Brighton foodie guide: where locals eat and drink

A weekend break in Brighton

Known for its bohemian charm, lively seafront and lush surrounding countryside, Brighton has long been a popular seaside destination for holidaymakers from home and abroad.

Brighton and Hove has a wealth of brunch and lunch options. Why not try Moksha for unbeatable meat, veggie and vegan full English options, and excellent coffee; Mange Tout for French classics including croque madame and croque monsieur; or, for lunch, make your way to restored Victorian seafront food hall Shelter Hall, where an array of seven unique kitchens offers something for everyone, from top-notch burgers and pizzas to Egyptian street food and fish and chips.

Come dinnertime, for a treat head over to Dave Mothersill's exceptional Furna opposite the Royal Pavilion for a menu of stunning small plates and audacious wine pairings; Wild Flor for its neighbourhood bistro vibe and superb British-French à la carte menu and wine list; Kindling for superb open-fire cooking, high-welfare meats and sustainable produce; or tiny Brighton institution Bincho Yakitori for adventurous, izakaya-style plates such as Korean-style cauliflower and chicken heart skewers, with warm sake alongside.

Where to stay

Quirky boutique hotel Artist Residence has unique rooms decorated by local artists that overlook the iconic West Pier. There’s a lively cocktail bar serving bespoke drinks, and the hotel's new restaurant is a big hit thanks to a thrilling menu of excellent seasonal small plates. Doubles from £145, check availability at booking.com.

Where to eat and drink in Brighton

Artist Residence

One of Brighton’s favourite quirky hotels now boasts its own exceptional small plates restaurant with a cool, relaxed vibe. With its beach shack interior of corrugated iron walls, distressed wooden floorboards and exposed brickwork, Artist Residence hotel’s restaurant has a mellow vibe, the atmosphere livened by the buzzy sea-view bar in the adjacent room. Service is warm and enthusiastic, the staff clearly invested in the quality of the food they’re serving from the open kitchen, and rightly so. The seasonal menu is mostly small plates – divided into ‘crispy’, ‘raw’ and ‘grilled’ plus a couple of bigger sharing plates. Dishes were consistently excellent, but standouts included the butter-soft scallop ceviche with a perfectly judged chilli kick; a summery salad of broad beans, asparagus and peas drenched in a beautifully uplifting yuzu, honey and mustard dressing; and whole grilled meaty sea bream, the perfectly charred, crispy skin contrasting with an accompanying tart green mango and papaya salad. Save room for the elongated fluffy sugar doughnut, loaded to bursting with crème diplomat and salted miso caramel, and sprinkled with crumbs of dried raspberries. Cocktails from the adjacent bar are excellent – we enjoyed the floral, fragrant limoncello and basil spritz, and the tart, frothy cherry bakewell sour. artistresidence.co.uk

Embers

Tucked away deep within the maze-like Lanes, this joint venture from two well established Brighton chefs, Isaac Bartlett-Copeland (Isaac At) and Dave Marrow (Terre à Terre), sees the pair cooking every dish on the menu on a Medieval-style fire cage over kiln-dried ash and birch wood.

The vibe in this intimate venue is buzzy and informal, the interiors themed around charcoal walls, grey rock plates and smoke-effect cutlery, and quirky features including wall-mounted charred cross sections of tree trunk, stacks of firewood and a long industrial-style banquette backed with gridiron. A gentle smokiness fills the air, and diners have the option to eat at the kitchen counter overlooking all the open-fire theatrics.

The seasonal menu is primarily made up of smaller sharing plates plus larger centrepiece dishes (with the likes of aged pork tomahawk). Once you’ve ordered, the dishes arrive at breakneck speed, and standouts included soused mackerel with little cubes of sharp Bramley apple, earthy beetroot sauerkraut and thick dollops of labneh; beautifully charred, tender chicken leg with smoky ’nduja-infused aioli; and flaky, scorched sea bream matched with sweet smacked cucumber and nutty, chewy grains.

The cocktails are good, too – we enjoyed the smooth, refreshing lychee martini – and save space for a gorgeously creamy retro banana split with toffee sauce and fragrant rosemary and parsnip ice cream. embersbrighton.co.uk

Semola

At Semola – a small, colourful 22-seat restaurant with a big reputation – freshness is a guiding principle. Every day co-owner Roberto Lonati makes various pastas, including specials such as orecchiette or Ligurian trofie. For Semola’s pastasciutta dishes (pastas with sauce), chef Luca Cuminetti dresses those pastas with sauces that are almost all cooked to order. Only two sauces, including Luca’s bolognese, demand a different approach of patient slow-cooking over several hours. As well as asciutta and baked pasta dishes, such as a regularly changing vegetarian lasagne (say, chestnut, mushroom and mozzarella), Semola also serves pizza, risottos and Italian mains, similarly full of vivid flavours. @semolarestaurant

Furna

Furna is chef Dave Mothersill’s first solo venture, having earned his chops on the Brighton scene at the likes of perennial favourites The Salt Room and The Gingerman. The understated venue, opposite the Pavilion, features leather banquettes, elegant small dining tables and a counter at close quarters to the open kitchen where guest can dine while watching the chefs at work.

On offer is a regularly changing menu of small sharing plates. Dishes are bold and the flavour combinations unusual, but the results are spectacular – standouts included a honey and thyme Parker House roll with umami-rich roasted yeast butter and creamy smoked cod’s roe with a slick of grassy parsley oil to slather over; buttery soft milk-brined veal sweetbread with a crunchy roasted rice coating, subtly sweet Delica pumpkin and a meaty chicken reduction; and an al dente mushroom pappardelle ripiene singing with intense black garlic and tangy aged parmesan.

The paired wines are just as audacious as the food – including intriguing bottles from Greece, Japan and the South Downs. Inventive cocktails are worth exploring, too, each focussed on a single ingredient, such as tangy, smoky stem ginger and an earthy beetroot number with a welcome boozy kick. furnarestaurant.co.uk

Tutto

The Black Rock Group has a sound reputation in Brighton, with its roster of restaurants, including The Salt Room, Burnt Orange and The Coal Shed, already firm favourites with local diners. Tutto is the latest offering, an Italian restaurant set in a former banking hall on the outskirts of the North Laine.

The high-ceilinged interior, with its grand arched windows overlooking a small alfresco seating area out front, has stylish art deco touches and large, colourful, graphic art adorning the walls. The vibe around the small bistro-style tables is intimate and relaxed, with low lighting and mellow background music.

The menu follows the classic Italian format of cicchetti, antipasti, primi and secondi, and there’s also a set menu if you’d prefer to delegate your choices. Opening options include buttery bone marrow with parmesan and gremolata on crisp toasts, and long-stemmed broccoli fritto with ‘nduja aïoli. The standout dish is the tagliatelle cacio e pepe with black truffle, the pasta cooked perilously close but just the right side of al dente, and the irresistibly silky sauce suffused with a perfectly judged hit of pepper. The roasted sea bass in an autumnal wild mushroom, shallot and confit garlic sauce was also excellent, the fish beautifully succulent, complemented nicely with a side of chilli-spiked brassicas.

The drinks menu is almost exclusively Italian, featuring red and white wines grouped by region, the common characteristics of each area helpfully explained. The cocktails remain faithful to the country, too, with four varieties of negroni on offer, and a stunning slushie-like sgroppino our favourite on the night. tutto-restaurant.co.uk

Wild Flor

Wild Flor is an intimate, smart, welcoming neighbourhood bistro in Hove that matches affordable, high-quality wines with classic British and French food. The à la carte menu offers a choice of snacks, and a concise selection of starters, mains and desserts (plus cheeses), focussing on comfort classics and seasonal ingredients. The service is jovial, relaxed and familiar, and you’re given a sense that those front of house have a passion for what their restaurant is trying to do – especially when it comes wine-pairing suggestions to match your personal tastes.

Read our full review of Wild Flor here...

Shelter Hall

Situated on the Brighton seafront, Shelter Hall is a food hall set within a 15,000 sq ft Victorian building that has been lovingly restored to its former glory. The concept is led by Sessions Market – a hospitality incubator and accelerator programme founded by Dan Warne, ex-managing director of Deliveroo, that aims to find, curate and scale up new, local food concepts. Shelter Hall is currently home to seven local independent traders spaced over its two floors, all of which offer different cuisines and exciting food ideas. In addition, five of the vendors have short brunch menus at the weekend. Dishes start at around £6, and drinks can be ordered from the Shelter Hall bar, with wine and beer starting at £5.50 for a glass/pint and a full cocktail menu starting at £7.50 per drink. shelterhall.co.uk

Kindling

This modern British outfit (run by the canny former owners of popular Brighton vegetarian restaurant Food for Friends) has an ethos of ‘being kind’ to the planet, and there’s a strong emphasis on high-welfare meats, sustainable fish, local fruit and veg, and preserving and pickling to extend the seasons. The interiors are warm – rattan chairs, cascading plants and a pretty-in-pink marble bar – and the chefs make the most of an open fire while creating zero-waste, maximum-flavour dishes. The restaurant has bigger environmental ambitions, too, with plans to use 100% green energy in the future.

Read our full review of Kindling here...

Etch

Cool and unpretentious, Etch is a casual and intimate space offering fine dining, with two weekly changing tasting menus. The interior features dark blue walls, bold orange leather seats, trendy neon lighting and clothless tables, while staff look the part, dressed in tweed waistcoats, ankle swingers and pin rolls, and brogues. Chef Steven Edwards works with local producers from the surrounding Sussex countryside to pick the freshest seasonal ingredients for their intricate dishes – expect the likes of Sussex Trenchmore beef with charred Hispi cabbage, locally caught scallops with squid crackers, and cherries filled with crème fraîche.

Read our full review of Etch here...

The Salt Room

A modern British restaurant on Brighton’s seafront focussed on Josper-grilled fish and meat, and local, sustainable produce. The restaurant has a contemporary, refined look, with a mixture of whitewashed, bare-brick and wood-slatted walls, bistro-style tables, curvy dark-wood Scandi-esque seats and banquettes – in summer, the terrace looking out across the sea is the place to be. The fish main courses are the outstanding reason to come to The Salt Room, including the likes of lemon sole on the bone, with purple-sprouting broccoli, wild garlic, miniature capers and red grapes; and tandoori monkfish with roasted cauliflower.

Read our full review of The Salt Room here...

Cin Cin

Sit at the counter to watch staff carve smoked speck, Tuscan finocchiona speckled with fragrant fennel seeds, and slice prosecco-smoked pecorino cheese. Seasonal small plates rotate, or choose from the bar’s pasta dishes, including black squid-ink pappardelle with little pops of capers, and sturdy gnocchi with Tuscan sausage, crunchy courgette cubes and a light tomato sauce. Italian cocktails are top notch – start with a sbagliato aperitivo, a sparkling prosecco-based negroni drink, and finish with a refreshing sgroppino (lemon sorbet, vodka and prosecco for the perfect cocktail/dessert combo) to set you up for a night on the town. cincin.co.uk

Murmur

A casual all-day restaurant headed by 64 Degrees chef Michael Bremner on Brighton’s newly restored promenade, serving healthy, modern British plates. Set within the promenade’s newly restored Victorian arches, with several folding doors opening out towards the beach, Murmur has been designed with summertime al fresco dining in mind. The à la carte menu includes the likes of spiced coconut fish soup with toasted garlic focaccia to start, and a main of baked cod, sake butter sauce, cucumber and red dulse; while the strong cocktail list features a grapefruit aperitif with yuzu tonic.

Click here to read our full review of Murmur

Moksha

It’s a little off the beaten track but Moksha is a big favourite with local Brightonians and well worth a diversion if your looking for brilliantly cooked, well-priced food in a smart, spacious, buzzy café. The coffee’s top-notch, and with award-winning brunches including huevos rancheros, shakshuka and the Moksha Breakfast (free-range Sussex cumberland sausage, bacon, eggs, grilled flat mushroom and beef tomato, homemade baked beans, toasted sourdough and optional black pudding), a diversionary stop-off at Moksha is a guaranteed win.

Open Market

A five-minute walk via the back of Brighton train station is The Open Market, home to some great little independents. Sit in snug Greek café Kouzina for hearty home-cooked classics such as moussaka and spanakopita; grab a falafel and some hummus from Smorl’s to take to the beach; order a delicious steaming bowl of bibimbap from Korean-Japanese eatery Kor-pan; bag some absolutely top-notch mini sausage rolls from McStrongs; or indulge in authentic Mexican tacos at welcoming family-run Casa Azul.

The Chilli Pickle

This Brighton institution is a spacious, modern, knowingly kitsch Indian restaurant offering imaginative spins on classic regional dishes. Choose from the likes of keemar methi (Sussex lamb mince cooked Punjabi style with mint, coriander, chilli, garam masala and roasted cumin served with masala chapatis, hung yogurt and green chilli mint pickle); and mussel rasam and toasted poa (Cornish mussles in a Tamil pepper, beets and tomato broth, curry leaf, ginger and toasted cumin brioche).

Read our full review of The Chilli Pickle here…

Flint House

This modern, small-plates restaurant and cocktail bar in the heart of Brighton’s revamped Lanes makes for an ideal date-night option if you’re looking for a place with a lively vibe. Service is cheery and prompt, and sit on stools at the pass to see the chefs in action, serving up the likes of bream ceviche with lime juice, raisins, chilli and coriander; radishes dressed with crème fraîche and furikake; and braised squid rings with tomatoes, black olives and ’nduja. Flint House doesn’t take reservations, so if you have to wait a while, use your time well sipping a Flint House Fizz (rhubarb liqueur, red wine vinegar and sparkling wine) at the upstairs cocktail bar and terrace.

Read our full review of Flint House here…

Fatto a Mano

Fatto a Mano brings an authentic taste of Naples to its three restaurants (two in Brighton, one in Hove) with its soft, pillowy wood-fired pizzas. The chefs collaborate with producers in Sussex, and there are regular staff tours of Italy, which inspire ideas such as the pizza topped with tomato, spicy minced pork, spianata, roasted peppers, mozzarella, basil and parmesan; and the tomato-less ‘white’ pizza with fennel sausage, Neapolitan broccoli, chilli, provola, mozzarella and parmesan.

Flour Pot Bakery

Brighton and Hove’s mini baking empire Flour Pot Bakery (there are seven outposts dotted around the city) specialises in artisan breads, inventive bakes and fresh pastries. Try a slice of Brighton Blackout Cake (a full-on three-layered chocolate sponge cake) at the original Sydney Street branch, or head to the Hove outpost to stock up on breads - the likes of challah, sunflower rye and seeded sourdough - to take to the beach for a picnic.

Where to stay in Brighton

Artist Residence

Stay at this quirky boutique hotel overlooking the iconic West Pier: each room has its own unique style, plus there's a cocktail bar serving up bespoke drinks. Rooms at Artist Residence (where you can tuck into a locally sourced full English at the funky breakfast bar, or enjoy a brew in bed, with sea views) feature bespoke artwork and are decked out with Robert’s radios, mini Smeg fridges and Tunnock’s caramel bars for nostalgic snacking. Doubles from £145, check availability at booking.com

The hotel now also boasts its own exceptional small plates restaurant with a cool, relaxed vibe. With its beach shack interior of corrugated iron walls, distressed wooden floorboards and exposed brickwork, it has a mellow feel, the atmosphere livened by the buzzy sea-view bar in the adjacent room. Service is warm and enthusiastic, the staff clearly invested in the quality of the food they’re serving from the open kitchen, and rightly so.

The seasonal menu is mostly small plates – divided into ‘crispy’, ‘raw’ and ‘grilled’ plus a couple of bigger sharing plates. Dishes were consistently excellent, but standouts included the butter-soft scallop ceviche with a perfectly judged chilli kick; a summery salad of broad beans, asparagus and peas drenched in a beautifully uplifting yuzu, honey and mustard dressing; and whole grilled meaty sea bream, the perfectly charred, crispy skin contrasting with an accompanying tart green mango and papaya salad.

Save room for the elongated fluffy sugar doughnut, loaded to bursting with crème diplomat and salted miso caramel, and sprinkled with crumbs of dried raspberries. Cocktails from the adjacent bar are excellent – we enjoyed the floral, fragrant limoncello and basil spritz, and the tart, frothy cherry bakewell sour.