown today with a menu by Wild Flor. With main courses starting at £14 for paccheri pasta with vine tomato, capers, samphire and chilli (pictured above) and lighter options including a charcuterie board, courtesy of Hove-based Curing Rebels, from just £7, it looks great value. They’ve also been blessed with great weather for their launch, which makes their spacious south-facing garden a must-visit destination this weekend. See you there!
Book at thevine.house

They’re finally here! After much thought and planning, I’m delighted to be able to announce that Brighton’s Best Restaurants Awards 2026 is happening. And for the first time in our 10-year history, we’re asking you, yes you, to help us collate our list of the 30 best restaurants in Brighton. It’s really easy, just follow this link by Friday 19th June, fill out the form telling us where you enjoyed your three best meals in Brighton since January 2025, and the Brighton’s Best Restaurants culinary panel, headed up by me, Andy Lynes, will do the rest. Your nominations will also be used to help build the new Brighton’s Best Restaurants guide and have a significant influence on which restaurants are invited to take part in OctoberBEST this year.

You can nominate any independent restaurant located within the Brighton and Hove city limits that offers dinner at least part of the week. It could be a pub, pizza joint or fine-dining restaurant, but daytime cafes that only open for breakfast and lunch will not be considered. Takeaways are also not eligible. To be clear, the restaurants cannot be part of a large national chain, although restaurant groups native to Brighton are eligible, and the restaurant must still be trading (sadly, we’ve lost a few since our last awards). And of course, no self-noms allowed! If you have time, there’s space on the form for you to tell us about why you love your nominated places. We’d love to hear about what you think makes Brighton’s restaurant scene so exciting.

Anyone can use the link, so please feel free to spread it far and wide, but only subscribers to Serving Up will be entered into the prize draw and be in the chance of winning a bundle of food and drink goodies worth over £300, including a Ridgeview Signature Trio gift pack of award-winning English sparkling wines, a Brighton Gin distillery tour, some fabulous charcuterie from Brighton-based Curing Rebels and three Phaidon cookbooks. If you’re not a subscriber, please use the button below to subscribe for free.

Here’s a reminder of the link to nominate once more and the deadline of Friday 19th June. We can’t wait to hear about where you’ve been eating.

Andy Lynes
Founder and co-director
Brighton’s Best Restaurants

Curio x MED BBQ

The brilliant MED boys are back for a one-day pop-up at Curio Cafe near Preston Circus on Sunday 24 May. The BBQ-based menu will include BBQ mackerel with pineapple and tomato samba, pork tenderloin with cowboy butter, flatbreads and lots of other delights. Unmissable.

The details
Sunday 24th May from 12pm until sell out (estimated to be around 6pm, after which Curio will be offering their usual menu)
Book a table at curio.cafe or email hello@curio.cafe
Find out more here

Curio
1 Clyde Road, Brighton, BN1 4NN
01273 457719; curio.cafe

Food By Howie at The Greenhouse, Hove

Just in time for the holiday weekend, Food by Howie has moved location from The Greys to The Greenhouse in Hove. They say to ‘Expect Brunch. Plates. Grills. Seafood. £2 oysters flying out all weekend long. Cold beers. Big flavours & chilled vibes on the terrace.’ To celebrate, Howie is offering 50% off food vouchers (for example, a £50 voucher will cost £25) valid at Food by Howie venues for the next six months.

The details
For full details of the voucher offer, click here.
Find out more about Food By Howie here

The Greenhouse
55 Church Rd, Brighton and Hove, Hove BN3 3AJ
thegreenhousebrighton.com

Tandoori Chicken and Chips at The Chilli Pickle

Just when you thought The Chilli Pickle’s menu couldn’t get any more tempting, they pull out yet another irresistible dish. Half a tandoori chicken, a pot of tikka gravy and Gunpowder fries or House salad for £18. That should make anyone’s Bank Holiday. You can even eat it while soaking up the sun on the restaurant’s roof terrace.

The details
Find out more here
The Chilli Pickle
6-8 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB
01273 442893; thechillipickle.com

The Caper Berritini at Fourth and Church

The Martini of the week for the Bank Holiday at Fourth and Church is the Caper Berritini. They say: ‘Rich Mikolasch corn vodka from the Ukraine receives a cheeky lift with rosemary and preserved lemon infused caper berry brine. Pulled together with a dash of Cocchi Extra Dry. This nod to the infamous dirty martini is packed with fresh acidity, salinity and naughtiness. Just how we like it. Best served with a gilda of anchovy, vodka preserved cherry tomato, pickled onion and anchovy-stuffed olive.’

The details
Find out more here
Fourth and Church
84 Church Rd, Brighton and Hove, Hove BN3 2EB
01273 724709; fourthandchurch.co.uk

La Pizza Francese at Fatto a Mano

The latest Fatto a Mano special, La Pizza Francese, is inspired by tarte flambée, the Alsatian flatbread that’s traditionally topped with fromage blanc, onions and bacon lardons. It’s been created in collaboration with acclaimed chef Neil Borthwick of The French House in Soho and made with smoked pork lardons, beurre blanc, shallots, camembert, fior di latte, heritage tomato tartare and tarragon. £1 from every pizza goes to help fund Soho Parish School and is available at all branches of Fatto a Mano until 28th June.

The details
Find out more here
Fatto a Mano
77 London Rd, Brighton, BN1 4JF
01273 600621; fattoamanopizza.com
(There are also branches in North Laine and Church Road, Hove. See the website for full details)

Ricekiller Pop-Up at Voya

We have to admit that Ricekiller is something of a mystery to Brighton’s Best Restaurants. Their Instagram account is entertainingly obscure, but what we can tell you with some certainty is that the menu for their two week ‘⁡fusion filth popup’ at Voya sounds absolutely banging. Who could resist dongpo bourguignon (pork belly, dongpo glaze, bourguignon reduction) or currywurst musbi (bratwurst, curry ketchup, lard rice, seaweed, mustard)? Drinks, including a Tokyo Collins with gin, sake, lemon, yuzu, passionfruit and grapefruit oleo, are equally enticing.

The details
Find out more here
Ricekiller pop up is on now and selected dates until 31 May. Book at voyabrighton.co.uk

Voya
34 North Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1YB
voyabrighton.co.uk

The Lowdown with Alun Sperring of The Chilli Pickle

What is your earliest food memory?
My mom was a functional cook. She was working jobs and busy fostering extra kids, but she used to make beautiful Welsh cakes that we always ate hot with melting salty butter. My mom was Welsh, so hence the Welsh cakes.

What’s your favourite comfort food?
A spicy broth made with some gnarly meat cooked in a pressure cooker. I use oxtail, shoulder, short rib, or trotters; just something that you end up with a lot of gelatin and stickiness that adds to the richness of the broth. I cook it with things like garam masala, cumin, cinnamon, Indian bay leaves, and green and black cardamom. You can turn it into a thin curry or even use it for a thicker curry. It might be more Vietnamese-based or something a bit more Southeast Asian, and then it would be different aramats.

Are you a coffee or tea person and how do you take it?
Coffee is three double espressos at work, then I’m done for the day. We use Roasted coffee in Henfield and have done for years. Tea is green tea or rose tea. I don’t drink black tea at all; I get my caffeine fix with my coffee.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
I decided I wanted to be a chef when I was 14, which is over 40 years ago. Even before that, I wanted to travel the world, so I basically travelled the world as a chef. But if I weren’t a chef, then it probably would be something to do with travel and travelling. Not working in Tui in North Street, but adventures in the Himalayas or something like that.

What’s the best thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
It sounds a bit cheesy, but I love feeding people and making them happy. I also really love food; it’s such a big part of my life, it’s such a vocation. If I’m not feeding people at the restaurant, I’m feeding people at home. Then there’s the people, all the amazing staff, customers and industry folk that we’ve met over the years; it’s created some great memories, and I’ve made many friends for life.

What’s the worst thing about being a chef and a restaurateur?
You work when others play, although we’ve got an amazing team now, so there’s no longer a need to work twenty-four-seven. The other thing is that the government never really help the industry. In Europe, most countries tax hospitality at a much lower rate, which means that businesses can give back through reinvestment and employment. The amount of restaurants that fold and therefore default on paying VAT in the UK is a depressing figure. It would be a very different outcome if the industry were given the respect it deserved.

Who do you most admire in hospitality?
In the Indian cuisine world, I’d have to say Vivek Singh. I did a stint at his restaurant The Cinnamon Club, about 22 years ago. For me, that was the catalyst for my passion for India, and since then, it’s been an endless adventure.

I also have to mention Dawn. Later this year, The Chilli Pickle is 18, which is amazing for us. Dawn is a business partner, wife and a mom for our boys, Stanley and Fletcher, and she’s been an inspiration and a cellmate throughout.

What’s the next restaurant on your hit list?
We just went up recently to London and tried Lucky Khao at the new Soho site, which was great. We really want to go to Montreal for a gastro holiday. Joe Beef has been on the bucket list for ages. That kind of Canadian/Parisian way they eat is a real gastronomic experience that we’ve been looking forward to for years, so that won’t be too far away.

What is your go-to breakfast?
An ice bath and something spicy. I love a South Indian breakfast like dosa vada, which is really fresh. At the moment, on the main menu at the restaurant, we’ve got rasam and lentil doughnuts, so I’m going in and eating them two or three times a week. It’s a really spicy tomato broth with crispy lentil doughnuts, just a nice fresh start to the day. Our favourite breakfast when we were in Lahore in Pakistan, was paya, which is a goat’s trotter soup. Quite often, I have yesterday’s curry for breakfast, I can’t get enough of it, I guess.

What in your opinion is the best food destination in the world?
I’ve got two answers to that. The first is, of course, India. I can go on and on about it; the diversity of India is such an adventure. Travel is such a part of The Chilli Pickle. In two years we’ve been to Sri Lanka, India twice and Pakistan and really getting amongst it. This year, we’re planning on hopefully going to India for a month and just being a bit more chilled with it, and going to markets and cooking.

But then, second to that is Singapore. I love all Asian food full stop, and the best micro-melting pot for that is Singapore. There’s Indian, Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean food; it’s a one-stop shop, and so much of it is really reasonably priced as well.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant recently?
Pot-au-feu at The French House in London, that was delicious. It’s just so nice as well. It’s a small menu; we had steak tartare and chips, calf’s brains in black butter, a nice bottle of Claret and cheese. A nice old school lunch.

It’s your birthday, how are you going to celebrate food and drink wise?
If we’re doing one of our trips, it’s normally a lunch-dinner-lunch affair. We mix it up with Indian, Asian and European. It always kicks off with a few cocktails, a decent bottle of red and finishes with Chartreuse, Fernet-Branca or Armagnac.

Alun Sperring is chef/patron of The Chilli Pickle

The details
The Chilli Pickle
6-8 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB
01273 442893; thechillipickle.com

What’s in James Vance’s glass?

Grasperossa Di Castelvetro Secco “Spiriti Folletti”at Brusco

‘We’re named after Lambrusco. We have four different Lambruscos on the list currently, all of which apart from one are Grasparossa, the really traditional method made only in Modena, usually in Castelvetro. The Grasparossa grape is my personal favorite and the most traditional as well.

It’s so beautiful because it has so much tradition. It’s not a really expensive bottle of wine typically. When I was in Emilia-Romagna, I lived with a host family who made their own Lambrusco and they’d serve it at lunch. It’s just something really tasty and goes with great food. Lambrusco is really starting to trend and people are taking it seriously. The producers are using better and better products and willing to ship that abroad.

The wine on our list most representative of that story is the Spiriti Folletti which is our house Lambrusco. It’s a dry red Lambrusco, but super juicy and full of summer fruit. It’s a very vibrant wine but it doesn’t overpower the food. Because it’s such a light fizz, it’s a really nice palate cleanser. It goes well with our Sussex Beetroot Risotto, Wild Garlic and Hazelnut, or Meatballs Di Brusco that are made with wagyu beef from Trenchmore Farm and served with with Pomodoro Sauce and Parmigiano Reggiano’

Grasperossa Di Castelvetro Secco “Spiriti Folletti” is available at Brusco by the glass (£10) or bottle (£34).

James Vance is the owner of Brusco.

The details
Brusco
16 Montpelier Place, Brighton, BN1 3AF
bruscobar.com

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club
Campfire Old-Fashioned by Benjamin Arthur of Embers

Order at the bar or make at home

Benjamin says, ‘Elijah Craig is just a great bourbon for spirit forward cocktails like old fashioneds or Manhattans. Caramel and winter spices punch through in this bourbon, all flavours which lend themselves well to such cocktails.

Stirring down is the act of stirring a cocktail over ice as opposed to shaking a cocktail in a shaker (you will almost always do one of the two when making cocktails, but never both). You get three things from this - you achieve the correct temperature, you integrate/mix all the ingredients together, and finally you dilute the drink using the water from the ice which smooths out those alcohol edges.

Most booze-forward cocktails (drinks in which you’re mainly looking to showcase the flavours of the spirits themselves, as opposed to fruit juices, syrups etc) will be stirred down, as you have a little more control than shaking. Some bartenders will also swear that shaking bruises the spirits, but I’m not sure about that one!’

Ingredients for one drink
50ml Elija Craig
20ml Toasted Marshmallow Syrup (see recipe below)
Few dashes of Black Walnut Bitters and Orange Bitters

Method
Combine the ingredients in your chosen glass and stir down over ice. Garnish with a toasted marshmallow and an orange twist.

For the Toasted Marshmallow Syrup
300g vegan marshmallows
100g granulated sugar
200ml boiling water
25ml vanilla essence

Lightly toast the marshmallows over the fire (or lightly grill them if you don’t have a fire on hand), then add them to a saucepan with the sugar, vanilla essence and boiling water untill they have melted. Once the mixture is a thick syrup, cool it down before bottling, and you’re ready to go.

Brighton’s Best Dish #4

Grilled Asparagus, Whipped Ricotta, Lemon Pangratto and Chilli Dressing at The Flint House

English asapragus season is here, but it won’t be around for long (officially until the 21 June) so make the most of it by ordering this cracking dish at The Flint House. Grilling asapragus, as they do here, is the perfect way to accentuate the vegetable’s green, grassy flavours while the char adds some smokey complexity. Whipped ricotta brings a note of creamy luxuriousness to conterpoint the perfect bite of the asapragus and the crunchy pangratto (fried breadcrumbs). The subtle heat from the chilli dressing is a touch of genius.

(Brighton’s Best Restaurants paid the bill at The Flint House)

The details
The Flint House
13 Hanningtons Lane, Brighton, BN1 1GS
01273 916333; flinthousebrighton.com

My Storecupboard Standby
Chef Kim Woodward on Black Pepper

‘I’m a big lover of black pepper, although I hate white pepper. I’ve got five peppermills. I loved it in everything and on everything. You fry an egg? Where’s the black pepper? I make spaghetti bolognese. Where’s the black pepper? I do a whole roast chicken. I put black pepper on it. I love that little kick. We make a nice peppercorn sauce here in the restaurant, and you can really feel the black pepper. I used to make a tonka bean cheesecake, and I would top it with black pepper strawberries. Black pepper tuiles are a fantastic way to add savouriness to a dish, they’re always a nice addition.’

Kim Woodward is the Executive Chef of the Black Rock Group, which includes The Coal Shed, Burnt Orange, Tutto, The Crazy Goose pub and The Salt Room which has just reopened after a major refurbishment.

Out of Town: Saturday Brunch at Theo Randall Cucina Italiana, London

I’ve been a fan of chef Theo Randall since his days as head chef of The River Cafe (where a young Jamie Oliver worked for him). He opened Theo Randall at the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane twenty years ago this year and I’ve enjoyed some fantastic meals there - if you’ve never tried his Cappelletti Di Vitello (fresh pasta filled with slow-cooked veal, porcini mushrooms and parmesan), put it on your bucket list now.

What I didn’t know until very recently is that he runs a Saturday brunch service that is something of a bargain, bearing in mind you are dining in a swanky five star hotel restaurant in Mayfair. The Festa In Famiglia menu includes an antipasti buffet, a choice of secondi, a dessert platter to share and either unlimited Negroni, Aperol or signature Mimosa for £65 or unlimited wine and prosecco for £69.

You have to be careful not to go too mad with the antipasti because Randall is a feeder and secondi portion sizes are generous. Highlights included Torta Di Bietola with swiss chard, red onion and thyme, Wild Mushroom Arancini and a superb Salumi Misti of prosciutto di Parma, fennel salami and coppa.

Randall has been making Rotolo Di Spinach since his River Cafe days and it is just the most comforting pasta dish you can eat. Its made by rolling sheets of pasta into logs filled with spinach, ricotta, parmesan, garlic and marjoram which are them poached, sliced and baked with tomato sauce and parmesan. Forget caviar and truffles, Rotolo Di Spinach is real luxury dining. I’ve eaten porchetta in its native Umbria but Randall’s version of slow cooked pork belly with crisp crackling was served with cannelini beans, Swiss chard and salsa verde just knocked it into a cocked hat.

The dessert platter included another Randall signature dish and bucket list dish, Amalfi lemon tart. Is it better than Marco Pierre White’s version? I wouldn’t like to say, but they both deserve to be spoken of in the same breath. Did we eat and drink too much? Well, maybe, but it was a special occasion (my sister’s birthday) and the service is so warm and friendly that you can’t say no to another top up of your glass, or a second visit to the buffet. That said, I don’t think I’d need much of an excuse to go back.

(Brighton’s Best Restaurants paid the bill at Theo Randall)

The details
Theo Randall Cucina Italiana at the InterContinental London Park Lane,
One Hamilton Place, Park Lane, London W1J 7QY
020 7318 8747; theorandall.com

You will no doubt have seen the sad news that, after 28 years, The Gingerman will soon close its doors. In an Instagram post announcing the closure, owners Ben and Pamela McKellar wrote, ‘Like many in our industry, the rising costs of running a restaurant have made it impossible for our small 30-seater to continue. This decision has not been made lightly, and it comes with real heartbreak.’ The post has received close to 4k comments from devastated customers, former employees, local and national chefs and restaurateurs, and celebrities. No date has been given for the closure, but it is expected within the next few months.

It made me sad (although they are continuing with their other three restaurants, The Ginger Pig, The Flint House and The Ginger Fox near Albourne), but also angry. Why should it be impossible for a popular, high-quality neighbourhood restaurant to be profitable enough to at least keep its doors open? It’s criminal, and especially under a Labour government, which should be the flagbearer for small local businesses.

It’s not all Keir Starmer’s fault, of course; there are global forces at work on the economy that are beyond his control. But it feels like we are on the brink of a real catastrophe for independent hospitality businesses that put quality and integrity at the heart of what they do, and something has to be done by the government to prevent that from happening.

This isn’t a case of ‘use it or lose it’. It’s simply that the sums no longer add up for a neighbourhood restaurant like The Gingerman. As Ben McKeller says in the post, ‘There’s only a certain amount of money you can take in a 30-seater restaurant. With all the costs going up and the tax burden going up, it’s just not sustainable for small independent restaurants.’

The Gingerman set the standards in Brighton when it opened back in 1998 and nurtured the talent that has helped transform Brighton from something of a culinary desert (with a few honourable exceptions) into one of the top food cities outside London. We don’t just need places like The Gingerman to survive; we need a climate where lots of new places like The Gingerman can thrive so that local independent restaurant scenes all over the country can continue to build and improve rather than wither and die.

From a politician's point of view, restaurants provide employment, especially for young people; they generate tax revenue, and they support the numerous other businesses that supply them. From a customer’s point of view, chefs and restaurants that really care about what they do, that have real heart and soul and put personality into their businesses, are bringers of joy. There is no better reason than that to cherish them.

So it was a bittersweet occasion last night when Mrs BBR and I went for what will probably be our last dinner at The Gingerman. We ate and drank well: BBQ Squid with burnt scallion dressing and coral tuille, and a main course of roast lamb saddle, crispy belly, aubergine, pickle apricot, chickpeas and zhug were particularly banging and went very well with a bottle of Grillo, La Segreta from Planeta in Sicily. We were well looked after. The bill was reasonable. All was well with the world, for a few hours at least. Is that too much to ask for, Sir Keir?

A new era and a new look for The Salt Room

As previously reported in the last edition of Serving Up, The Salt Room reopens this month, although the date has been slightly pushed back from the 12th to the 22nd. The completion of a four-month renovation sees a new, brighter interior design with terracotta floor tiling, off-white lime-washed walls, a new bar, a weather-glazed year-round 60-cover seafront terrace overlooking the West Pier, and a new open kitchen and chef’s table.

The reworked, more flexible menu from Executive Chef Kim Woodward (ex Savoy Grill and Gordon Ramsay Group) means diners will now be able to drop in for oysters and a glass of English sparkling wine, or settle in for a full meal. A daily-changing fish board based around that day’s catch will include turbot, brill, John Dory and locally landed octopus priced by weight. A bespoke fish press will be used for a new turbot dish with the juices flambéed tableside.

It sounds like an exciting new chapter for the restaurant, which, incredibly, is entering its second decade. I remember being shown around the place when it first opened and interviewing the original head chef for a feature in the trade magazine The Caterer. I’ll be popping into the launch event over the weekend and hopefully getting some pics to post on our Instagram account, so do follow us if you aren’t already. You’ll find us at brightonsbestrestaurants.

The details
The Salt Room
106 King’s Rd, Brighton, BN1 2FU
01273 929488; saltroom-restaurant.co.uk

The Lowdown: Diego Ricaute of Palmito

What’s your favourite comfort food?
I really like my mum’s chicken soup. It’s very simple. It’s a clear broth. She puts potatoes in it that she boiled separately and adds them at the end. Everybody in the family learned to make it, and we all make it for our families as well. She makes a peanut chilli sauce to go with it. It’s a very traditional Ecuadorian thing, just chilli, peanut butter, a little cumin and some fresh coriander. I use that at the restaurant sometimes; some people love it.

Are you a coffee or tea person, and how do you take it?
I love tea. I think it’s gone out of fashion, but it should be coming back. My favourite shop is The Tea and Biscuit Club in Arundel. It’s owned by an old English boy; he’s amazing at mixing teas. It’s a hidden gem. I always have a different tea that I take to work from home. I love all kinds of tea, but I really love oolong tea.

What is the best thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
Seeing people happy on a daily basis. With food, you can connect to people in a way that is very personal and in a way that other things cannot do. Food is essential, but it can also be fun. It’s really good to be part of that; it’s basically what made me become a chef.

What’s the next restaurant on your hit list?
Legado in London, the latest restaurant from Chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho. I like her other restaurant, Sabor. I like that way of cooking. The simple way is quite difficult to get right. I love the way that they bring Spanish food into the UK. They make it authentic, they source the best producers, and they keep it how it should be.

What is the best food destination in the world and why?
Galicia in Northern Spain. It’s super underrated. It’s undiscovered. Even within Spain, people don’t go there. It’s wet and cold but very beautiful, like Wales. A lot of Portuguese and Basque people go there. I haven’t had a bad meal there, especially seafood. It’s got the best seafood in the world, at least in the top three. It’s still very rustic, but there are upcoming chefs; there’s lots going on. I think in a few years you’ll hear about it in the same way people talk about the Basque Country and San Sebastian.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant or cafe recently?
I had a chicken sandwich in Copenhagen at a place called Poulette. They’re quite famous; it’s an Instagram thing. It’s a tiny room and there are four people making chicken sandwiches with brioche, crispy chicken thigh, a little chilli sauce and pickles. It was perfect, it was so good it actually changed my mind about Instagram food. I haven’t stopped thinking about it.

What would be your ideal way to celebrate your birthday, food and drink-wise?
My idea for next year is that I would like to go to Ntounias in Crete in the mountains. I’ve been there twice before, and it’s the best food I’ve had in a long, long time. The chef cooks from his farm on the side of the road. He’s got this little taverna. You’ve got to go there at midday. It costs about 25 euros. It’s slow food, and he cooks over wood. He makes cheese with fresh goat’s milk, then baby goat, and then a little bit of raki. The best thing is that he fries potatoes in olive oil over wood; the best chips I’ve ever had.

Diego Ricaurte is chef/director of Palmito restaurant

The Details
Palmito
16 Western Road,Hove BN3 1AE.
01273 777588; palmito.co.uk

What’s in Nick Karnicki of English’s Glass?

Lacryma Christi DOC, Villa Dora, Campania

‘An ancient legend suggests that God cried when he found a strip of paradise stolen by Lucifer in the Gulf of Naples, and where his tears fell, the vines grew. The Romans called it Terra Felix. The essence of fire and sea. Coming from Naples myself, this one hit close to home. Lacryma Christi bianco is born right on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, in those volcanic soils that give the wine its unique minerality and freshness. Every sip feels like a taste of the Bay of Naples; the crisp citrus notes, the hint of white flowers, the subtle herbs that remind me of home. That’s exactly why it’s perfect with simply grilled sea bass. The fish is delicate and clean, and when you drizzle it with a little olive oil and lemon, it sings with the wine, each bite and sip bringing out the other’s freshness. It’s effortless, honest food, just like we like it around here.’

Lacryma Christi DOC, Villa Dora, Campania is on English’s wine list for £66 a bottle. Nick Karnicki is the General Manager of English’s of Brighton

The details
English’s of Brighton
29-31 East Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1HL
01273 327980; englishs.co.uk

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club:
Espresso Chai-Tini from Indian Summer

Enjoy at the restaurant or make at home

Indian Summer owner Rob Heasman says, ‘The Espresso Chai-Tini is our new Indian inspired twist on the legendary classic. We use 58 & Co vodka as a base for our homemade chai liqueur, which we then infuse with our secret blend of seven spices. We’ve focused on sustainability with this serve, 58 & Co being a certified B-Corp, and also utilising a new ultra-sustainable coffee liqueur called Maraba, which provides real, effective support for the Rwandan coffee trade. The two are a match made in heaven, shaken with a double espresso and served in the classic martini glass. A blend of cocoa and chai spice creates the beautiful garnish with the addition of a few Green cardamom pods (which may or may not be one of the secret spices!).

Ingredients for one cocktail
35ml Chai Liqueur
25ml Maraba Coffee Liqueur
X1 Double espresso

Method
Pour the liqueurs and espresso into a cocktail shaker, add ice cubes and shake hard for 12 seconds. Double strain into a martini glass.

The details
Indian Summer
70 East Street, Brighton, BN1 1HQ
01273 711001; indiansummerbrighton.co.uk

Brighton’s Best Dish of The Month for April
Cornish mackerel with herb sauce at Stem

Congratulations to Brighton’s Best Restaurants follower Nadia Khiavi, who entered our Instagram Dish of the Month for April competition by nominating Cornish mackerel, herb sauce, horseradish, wild garlic butter and lemon at Stem restaurant in Hove. Nadia said, ‘Super fresh and punchy Spring flavours - exactly what you want to eat in April!’ Chef Anthony Raffo tells us that he even went the extra mile and foraged the wild garlic for the butter himself. The dish is still currently on the menu, so you can enjoy those lovely spring flavours in May too.

There is a bottle of Ridgeview Bloomsbury English sparkling wine on its way to Nadia, courtesy of Ridgeview . Follow us on Instagram @brightonsbestrestaurants for news of the May Dish of the Month competition.

The details
Stem
41 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2BE
01273 435582; stemhove.co.uk

Do you want to win a delicious bottle of Ridgeview English sparkling wine? Of course you do. To be in with a chance, go to the pinned post on our Instagram account @brightonsbestrestaurants, like and share and reply in the comments with the name of the best dish you've eaten in a Brighton and Hove restaurant in the month of April, along with the name of the restaurant and why you loved it. Be quick as the closing date is midday next Wednesday, 6 May. The winner will be announced in a forthcoming edition of Serving Up.

Spring has well and truly sprung and as well as all the daffodils, tulips, and bluebells, the Brighton restaurant scene is coming into full bloom. The Salt Room will re-open on 12th May following a lengthy renovation. There will be a new weatherproof terrace that will be open year-round, a new bar space, open kitchen and chef’s table. The Set have announced that they are taking bookings for when they re-open on 27th May in their new home in Preston Road, the former site of Kitgum Kitchen. Meanwhile Kitgum posted an update on Instagram on the works at their new site in Hampton Place (formerly Estia), which they hope to have completed in about six weeks.

Original Tony’s pizza are spreading their wings with a second site at the Open Market coming ‘very soon’. They are also taking care of the food at The Windmill where, in addition to pizza (a slice and a pint costs just £9 on Wednesday and Thursday) they are also serving a menu of snacks and small plates, including Chicken Parm and Vodka Rigatoni. Jack’s Pizza looks very close to opening their first bricks and mortar site above Yum Yum in Sydney Street, where they’ll be serving focaccia-based Detroit-style pizza. And the much-loved Baby Bao is coming to Kemptown with their first standalone restaurant due to open very soon in St George’s Road (we assume this will be in addition to their residence at The Pond).

Further afield, former The Coal Shed head-chef Matt Price (who has since been head chef of Michelin-starred restaurants The Vineyard at Stockcross and Sorrel in Dorking) will open The Town House restaurant with rooms in Arundel on 17 May. The £95 tasting menu will include Creedy Carver duck with smoked hay honey, fermented rhubarb, black pudding, leg croquette, shiso and sweet cicely. Steven Edwards of etch has been appointed Executive Chef at Nyetimber Vineyard in West Chiltington. His head chef there will be former etch sous chef Joe Pinard. Edwards will be creating the menus for the 1086 by Nyetimber Paired Dining Experience coming up in the summer. Check the vineyard’s website for full details.

In other news, Maré by Rafael Cagali has been shortlisted in the Opening of the Year category at the National Restaurant Awards, along with head Ewan Waller who has been shortlisted for the Chef to Watch award. The results will be announced on 8 June.

For this edition’s Brighton’s Best Dish, Brighton’s Best Restaurants Co-Director Sue Woodward enjoyed an unusual and visually stunning dish of tortilla de camarones, which has made me want to book in again at the restaurant immediately. I’d love to hear from you what you think Brighton’s Best Dish is right now. Email me and let me know at brightonsbestrestaurants@gmail.com. If you include an image and a short write-up of the dish, I’ll publish the best suggestion in a future edition of the newsletter.

Thanks for reading and please subscribe if you can, it really helps support what we do
Andy Lynes
Co-Director and Founder, Brighton’s Best Restaurants

The Lowdown: Kanthi Thamma, Chef and Owner of The Spice Circuit Kitchen

What's your earliest food memory?
Biryani. I grew up in Hyderabad, and the whole neighbourhood would be cooking it on a Sunday. From when I was five or six, I remember waking up in the morning, and I could just smell it in the air.

What is your favourite comfort food?
My favourite comfort food is dal rice. Very simple, very comforting; it’s such a humble dish. In South India, they make a rice and dal dish called pongal; that’s something that I really enjoy, especially on cold winter mornings as a breakfast, or even in the evenings.

What is your least favourite job in the kitchen?
If I could avoid slicing 20 kilos of onions and have somebody else do the job, that would be great because my apron, my shirt, my chef’s whites, everything just smells of onions when I walk out of the kitchen.

Are you a coffee or tea person, and how do you take it?
Definitely coffee, so much so that we have a little coffee plantation now back home, and we as a family grow our own coffee. I bring back my share of coffee every time I go, and I use that. It’s a very dark roast from the South of India; it has that slight bitterness, but it’s always nice to have it with frothy milk and a little bit of sugar in it, which is also almost like a South Indian filter coffee.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
A tourist guide, because I love travelling so much, or a choreographer in Bollywood, because something else that I am passionate about is dancing.

Who do you most admire in the restaurant industry?
Duncan Ray at The Little Fish Market. I always used to think he had a very fancy kitchen until I went down there. It’s a very minimalistic setup, but the quality of food that comes out of that kitchen is absolutely stunning. It’s just a one-man show, it’s Duncan doing it day in, day out, year after year, and that takes a lot.

What’s the next restaurant on your hit list?
Stem. I see it as I go to work every day and the atmosphere looks really good in there.

What do you eat for breakfast?
My simple breakfast pleasure is toasted sourdough with a Sri Lankan coconut sambal that I make. I top it with a fried egg and a few chillies.

What are your favourite food destinations in the world?
I really like the food scene of Seville in Spain. Lisbon has a great food scene as well. From doing my chef-led tours I’ve realized that Sri Lanka’s cuisine is coming up fast, not just in Sri Lanka but across the world. In the next two or three years, you’ll see quite a few Sri Lankan restaurants popping up.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant recently?
The soft shell crab at Namo, it was really nice; it was one of my favourite dishes on the menu.

Tell us about a Brighton and Hove hidden gem.
Mediterraneo in Portland Road in Hove is run by a really lovely Sicilian couple. They do very nice little brunches and breakfast dishes and Sicilian wine tastings in the evening sometimes. It’s one of the places I visit a lot because it’s about two minutes away from my restaurant, and I go and grab a bite during my break.

What’s your go-to drink on a night out?
A gin and tonic. That’s how I ended up doing the Spice Circuit Gin collaboration with Brighton Gin. When I’m cooking at home, I drink gin and tonic, so that’s how the whole idea of spices and gin together came into my head. I ran the idea past Kathy from Brighton Gin, and four months later, we had a gin.

The details
The Spice Circuit Kitchen
171b Portland Rd, Brighton & Hove, BN3 5QJ
0736584818; chefkanthi.com

Brighton’s Best Dish #3
Tortilla de camarones at Amari

Tortilla de camarones with roasted red pepper sauce (£8.50) is a visually stunning dish that originates from Cadiz in Andalucia, Spain. The base is actually a crispy shrimp fritter, so you’ll be disappointed if you’re expecting a classic Spanish omelette. Squid ink added to the batter gives it a dramatic black colour and intense seafood flavour and the colourful red pepper sauce is a great taste balance to the salty shrimp. Super thin batter means you can eat it with your fingers, snapping off a portion and eating it like a crisp with a topping. Perfect with a glass of Mas Macia Cava Brut NV from Catalunya (£8.50).

The details
Amari
15 Baker St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 4JN
01273 435992; @amaribrighton

Review by Sue Woodward, Co-Director of Brighton’s Best Restaurants

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club
Mekong Mai Tai from Namo

Order at the restaurant or make at home

Ingredients
50ml Mekhong rum (available online)
20ml fresh lime juice
10ml sugar syrup
10ml almond syrup
30ml fresh pineapple juice

Method
Chill a tall ribbed highball. Add Mekhong rum, lime juice, sugar syrup, almond syrup and pineapple juice into a shaker. Fill with cubed ice and shake hard for 12 to 15 seconds until properly chilled. Discard ice from the glass and refill with fresh cubed ice. Double strain into the glass for a clean finish. Garnish with dehydrated pineapple and a gently slapped rosemary sprig for aroma.

The details
Namo
24 Ship Street, Brighton, BN1 1AD
01273 911 881; namobrighton.co.uk

Alun Sperring’s store cupboard stand by: Spice dabba

‘My home kitchen is basically a small version of The Chilli Pickle. I do a lot of the cooking for new dishes for the restaurant from home, trying out new things. I keep my spice dabber by the stove. It’s just basically a big tin that has cumin seed, mustard seed, fenugreek seed, coriander powder, garam masala, turmeric, Kashmiri chili, salt and pepper. It’s all there beside me; it’s almost like my right hand.’

Alun Sperring is the chef/proprietor of The Chilli Pickle in Brighton’s Lanes. The restaurant has recently launched a new menu that includes new and classic dishes, as well as an £18 set curry lunch.

Out of Town: COR, North Street, Bristol

Meg Houghton-Gilmour says, ‘If we ever had to pick a restaurant to represent Bristol, we’d pick COR. It’s cosy, it’s neighbourhood, it’s inventive, it’s got some of Bristol’s best cocktails – the negroni bianco, for one. The food is sensational. Has anyone ever said a bad word about COR? Unlikely. Don’t skip the sourdough with whipped black garlic butter or whatever savoury canele is currently in residence on the specials board. After that, just dive headfirst into whatever else you fancy from the Mediterranean small plates menu – because it’s all brilliant.’

The details
COR
81 North Street, Bedminster, Bristol, BS3 1 ES
01179112986; correstaurant.com

Meg Houghton-Gilmour is the publisher of The Bristol Sauce.

Welcome to the fourth edition of Serving Up. We’ve got the best batch of features yet for you, including the first contribution from Amy Brooke of Brighton On The Inside, who has written about the very welcome explosion of pizza joints in the city. This edition also sees the first ‘Brighton Peers’, an occasional series of food, drink and travel-based interviews with notable Brighton residents. I spoke to Hong Kong-born artist and musician James Li, whose work you may have spotted adorning the walls of Stem in Hove. As well as being very talented, James is a serious foodie and has come up with half a dozen or so fantastic recommendations for where to eat in Brighton and further afield.

For this edition’s Out of Town, earlier this week, I took the train to Worthing. It was a beautiful spring evening and perfect for the 20-minute stroll from the station to BAUJI, a new Indian restaurant from chef Dayashankar Sharma, who also owns the Michelin guide-listed Heritage in Dulwich. During the evening, I discovered that Sharma had originally looked at opening in Brighton. All I can say is Worthing is lucky to have him. You can find out why in my review below.

The town is having a moment, with the imminent opening of Ebb later this month. The restaurant occupies the space on the pier that was home to former Brighton chef Johnny Stanford’s Tern, which has now relocated to Worthing town centre. Ebb will be headed up by chef Charlie Simmonds, who previously worked at Chalk at Wiston Estate and the Michelin-starred Ben Wilkinson at The Pass at the South Lodge Hotel. The sample menu posted on the restaurant’s website reads very nicely; they had me at ‘whipped cod’s roe, our prawn cocktail crisps’.

If you have any suggestions for destinations you’d like to see covered in Out of Town, or for future ‘Brighton Peers’ interviews (I have to credit my wife for the name, which I think is inspired), please let me know by commenting or replying to the newsletter email. I’d also love to hear if you have any favourite restaurants, gastropubs or bars you’d like to see featured in Serving Up.

Work continues behind the scenes on rebranding and rethinking Brighton’s Best Restaurants. A new website is under construction. We are getting close to deciding on a new logo, and the second I finish writing this newsletter, I’m starting work on an exciting new feature of the website that I think you are going to love.

I hope Serving Up will help inspire your eating and drinking plans over the weekend and beyond, I’d love to know if it does.

Andy Lynes
Co-director and Founder, Brighton’s Best Restaurants

Brighton’s pizza proliferation

How many pizza places are too many? In Brighton and Hove, apparently, that number doesn’t exist. At last (very approximate) count, the city clocks in at some 30 pizza-first joints – Neapolitan, Detroit-style, New York slices, the UK’s first vegan pizzeria, plus a mix of chains and fiercely loved indies. By our calculations, that’s roughly one per square mile.

So while we’re not quite at pub-level saturation, that’s still a serious amount of lovingly crafted dough flying around for one pretty small city. And that’s before you factor in restaurants with pizza on their menu or mobile operators like Slicycle (clue’s in the name), regularly popping up at spots like the Loud Shirt Tap.

But this pizza predilection is not a uniquely Brighton phenomenon. London’s been seeing a full-blown pizza boom, too, with residencies turning into permanent sites and new openings appearing from east to west, including viral sensations Crisp Pizza teaming up with the people behind The Devonshire, the most popular pub in the country, to open The Marlborough in Mayfair.

Brighton might move at a slightly more leisurely pace than the capital – three opened in just over a week in London last year – but the same appetite is clearly there. Pommy’s Pizza (New-York style, Italian-run) opened last June to great fanfare after a masterclass in how to build a brand on social media, adding a second site just four months later. Then came the return of Original Tony’s – fine-dining chef Toby Hackett’s hybrid take on Neapolitan and New York pizza, which opened on Trafalgar Street last summer, and quickly became another local favourite.

And the latest soon-to-open addition to the pizza gang is the eponymous Jack’s Pizza. After starting out making his Detroit-style pizza in his parents’ home kitchen, Jack went on to secure a residency at The Brunswick in Hove, and now has a full bricks-and-mortar opening in a prime North Laine spot, opening early April.

At the same time, Brighton’s also seeing a wider shift to in-person everything – run clubs, coffee meet-ups and creative gatherings across the city – as people hunger for real-life connection away from the 24/7 pull of the screen. And pizza fits neatly into that. It’s quick, sociable and best shared. Pizza’s nothing new, of course, but it’s never been this good or this everywhere before. And in an always-on city like Brighton, it’s an easy way to bring people together.

Words and images by Amy Brooke, co-founder and editor of Brighton On The Inside

Brighton Peers: James Li

Hong Kong-born artist and musician James Li speaks to Andy Lynes about his work and his favourite food and drink spots in Brighton and beyond

I was interested to see that you simply decided to become an artist and that you don’t have any formal training.
I was more of a musician. A few years ago, I thought I should revisit visual art, which I had done as a teenager. I think it was a way of processing what had happened in Hong Kong six years ago. Hong Kong’s visual identity has been erased quite quickly, so it felt like a very personal thing to paint it.

Are you still involved in the music side of things?
I still do some processed cello things, usually at my own exhibitions at places like the Adelaide Salon in Hove.

When did you move to Brighton?
Eight years ago. My first job when I came here was working front-of-house at Silo. I’ve made lots of really good friends from it, and it made me understand that food is also a creative art in the same way that music or visual art is.

Some of your paintings are on show at Stem restaurant in Hove. How did that come about?
Charlie, who works at Stem, came to my exhibition, and she was the one who recommended that my work should be in the new space. I was surprised they went with it because it’s not the most comfortable thing.

What is your earliest food memory?
Eating hokkien mee, or what we call black noodles, in Kuala Lumpur, where my mum’s from. It’s basically noodles cooked with pig lard that my grandma used to make. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever tasted, but it’s very rich, very savoury.

What is your favourite comfort food?
There’s a deli called Time for Kimchi on Church Street, and they do a set menu for lunch that’s £15 pounds. It comes with six small dishes. It’s one of the best value lunches you’ll have because it’ll really sustain for the rest of the day. It has kimchi, seasonal vegetables, sometimes foraged, and a protein - usually pork, beef or tofu. It’s so nourishing, I think it’s extended my life by a few years.

Are you a tea or coffee person and how do you take it?
I drink a lot of coffee. I have a filter machine, which I bought with the rest of my Arts Council grant money when I had an exhibition last year. It’s the one thing I bought with it that wasn’t art. I get my beans from Skylark in Sussex. They’re amazing, and fantastic value as well. If I want to treat myself to an espresso, I’ll go to Ikigai on Queens Road; it has to be the best coffee in Brighton. They make some Hong Kong pastries, like the pineapple bun, and they do it really well. it.

What’s your go-to Brighton restaurant?
Shaanxi Noodles. I think that’s probably the best restaurant in Brighton, honestly. The quality of the dishes is comparable to those you get in China and Hong Kong; it’s really that good. It’s amazing that it exists in Brighton, in a relatively small city. They cut their own biang biang noodles; you can watch them do it. It’s also really good value; the cheapest noodles are seven pounds for a plate. The sesame vegan dish is really good.

I also like Original Tony’s pizza. It just opened a few months ago, and I was there for opening day. Toby, not to be confused with Tony, used to be the head chef at Silo. I always get ‘Tony’s Favorite’ with tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni, jalapenos, stracciatella and hot honey. It’s the best pizza I’ve had, nothing really comes close.

What is the next restaurant on your hit list?
I just came back from Paris, and there was a Levantine restaurant there called Adraba. We just walked in, and I had the best service of my life. It was just so warm and attentive, and the food was fantastic. They used a charcoal grill, and everything just had a slight twist to it. It was also much cheaper than it would be in London or Brighton, so I’m really itching to go back there.

What is the best food destination in the world and why?
Hong Kong. You have the best of every cuisine represented in a 50-mile radius, and it really is the best of the best. They’re all competing with each other, so the standard of food and service is very high. At the same time, you could walk the streets and get noodles for two pounds. It was such a privilege to grow up in Hong Kong, to be exposed to every food culture.

If you are a first-time visitor, I’d recommend Oi Man Sang. They are the last dai pai dong in Hong Kong with a licence to cook with kerosene. They do traditional Hong Kong diner stuff like stir-fried razor clams and fried rice. When I was doing research for my exhibition, I found an old home video that my dad shot in the 80s at the restaurant, and it was exactly the same, the same people, actually.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant recently?
The bagna cauda at Toklas in London. It’s an anchovy dip served with bread and raw vegetables. That was one of the best culinary surprises I’ve had; it was just so good. It’s owned by Frieze, the art magazine. It’s such a good restaurant. Jay Rayner loves their chips.

To find out more about James’s work, go to jjlpaintings.co.uk

What’s in James Thomson’s Glass?

Le Oche, Fattoria San Lorenzo 2023

‘‘Le Oche’ is a Verdicchio made by Fattoria San Lorenzo, one of the leading producers in the Marche region of eastern Italy, and one of my favourite (relatively affordable) wines in the world. As a counterpoint to generic Verdicchio, the producer uses a little well-integrated oak ageing - this one for about 12 months - and it’s spectacular. It sits on our list in my favourite ‘Oily & Textural Whites’ section alongside things like really good Chenin Blanc from the Loire and afar and Viognier from the Rhone and beyond.

Fleshy, waxy and ripe stone fruits, a faint nuttiness and just the most pleasant of oxidative undertones with low acidity and a richness that lasts forever on the palate - it’s the fullest of packages. Wines of this style, I feel, go particularly well with our cuisine all year round, but particularly in the spring with things like white asparagus and morels, which lend themselves to rich, nutty sorts of sauces. The perfect pairing would be roast chicken in a vin jaune or sherry sauce with morels and asparagus, or, on our menu at the moment, the roast monkfish with white vermouth sabayon, artichokes and hazelnuts.’

Le Oche, Fattoria San Lorenzo 2023 is available at Wild Flor, £65 for a bottle and £11 by the glass.

James Thomson is the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Wild Flor

From 23-26 April, Wild Flor will be popping up at The Brick pub with Wild Wurst, where they’ll be serving a menu of German-style wurst sausages to accompany The Brick’s curated selection of German and Czech beers. The collaboration’s finale on the 26th will be ‘Knuckle Sunday’ when whole crispy pork knuckles for two with bier gravy, potato dumpling, kraut and mustard will be served, priced at £20pp. Walk-ins welcomed between 23-25 April, booking is essential for Sunday 26th. Email reservations@wildflor.com. Follow brick.brighton and wildflorhove on Instagram for full details.

The details
Wild Flor
42 Church Road, Hove BN3 2FN
wildflor.com; 01273329111

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club:
Boozy Cow by Josh Williams at Pearly Cow

Order at the bar or make at home

‘We make this drink with Sussex wagyu beef fat-washed Elijah Craig bourbon to give flavour and change the viscosity of the liquid. We combine the fat and bourbon when warm and then slowly bring down the temperature over a 12-hour period to give the desired flavour.

Our house-made Amaro is a neutral spirit infused with 10 botanicals, including wormwood, cacao nibs, pink peppercorns and citrus peels using an 8-hour sous-vide process. We add demerara sugar to give a bittersweet final product. Averna Amaro (available from Ocado and Masters of Malt) is a good substitute. We add Cointreau to brighten the final cocktail and keep up the ABV. You can enjoy the drink at The Terrace Bar at Pearly Cow Brighton, overlooking the beach, which is now open for the summer season.’

Ingredients for one drink
35ml beef fat bourbon
20ml housemade amaro
15ml Cointreau

Stir the bourbon, amaro and Cointreau over ice for about 15 seconds for the desired dilution. Strain into a frozen Nick and Nora glass (as per the picture above) to create a perfectly balanced, flavoursome and boozy cocktail.

Josh Williams is the Bar and Terrace Manager at Pearly Cow Brighton

The details
The Pearly Cow
123 Kings Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 2FA
0330 055 4531; pearlycow.co.uk

Out of Town: BAUJI, Worthing

Opened last month on a smart residential road just off Worthing’s seafront and a short stroll from the town centre, BAUJI is the second contemporary Indian restaurant from chef Dayashankar Sharma, who also owns Heritage in Dulwich. Born in Rajasthan, Sharma trained at both the Oberoi and Taj hotel groups in India (the equivalent of an apprenticeship at The Savoy or The Ritz) before moving to London to head up the kitchens of Tamarind and Zaika. In her review of Heritage, Grace Dent called Sharma’s food unmissable and described the signature shatkora jhinga as ‘wondrous, bulbous, heavenly super-shrimp’.

I got to sample the shatkora jhinga during a media dinner in the restaurant’s private dining room earlier this week. It was indeed wondrous and bulbous, marinated in the ‘rare’ Bangladeshi citrus fruit shatkora and then grilled. It was great, but to be honest, it wasn’t even the best prawn I ate that night. Kasundi prawns, equally as plump, came in an addictively spicy mustard sauce which I greedily mopped up with the outstandingly good coriander and garlic naan. The rich and creamy dal makhni, cooked overnight, put me in mind of the version I ate at the legendary New Delhi restaurant Bukhara.

The meal (see the full list of dishes below) covered nearly every part of the menu, including small plates, grills, curries, bread and rice, and sides. Everything hit the mark, even the popodoms, flavoured with red and green chilli and cumin and served with a selection of chutneys, were terrific. However, I wasn’t as convinced by the combo of warm avocado, tomato salsa, spiced cream cheese and strips of venison, or the cranberry paneer kofta. But I loved everything else so much that I’m going back next week for the biryani, the one menu category we didn’t get to try.

BAUJI Media dinner 8 April menu

Popodoms with Chutney
Kale and Spinach Chaat
Tandoori Avocado and Venison

Grills:
Lamb chops
Shatkora Jhinga

Mains:
Lal Mass (slow-cooked Rajasthan-style lamb curry)
Kasundi Prawns (West Bengal-style kasundi mustard gravy)
Cranberry Paneer Kofta

Served with:
Bauji Dal Makhani
Rices and Bread Basket

The details
BAUJI
67 Rowlands Road, Worthing BN11 3JN
bauji.co.uk; 01903 962 911

Executive Chef, Black Rock Group

What’s your earliest food memory?
My mum’s trifle. When I go back up north, my mum always does me a trifle every single time I go there. It’s a classic sherry trifle, she always keeps it the same. It’s just one of those beauties; it’s nostalgic. I can eat more than one.

Are you a coffee or tea person?
A flat white, or a double espresso, and only one in the morning. I like Monmouth coffee, they’re fantastic beans. I’m not addicted to coffee like some chefs. I don’t need it. I’m full of energy myself.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
I wanted to be a photographer before I wanted to be a chef. I’m very big into food photography.

What is the best thing about being a chef?
Being a chef, you have to love food passionately. Working in the five Black Rock concepts, it’s always about being creative, not doing the same food all the time and keeping it moving. It’s very important to be part of the seasons changing. It’s about getting in the kitchens with the chefs, teaching and training them, or just being in the kitchen and seeing the stunning food go out.

What’s the worst thing about being a chef?
I’d say the hours, but the hours don’t bother you if you’re engrossed in your work. I’ve been doing it for so long - over 25 years - it just comes naturally to me. I don’t really hate anything about being a chef. I love being around good people who care about their job, whether it’s the front of house or the back of house. That, for me, is the most important thing, being around that energy. If you love what you do, you want to come to work every day. That’s like gold dust; you want to be around positive people.

Who do you most admire in the hospitality industry?

Clare Smyth. We both worked for Gordon Ramsay and I’ve become a good friend of hers. She’s got three Michelin Stars at her restaurant Core and now another star at Corenucopia; her level of cooking is absolutely brilliant. She’s someone to really look up to as a strong woman in the industry.

What’s the next restaurant on your hit list?
Wildflowers in London. It’s cooking on open fire, it’s seasonally led, it’s got a great Mediterranean menu. I’ve also got Maré by Rafael Cagali in Hove on my list to go check out.

What is the best food destination in the world and why?
I’m a big fan of Bordeaux. I go every year. Where you’ve got great wine, you’ve got great food. I love French cooking. I love the style of it, the richness of it. A perfect confit duck leg, that’s my kind of thing.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant recently?
An amazing cote de boeuf at Jason Atherton’s restaurant Sael in London. I also love their little Marmite English custard tarts. It’s fantastic cooking, it’s consistent every time I go.

It’s your birthday, how are you celebrating?
I’d normally go for oysters and champagne somewhere down in Soho for lunch. And then at dinner, I would find a restaurant that I’ve never been to before like The Ledbury and order a very good bottle of wine from Bordeaux.

Kim Woodward is the Executive Chef of the Black Rock Group, which includes The Coal Shed, Burnt Orange, The Salt Room, Tutto and the newly opened The Crazy Goose pub.

What’s in Anna Reilly’s Glass?

Chignin Bergeron, Domaine Jean Perrier & Fils, Cuvée Gastronomie, 2024 is from the super steep terrain of Savoie in France, where Domaine Jean Perrier & Fils has been growing vines for seven generations since 1853. Today, they have 59 hectares under vine across eight towns. This is a pure mountain wine; golden in the glass with an intense nose of clementine zest, apricot, hawthorne and white pepper. A coating mouthfeel with a complex palate, yet with vibrant acidity and a flinty finish. Electric and delicious. To be enjoyed with friends over a chicken roasted with lemon and thyme and buttery potatoes, or at Fourth and Church with burrata with saffron and preserved lemon, poached kohlrabi and mint and pistachio chermoula.

The wine is currently available on Fourth and Church’s by-the-glass list and is also available to buy here.

Anna Reilly is Events and Wine Development Manager at Fourth and Church.

The details
Fourth and Church
84 Church Rd, Brighton and Hove, Hove BN3 2EB
01273 724709; fourthandchurch.co.uk

This Sunday (29 March), between 12pm and 5pm, Fourth and Church are holding a Spring into Beaujolais: Try Before You Buy event. £10 for three pours. Special discounts available for cases purchased on the day.

My Food Hero

Anthony Bourdain by chef Dan Kenny of The Set

I read Anthony Bourdain’s first book, Kitchen Confidential, when I was about 14, and I started working in kitchens a few weeks later. I wanted to be a chef because it just sounded like so much fun. The description of a lot of pirates and misfits that wanted to be in an environment where they could get up to no good was quite appealing at that age. I’ve been a big Bourdain fan ever since. We eat a lot of Bourdain travel show-inspired dishes for staff food, and we have a lot of his favourite music on our playlist. We’ve always had the ‘Cook-free or die’ posters in the dining room of wherever we’ve been cooking.

One of Bourdain’s favourite cuisines was Vietnamese, and I lived in Vietnam for a couple of years in the late 2000s. I was actually in the same restaurant as him one evening when he was filming Parts Unknown in Ho Chi Minh City. A friend of mine went and borrowed a lighter from him, not knowing who he was. Then we saw all the cameras, and realised it was Bourdain.

Bourdain is one of those rare characters where I think 99% of people like him. There’s a lot of Bourdain fans, a lot of people who relate to his views and approach to life. He’s always been a bit of a hero, so it seemed an obvious theme for a pop-up; all the dishes on The Set’s Bourdain Residency at Cafe Rust are inspired by him.

The menu starts with an oyster, which was the first thing that Bourdain had when he was on holiday in France with his parents that blew his mind. The bream ceviche dish came from watching one of his travel shows about South America. The marinade changes every time we make it, but we use a really good quality vinegar and citrus fruits like yuzu and pummelo from Todoli in Spain. I always put something hot in there, like green chilli or jalapeno juice and finish it with some kind of raw allium and fresh herbs.

St John in London was Bourdain’s favourite restaurant, and I agree with him. The bone marrow, toast and parsley salad is such a famous dish that we had to include it. I like having a clean, raw start to a meal and then going into really rich, fatty big old chunks of bone marrow. Coq au vin is in Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. We’ll use really good Sussex chickens from Barfields Butchers and make the mash with loads of butter and creme fresh. It’s one of those dishes you don’t really want to mess with. We’re finishing with a crème brûlée and then some Stichelton blue cheese, both Bourdain favourites.

Win a table for two at The Set’s Bourdain Residency - click here to head to The Set’s crowdfunding page and buy a raffle ticket for £2. You’ll also be supporting The Set’s effort to raise money to fit out their brand new site in the former Kitgum Kitchen premises on Preston Road, due to open at the end of May.

The Details
The Set Bourdain Residency
6-course menu £65pp
6pm and 8.15pm
15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 22nd, 24th, 29th, 30th April
1st and 2nd May

Cafe Rust, 50 Preston Road, Brighton, BN1, 4QF
Visit thesetrestaurant.com to book

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club
Honeygroni by The Apiary

Order at the bar or make at home

Ingredients
20ml Honeybush infused gin (Apiary use 58&co. House Gin)
20ml Beesou honey apperitif (available online)
20ml Vault Meadow Vermouth (available online)
7.5ml Botivo British aperitivo (available online)

Combine all ingredients over ice, stir well, and strain into a frozen rocks glass over a large ice cube. Garnish with a honeycomb tuile.

For the infused Honeybush gin
Use 5g of Honeybush Tea per 250ml of gin. Combine and leave overnight, then fine-strain before use.

For the honeycomb tuile
1 egg white, weighed (usually 30g)
30g butter (or the same weight as the egg white)
30g honey (or the same weight as the egg white)
30g flour (or the same weight as the egg white)

Melt the butter and honey over low heat until the butter has completely melted. Take off the heat and whisk in the flour. Wait until slightly cooled, and then whisk in the egg white quickly to avoid the egg cooking or scrambling. Take the batter and spread over honeycomb moulds (available online). Bake in the oven at 160°C for around 10mins, or until golden. Leave to cool, and then gently pop out of the mould.

The details
The Apiary
50 Norfolk Square, Brighton, BN1 2PA
07517087072; apiary.co.uk

On our radar: Chef Mishael Ahmed

Popping up with ‘Dastarkwaan’ at The Greenhouse, Hove, 3-5 April

How did you get into cooking?
My mother is a baker. I come from a very big family; I’m one of seven kids, so I was in the kitchen from a very early age. I moved to Brighton from Birmingham, where I grew up and got my first cheffing job at The Pond. From there, I moved on to Shelter Hall. As soon as I mastered one kitchen there, I was like, “Oh, give me another kitchen to work in”, so I was working at four kitchens pretty much at the same time.

I then met chef Kanthi Thamma of The Spice Circuit Kitchen, and he invited me to assist him with some of his pop-ups. I also did a few months at Salt Shed. I learned a lot from them about grilling and the balance of flavours and pairing pickles and meats, which was incredibly helpful for the Pickle Party events that I’ve been running this year. I moved from there to Kitgum Kitchen, where a lot of my skills were really shaped. Then I decided to go freelance because I’m not good at just doing one job; I like spinning a lot of plates and doing a lot of things.

What’s the inspiration behind your first pop-up, ‘Dastarkwaan’?
Dastarkwaan takes its name from the Urdu term for a ceremonial tablecloth. This menu is a tribute to the flavours of my childhood and Friday evenings spent gathered on the floor on a Dastarkwaan with my family, sharing our favourite dishes together. The menu consists of Pakistani food, Afghani food, and some Chinese elements. I love being really ingredients-focused and fusing them with loads of different techniques and cultures. My mother was an amazing chef; she cooked so many different cuisines, including Afghan, Lebanese, Syrian and Middle Eastern food in general, so she is a big influence.

Being Pakistani and working at Kitgum was really awesome because we made a lot of Pakistani recipes that were really authentic, so I wanted to pull that in as well because I’ve seen how easy it is to marry the flavours of Afghani food and Pakistani food.

Anytime I’m at home and I’m meal prepping for myself, it somehow seems to always be Chinese food. I’m really obsessed with Szechuan flavours, and so I’ve got the little theme of Szechuan running throughout the menu as well.

What else do you have coming up?
I work for a chef called Marios Miliorellis. He’s incredible. He’s had some experience at Noma. I have been helping him out the last few months, running his pop-up kitchens in North and East London, doing Greek and French fine dining. I also run cooking classes and do some private dining events in Morocco. I’m trying to attack every area of cheffing whilst also trying to do social media at the same time. Somehow, it calms my brain having multiple jobs. I will be posting any and all dates of my future events and classes on my Instagram @on.the.road.to.mishelin.

The Details
Dastarkwaan by Mishael Ahmed
2 - 5 April 5pm-9pm
The Greenhouse, 55 Church Road, Brighton, BN3 3AJ
thegreenhousebrighton.com

The a la carte menu of eight dishes will include aubergine borani (£7), fried chicken wings in date, lemon and Aleppo glaze (£11) and gulab jamun sticky toffee pudding with miso chantilly cream (£8.5).

Out of Town: Other, Bristol

The talent that chef Zak Hitchman refined at places like Ynyshir and Casamia shines through every bite in Other. It’s just brilliant. The name is very apt; there’s nowhere in Bristol quite like it. Expect small plates heavy with inspiration and innovation; chicken and sesame toast, smoked beef cheeks and lamb fat-fried doughnuts that are so good they’ve been featured on the Off Menu podcast multiple times. It’s colourful, eccentric and well worth a significant detour.

The details
Other
32 Cannon St, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 1BN
07503 144325; otherrestaurant.co.uk

Review by Meg Houghton-Gilmour of The Bristol Sauce.

Welcome to the second edition of Serving Up. As ever, we’ve got a multi-course tasting menu of food and drink inspiration from the lovely people of the Brighton and Hove restaurant scene.

As I’m sure you’re aware by now, after 50 years, the city finally has a Michelin-starred restaurant, Maré by Rafael Cagali, to boast about. The last star to be awarded to a Brighton restaurant was Yves Battaso’s Le Francais at 1 Paston Place in Kemptown in 1975, a year after the Michelin guide’s UK launch. Apparently, stars of the stage and screen, including Shirley Bassey and Michael Caine, dined at the restaurant.

By the time I moved to Brighton in 1990, 1 Paston Place had become an outpost of London restaurant Langan’s and was co-owned by Caine. Later that decade, it became One Paston Place, run by the late chef Mark Emmerson and his wife, Nicole. I did a one-day trial in the kitchen, as, at the time I was considering a career change. I didn’t get the job, but I learned a thing or two and got to work alongside a young chef named Ben McKellar, now better known as The Gingerman. Small world, huh?

To celebrate Maré’s historic win, I spoke to General Manager Jake Garstang about the drinks he’s particularly excited about right now, and he’s come up with a couple of very interesting choices, one at Maré and one at everyone’s favourite place, Bincho Yakitori. I hope to be able to bring you an interview with Maré’s 24-year-old head chef Ewan Waller very soon, too.

This week also heralds the first contribution from Hot Dinners, the essential guide to London restaurants. They’ve recommended a new Italian in Soho that sounds just the ticket for the next time you’re visiting the big smoke.

I do hope you are enjoying Serving Up as much as I am writing it. Do let me know if there’s something you’d love to see in the newsletter that we haven’t covered already, but rest assured, there will be lots of new faces and places coming up in future editions. Work is continuing on preparations for the relaunch of Brighton’s Best Restaurants website, awards and OctoberBest festival, and we will bring you news on all three as soon as we can. I can say now that the awards, usually held in the spring, will be delayed but will return soon.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy this edition, and please, if you can, subscribe below. It would really help us out,

Andy Lynes
Editor and co-director of Brighton’s Best Restaurants.

The Lowdown: Chef Bookie Mitchell of Namo

What is your earliest food memory?
When I was growing up in Lampang in Northern Thailand, there was a hawker stall next to my school. We called the owner ‘Uncle Kaew’. He would barbecue pork over a charcoal grill, and also he would make egg fried rice. He served it in a plastic bag and you just ate it like that with hot sriracha sauce. I’m thinking of putting it on my menu at Namo.

What is your favourite comfort food?
I like things that people don’t really eat - strange stuff like pickled plums. They’re salty and sweet. Sometimes I like sour green cooking apples with a dip made with shrimp paste, sugar, fish sauce and chilli powder.

Are you a coffee or tea person?
Matcha latte with oat milk is the new trend for me.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
I wanted to be a florist, an interior designer or a photographer. I seem to have a random interest in lots of things. After I graduated from university, I applied to be a flight attendant but it wasn’t for me. Being a chef is where my passion and my creativity lie.

What is the worst thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
The long hours. Being the owner, it’s just kind of around the clock. Even though you finish your work, you are still thinking about it. But I enjoy it.

Who do you most admire in the restaurant industry?

My friend Kanthi Thamma of The Spice Kitchen. He’s just so talented. He would be the one to call me on a decision because he’s has so much experience, he’s been in the business for a long time. Sometimes he will say things that you don’t want to hear, but it’s a fact, and he wants to help you. He’s very creative; every time that we come up with pop-up ideas, we just click. We can do the menu 24 hours before the pop-up and we can just nail it because of him. He’s just so talented with lots of things. He can dance, he can do everything. He’s just amazing.

What do you eat for breakfast?
I rarely eat breakfast, but if I have to, I’m probably going to have a boiled egg, some avocado and brown toast. I’d start with tea and then follow with coffee. And then some fruit - berries and stuff.

Tell us about a hidden gem in Brighton
I like the bar at No. 124 Guest House. Usually, I will pop in for coffee because it’s quiet and it’s nice in there, but one cocktail I really love is Gimme Mûre. It’s made with Brighton Gin, pineapple, and blackberry. It’s one of those drinks that’s really easy to enjoy but still feels a bit special.

What is the best food destination in the world and why?
Thailand. I’m Thai, so I’m probably just a bit biased. I love the food so much. It’s fresh, healthy, vibrant and full of favour. The way we serve food is totally different from the north to the south and to central, so when you go to Thailand, you can try different things. Chiang Mai in the north offers something a bit different; there’s influences from being next to Burma. Kao Soi, which we serve at Namo Eats at The Eagle, is so popular; people just love it so much, and that is from the north.

What’s the next restaurant that you are dying to visit?

Interlude in Leonardslee Gardens. I have seen some things on Instagram, and I really want to go there. Where it is is so beautiful, so that could be my present for this year.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant recently?
There’s a dish I still think about from time to time. It’s Laphet Thohk, the tea leaf salad from Laphet, a Burmese restaurant in London. The main ingredient is fermented, pickled tea leaves, which might sound unusual, but the flavour is incredible. It’s savoury, slightly bitter, deeply umami, and full of texture. One of those dishes that really stays with you.

The details
Namo
24 Ship St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 1AD
01273 911881; namobrighton.co.uk

What’s in Jake Garstang’s glass?

At Maré, I’m currently loving the combination of Barbadillo Obispo Gascon 15yr Palo Cortado sherry paired with our toasted brioche, liver parfait, winter truffle and preserved cherries. The nutty notes from the sherry complement the wonderful richness of the parfait and truffle, whilst retaining enough acidity to harmonise with the cherries. As a sommelier, I’ve found that sherry is woefully misunderstood, so we’ve got a wonderful selection by the glass to help introduce guests to the wide variety of styles.

If I’m out and about, one of my favourite combinations is Bincho Yakitori’s Junmai Gingo sake, poured in the traditional Masu boxes, paired with any of their delicious skewers. I’m partial to their chicken heart skewers with plenty of fresh lemon, and also their karaage. The crispy chicken skin and juicy meat contrast beautifully with the searing freshness of the sake, which cleanses your palate and sets you up ready for each next mouthful.

Jake Garstang is the Restaurant Manager and Sommelier at Maré by Rafael Cagali in Hove, which has just been awarded a Michelin star, the first in the city for 50 years. Before moving to Brighton, Jake worked in some of the country’s most highly regarded restaurants, including Ynyshir, Restaurant Story, Casamia and Wilson’s and has been named one of Taylor’s Port Top 100 UK Sommeliers.

The details
Maré by Rafael Cagali
60 Church Rd, Brighton and Hove, BN3 2FP
01273 055900; marehove.com

Brighton’s Best Dish #2: Beef belly laksa at Noodles Street

Bring your appetite to this hole in the wall canteen or you’ll struggle to finish the generously proportioned bowls of Chinese, Thai, Korean and Singaporean soup noodles, all available with a choice of udon, ramen, flat rice, rice and egg noodles. The must-order beef belly laksa featured chunks of tender short rib, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, spring onions and fresh chillies in a deeply flavoured spicy coconut milk broth.

The details
Noodles Street, 14 London Rd, Brighton BN1 4JA.
01273 888898
Noodles Soup, 37 West St, Brighton BN1 2RE.
01273 327888

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Club:
Tepache Margarita from Stem restaurant

Order at the bar or make at home

This cheeky twist on a margarita uses tepache (fermented pineapple juice, click here for a recipe) to add a slight fermented funk instead of a traditional triple sec, which then gets adjusted for sweetness with gomme (buy ready-made or make at home by dissolving 2 parts sugar to 1 part water) and fresh pineapple juice for a nice, rounded, fresh taste.

Ingredients
50ml Cazcabel tequila
30ml tepache (fermented pineapple drink)
20ml lime juice
15ml pineapple juice
15ml 2:1 gomme syrup
1 pipette of pineapple and star anise bitters.

Method
Add all the ingredients to a Boston shaker. Shake, then double-strain into a rocks glass and garnish with a pineapple leaf.

The details
Stem
41 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2BE.
01273 435582; stemhove.co.uk

Don’t miss: Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone at etch

On Tuesday, 24 March, don’t miss out on your chance to sample the technically brilliant and always delicious cooking of chef Simon Hulstone of the Michelin-starred restaurant The Elephant in Torquay. For one night only, Simon will be cooking at etch in Hove, alongside chef and owner Steven Edwards, where they will create a six-course £85 collaborative tasting menu celebrating the very best of seasonal British produce.

You may have seen Simon on one of his many appearances on Saturday Kitchen Live or Saturday Morning with James Martin. He also represented the South West on Great British Menu in 2012. He has run his harbourside restaurant The Elephant with his wife Katy since 2006. It was the first restaurant in Torquay to be awarded a Michelin star and the only one to retain it. The regularly changing seasonal menu incorporates local ingredients, including some from the restaurant’s own farm in Brixham, in dishes such as Brixham crab with melon, radish and smoked crème fraîche.

Simon is one of the UK’s most decorated chefs; he is a Roux Scholar and winner of the Craft Guild of Chefs National Chef of the Year award. He has twice represented the UK in the prestigious Bocuse d’Or culinary competition in France and was captain of the British team in the Culinary Olympics.

The details
To book for Simon Hulstone X Steven Edwards at etch on 24 March, click here. etch host regular guest chef nights. Check the restaurant’s website for more details of future events.

​etch. by Steven Edwards
214-216 Church Road, Brighton, BN3 2DJ
01273 227485; etchfood.co.uk

Furna chef Dave Mothersill’s storecupboard standbys

‘There’s a few things that I need to have in all the time. Good quality pre-cooked white beans, be it a butter bean, a flageolet bean or a cannellini bean. I’m a huge fan of Ottoleghi’s Green Harissa; it’s absolutely fantastic on salmon or chicken. Any of the Belazu Mediterranean ingredients, I think the quality’s great - things like capers and preserved lemon, and they do a fantastic tapenade as well. Mutti chopped tomatoes are bloody fantastic. They’re all versatile ingredients. The preserved lemon goes with the butter beans, or if you’re making a roast chicken, throw the butter beans in with the resting juices and the tapenade. It’s all so versatile and absolutely delicious.’

Dave Mothersill is the chef and owner of Furna restaurant

The Details
Furna
6 New Road, Brighton BN1 1UF
01273 031594; furnarestaurant.co.uk

Out of Town with Hot Dinners in London: Osteria Vibrato

London has seen a brace of new Italian openings recently (including the excellent Tiella) and this latest comes from Charlie Mellor, the man behind The Laughing Heart. Like his former Hackney restaurant, this Soho venture has a big focus on its wine list (Charlie’s teamed up with former Luca sommelier Cameron Dewar). The place has quickly become a proper scene, partly helped by the piano in the middle of the restaurant that has seen musicians from nearby Ronnie Scott’s on it, as well as their own extremely talented pianist/waiter

The menu has been created by an ex-Burro e Salvia chef (another much-missed Italian), and it takes a classic approach, with the tagliatelle with white courtyard ragu a must-have. Pricing may be punchy, but there’s real talent in the kitchen. It’s also a place to linger, mainly because you’ll want to have the baked-to-order amaretti biscuits, delivered hot to your table.

The Details:
Osteria Vibrato
6 Greek St, London W1D 4DE
osteriavibrato.co.uk

Recommended by hot-dinners.com, London’s biggest independent dining-out publication with all the insider knowledge on what’s happening on the London food scene. Hot Dinners is headed up by the brother and sister team of Catherine and Gavin Hanly.

Welcome to Serving up

Serving Up is the first ever newsletter from Brighton’s Best Restaurants. It marks our 10th anniversary and a new era as we pursue our vision to become the definitive and most relied-upon expert curated guide to the independent restaurant and bar scene in Brighton and Hove and surrounding area. We are launching with a twice monthly publication schedule, so please use the subscribe button below to make sure you get Serving Up #2 in your inbox on Friday 13th March (gasp! I hope you’re not superstitious.) Our goal for Serving Up is to bring you a bit closer to the people behind the Brighton and Hove restaurant scene and harness their knowledge and expertise to help you get the most out of dining and drinking in the city and beyond.

Serving Up is aimed at Brighton and Hove residents and visitors to the city, but we’ve also designed the newsletter to be of interest to anyone who loves restaurants, food, drink and travel, so expect plenty of UK and Worldwide recommendations as well as hints and tips you can apply when you are eating and drinking at home.

We’ve partnered with The Bristol Sauce to bring you recommendations from Brighton’s spiritual twin city. Serving Up will be returning the favour and making Brighton recommendations to the readers of The Bristol Sauce. We hope to be announcing a London partner soon too. Above all, we want Serving Up to be a really good read and something you look forward to seeing in your inbox twice a month. We are really excited to share the first edition with you. We hope you enjoy it. Please let us know your thoughts in the comments,

Andy Lynes - editor and founder and co-director of Brighton’s Best Restaurants
Sue Woodward - co-director of Brighton’s Best Restaurants

The Lowdown

Chef Dominic Sherriff, Bonsai Plant Kitchen

What’s your earliest food memory?
Cooking with my grandfather. He was born in India, so we used to make onion bhajis, samosas, chutneys and stuff like that. I was very young. He would have me on a little footstool things next to the hob. My mum showed me a picture of me cooking with my grandfather and I was wearing a butchers aprons, which weirdly is what we wear in the restaurant now.

Are you a coffee or tea person?
Tea, definitely. I always buy Yorkshire Tea, maybe Twining’s Gold Blend if I’m feeling posh. Never Tetley’s. I like a strong stewing on the bag, three or four minutes until it’s jet black, and then a glug of oat milk.

What is the best thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
Taking raw ingredients, something very simple like a leek, and seeing that creative process through to the end product of a skewered braised leek with a teriyaki sauce. We’re an open kitchen at the restaurant, so customers come up and say, ‘That was amazing, thank you. I’ve never eaten anything like that before’ - that’s probably the best thing about being a chef.

As a restaurateur, it’s creating a space to give customers a level of escapism. I think that’s kind of what restaurants are about. That’s why we went for a low-lit, neon izakaya den feel. You step in and you wouldn’t know you’re on Baker Street in Brighton, you are transported to Japan.

What’s the worst thing about being a chef and restaurateur?
When you go into work and you’ve been out the night before with the team. You had about three hours sleep and you know you’ve got a 14 hour day ahead. You’re thinking, why did I not go home at 11 o’clock? Why was I having shots of tequila at four in the morning when the lights were coming on? That’s probably the worst thing - that regret, the pain.

If you weren’t a chef, what would you be?
A carpenter; another trade using my hands that’s creative.

Who do you most admire in the hospitality industry?
Jamie Oliver. Some people hate him and a lot of chefs don’t like him but I’m a fan. He’s authentically himself. He doesn’t do all the screaming, shouting and swearing. He’s very relatable and he cooks food that you can do at home. I think that’s important. With a lot of chefs you think, “I’m never going to go and buy some dehydrated seaweed from Scandinavia”, or some ridiculous thing like that. Whereas with Jamie, it’s more kind of, “Here’s a tin of white beans from Tesco. Here’s how you make a bean stew.”

What is your favourite comfort food?
Katsu curry instant noodles. I’d finish work on a Saturday night at around midnight, go home, get a packet of instant noodles out, put the kettle on and boil the noodles. I’d make up the curry paste, pour it all over the noodles and finish it with crispy onions.

What is the next restaurant on your hit list?

Plates in London is at the top of the list at the moment but it’s always got a three month waiting list. Chef Kirk Howarth’s plant-based food looks incredible; it’s really clever, really cool and very different.

Tell us about a hidden gem in Brighton
Blossom’s cocktail bar. I’m a big fan. Vodka’s the only thing that seems to agree with me, so I always order an espresso martini.

What in your opinion is the best food destination in the world?
In terms of value for money, Vietnam, just because the produce over there is incredible, really good herbs and spices, and there’s the freshness of it as well. I’ve been a few times; you’d have a massive lunch and it’d be three or four pounds.

But in terms of quality, it’s got to be Japan. My brother lives in Tokyo, so I’ve been over a couple of times. The service is impeccable and the attention to detail is just ridiculous. Even if you go to a late night ramen shop at three in the morning, you’ll get incredible food.

What’s the best thing you’ve eaten in a restaurant recently?
I was in a taperia in Benalauría in Andalusia a little while ago. It’s super remote. You pay two euros for a plate of tapas. Tomatoes were in season and they had beef tomatoes that were the size of a football. It was just a plate of local tomatoes with black salt and oregano that had apparently been picked that morning in the mountains, and just dressed in local olive oil. It was incredible. Something very simple, but really good ingredients.

Dominic Sherriff is the chef/director of Bonsai Plant Kitchen.

The Details
Bonsai Plant Kitchen
44-45 Baker St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 4JN.
01273 708089; bonsaiplantkitchen.co.uk

What’s in Benjamin Arthur’s glass?

I live just around the corner from 10 Green Bottles wine bar, which is great, but also quite unhealthy. They do an amazing wine called Integrale (INT3GRAL3 on the label) a rose pét-nat from Veneto in Italy that is incredible. It’s a really good price point. Really clean and fresh. If I’m cooking dinner and I can’t really think about what to pair, I’ll just get a bottle of that and it works with everything.

On our list at Embers, we have a wine called Cantina di Negra Corvina from Verona that basically goes with most of our dishes. It’s the only wine on the list that we’ve never changed. We found out quite early on that really big, bold wines don’t pair that well with the food here because they just tend to be competing. A slightly paired back, easier going wine list with good Italian reds and that kind of thing works a lot better; you’re not pitching big bold flavours against one another, so a Corvina sums up that mentality. It works particularly well with a steak with our fresh, herbaceous chimichurri sauce.

Benjamin Arthur is the General Manager of Embers

The Details
Embers, 42 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB. 01273 869222; embersbrighton.co.uk

Brighton’s Best Dish #1

English Wagu steak with peppercorn sauce at The Crazy Goose

The Crazy Goose is the latest addition to Raz Helalat’s Black Rock Group that also includes Burnt Orange, The Coal Shed, Tutto and The Salt Room. It occupies the site of the original Coal Shed, tucked away in a quiet back street between the Lanes and West Street. It’s Black Rock’s first pub and the first project under the group’s new executive chef Kim Woodward who previously worked for Gordon Ramsay for 10 years and was the first female head chef of The Savoy Grill.

Set over two floors with a ground floor bar and first floor dining room, The Crazy Goose is somewhere between a gastropub and a Parisian bistro and has been kitted out with all the style and care you would expect from a Black Rock venue. Brighton’s Best Restaurant’s co-director Sue Woodward was one of the first customers through the door and singled out English Wagu steak with peppercorn sauce (£28) as the highlight of her meal.

‘This is proper comfort food territory with the addition of the luxurious elements you expect from a Raz Helalat restaurant. The wagu steak was cooked beautifully pink and had a deep, rich flavour, enhanced by the peppercorn sauce served on the side. I ended up dipping the steak into the sauce so I could taste it with and without. I chose two sides to accompany the steak; grilled brassicas, punchy with the addition of plenty of garlic confit, and some creamy mash given a serious upgrade by the addition of a rich bone marrow jus and a piece of bone marrow on top. I scooped out the marrow and devoured it. I could have eaten thing myself but reluctantly shared it. A glass of Cote du Rhone had a robust enough finish to match the rich flavours and textures of the meal.’

The Details
The Crazy Goose
8 Boyce’s Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1AN
01273 929079; thecrazygoose.co.uk

Brighton’s Best Cocktail Recipe #1

Green Chilli Pickle Bloody Mary by The Chilli Pickle

Ingredients
Vodka 50ml
Passata 50ml
Tomato juice 50ml
Green Chilli Pickle Juice 25ml (see recipe below)
Lemon juice 10ml
Worcestershire sauce dash
Black pepper pinch

Method
Stir over ice and garnish with a chilli, lemon slice, stick of celery and Tajin rim. Tajin is a Mexican spice mix. You can substitute a mix of equal amounts of celery salt and Kashmiri chilli.

To make the green chilli pickle juice:

Ingredients
Mustard oil 50ml
Veg oil 50ml
Fenugreek seed 12g
Mustard seed black 12g
Chopped garlic 50g
Chopped ginger 50g
Asafoitida 25g
Indian Green Chilli 200g
White wine vinegar 1 litre

Method
Heat mustard oil until smoking, then cool to remove the oil’s astringent taste. Reheat with the veg oil and add fenugreek and mustard seeds until golden and the mustard pops. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until golden. Add asafoitida, cook for 1 minute. Add green chilli cook until softens. Add vinegar and salt. Bring to boil, stir simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Strain all juice pressing with the back of a spoon. Place in a glass. When the mixture has settled, remove the oil from top.

The Details
The Chilli Pickle
6-8 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB.
01273 442893; thechillipickle.com
The restaurant has recently launched a new menu that includes new and classic dishes, as well as an £18 set curry lunch.

Diego Ricaurte’s Storecupboard Standby: Cumin

Cumin in one of my favourite spices. It can be very powerful; it’s a pungent spice and some people don’t like it, but you just need to use the right amount. You can use it in in different ways - dry roasted, fried, powdered, roasted and crushed - and create different flavour profiles. It can bring flavour to a lot of things. For example, at Palmito, we roast quite a few vegetables on the open fire grill. We don’t try to do too much to them, just par-boil them and chuck them on the grill. But I always find that, if you add cumin in some form - to whatever the garnish is, or just on top of them, mixed with other spices - it really enhances the wood smoke flavour.

One of the nicest things is when we do grilled beetroots. We get some cold pressed rapeseed oil, some dry roasted cumin and a little bit of whatever chilli powder we’re working with like Aleppo or a South American chilli like rocoto, and we toss the beetroots in the oil. It brings a certain warmth, and it’s a really nice contrast to the roasted vegetable flavour. It’s one of my favourite things to eat.

Diego Ricaurte is chef/director of Palmito restaurant

The Details
Palmito
16 Western Road,Hove BN3 1AE.
01273 777588; palmito.co.uk

Out of Town: Bristol

Chez Candice, Boiling Wells Farm by Meg Houghton-Gilmour

Chez Candice is a truly Bristol bonkersness of a spot; a converted horse-box on a farm that serves one of the best lunches in Bristol, generally in the form of delicious-things-on-bread. It doesn’t get more field to fork than this, and there’s no better place to witness the first tendrils of spring on a sunny day. If spring is not yet in the air, take refuge in the on-site yurt, built by Candice’s parents. If you’re lucky enough to visit on a day when there’s tart on the menu, order it.

The Details
Chez Candice
Watercress Farm, Boiling Wells, Bristol, BS2 9XY
Instagram: chez_candice

Meg Houghton-Gilmour is the founder and editor of The Bristol Sauce, a publication and collective of writers dedicated to making Bristol’s food scene the best it can be through honest, transparent and paid-for writing.

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