It’s summer, or technically anyway even if it’s rainy and cold. What do we do in the summer? Yes, go to Brighton for the day, or even for the weekend if you’re feeling frisky! After the success of her first Brighton recommendations, I’m pleased to welcome back guest blogger Ellie (pictured below on the right with Kate in Greece last month where it definitely wasn’t raining) and I’m also please to let you know that yes, Brighton still rocks…..
Greetings from the seaside. Regular readers and stalker types among you may remember that, some time ago, I wrote a guest post on eating out in Brighton. Was it last year? The year before? Who knows?
Well, as it’s summertime again and culinary matters have inevitably moved on somewhat since my last little guide, I thought it was due an update…
As you know, breakfast in Brighton is something you don’t want to miss out on, particularly after a traffic-clogged weekend drive or a sticky train journey from Victoria. I believe that all the breakfast establishments I mentioned previously are still in business (and still very good), but there have been a couple of notable additions to the canon.
Mange Tout (81 Trafalgar Street; no website) is my new local first-stop for all things breakfast. It’s French, it’s cool; the staff are all good-looking and really lovely – what more could you want? Well, food-wise it’s pretty rad, too. My usual breakfast companion assures me that the Eggs Benedict is the best in Brighton (it’s beaten the previous gold standard, which was Bill’s); I like the vegetarian breakfast, as it comes with ricotta, a surprisingly brilliant addition to the norm. Everything is served with properly good sourdough bread, and the coffee is excellent.
It’s also open for lunch and, on some nights, dinner. Mange Tout is worth a visit at any time of day, but it’s the perfect place to hang out for breakfast – full of hipster couples and families with the world’s most beautiful children, mostly. Whatever you fancy, though, it fulfills my pet love of being pretty relaxed about what meals happen when – you know, they won’t mind if you really want breakfast just after it’s officially finished for the day, or if you’d like a steak and a glass of red at 11am.
As the walk through the Lanes can be a slow and circuitous one, let’s face it, you may not have made it very far by lunchtime. If that’s the case, I’d recommend hanging around a bit longer and joining the queue outside Pompoko on Church Street (110 Church Street; http://www.pompoko.co.uk). Yes, there is pretty much always a queue but it goes down really quickly as it’s a fast, fun, share-a-table-if-you-need-to kind of place; order at the counter from a numbered, laminated menu. The speciality here is genuine Japanese street food – not a piece of sushi or sashimi in sight (if you want posher Japanese food, I’d head up to Café Murasaki on the Seven Dials or Moshi-Moshi, in a delightfully converted public convenience building over in the south Lanes).
Here at Pompoko, it’s all about curries, noodles and dumplings. I usually like to get myself a little variety of snacks – edamame, miso soup, steamed dumplings and, my favourite, fried octopus balls. To drink alongside your meal, it’s basically water, Japanese tea or cans of drink only, and it’s a really fun experience if you just want to grab something quick but different. It stays open late and, being located directly opposite the Dome and the Corn Exchange, it’s also perfect for a quick pre-going out snack.
If you’ve made it a little nearer to the sea by now on your travels, you could do a lot worse than ducking into Pho (12 Black Lion Street; http://www.phocafe.co.uk). It’s a chain, but a small, nice one – at the time of writing, they’ve got a couple in London and now this one in Brighton. That’s it so far, but I expect there will be more. There deserve to be, as they are really good at what they do. It’s Vietnamese food and – while they do other dishes as well, such as Vietnamese curries and fried noodles – it’s all about the noodle soup, which is what ‘pho’ is.
You get an absolutely epic bowlful of it, accompanied by a plate of herbs, garnishes, chilies and lime, in order to accessorise as you wish. Proper pho is made with beef stock (although less traditional alternatives are available), with the addition of brisket, meatballs, chicken, prawns or mushrooms. You can customise and mix-and-match as you see fit, but I usually go for one of the classics – you can also choose the extra-spicy version, but that’s a bit hot for me, and I say that as someone who always goes for extra-hot in Nando’s! If you’re feeling brave after your meal, you might sample the special ‘weasel coffee’ – but I’ll let you find out exactly what that is for yourself…
My first suggestion for dinner is a Brighton institution, one that’s been there far longer than I have, but which I have been particularly enjoying of late. The Regency (131 Kings Road; http://www.theregencyrestaurant.co.uk) sits on the corner of one of those seafront squares straight out of Brighton Rock, in a fantastic building that gives you a great view of the sea. It’s old-fashioned in the best possible way. Serving mostly fish, there’s a huge variety and if you’re not much of a pescetarian, then you can get anything from spaghetti to a roast dinner or a steak, all best followed up by a good old steamed pudding or (as the menu really says) ‘spotted Richard’. It’s incredibly good value and there’s something for everyone, which has made it a favourite for us whenever we have visitors – you really can’t go wrong at the Regency.
Alternatively, if you want to grab something on your way back to the station on your way home, you should head back to Trafalgar Street and to Caffe Aldo (77 Trafalgar Street; http://www.caffealdobrighton.co.uk). As the name implies, it’s a pretty basic café, with options to take-away or to bring your own wine if you’d like to sit in – and, most importantly, they do the best pizza in Brighton. Simple as that.
Although eating is obviously the most important part, you could also go and do some drinking and dancing at the super-cool Green Door Store, have a bit of a singalong at Lucky Voice or in the bar at the Pelirocco, buy some lovely clothes in Nola or go and get your hair cut at Shine. See you there, probably!
The Bombay Boys 