Restaurant 2017

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Went to the one in Eastbourne on Saturday. Lovely relaxed atmosphere and service. Burger (can’t remember what it was called, but had blue cheese and bacon on it) was exceptionally good. Chilli cheese fries for me too, also very good but portion was too big (despite this being a post-marathon meal for me). Wife and son had similar meals, plus drinks and we had a side of ‘onion straws’ which were slightly spicy and very crispy. Good range of beers by the bottle/can. Total bill was about £45. Definitely going back.

That looks bloomin' LUVVERLY!

 

[Easy 10]

going to Casa Brasil in The Marina in a couple of weeks any thoughts or views,

I've been a couple of times. Pretty good for an all-you-can-eat, which I'm not usually a fan of. The first trip was good, as they had a plentiful supply of mussels on the hot and cold buffet - they were delicious, and as you could have as much as you wanted, I absolutely PIGGED out on them, probably making 3 or 4 trips back and forth to top up. I was looking forward to filling me boots with them again the second time we went there, but to my dismay they didn't have any on that day, gutted. If you like your mussels though, and you're lucks in, then happy days.

Good selection of meats, they come to your table and carve it off these big skewers. You get a card on your table, green on one side, red on the other. Leave it green side up and they'll keep coming round with the meat. Leave it red side up and it means "back off Pedro, I'm still masticating". The lamb was very fatty, but the steak, gammon and pork was decent. Waiters are attentive, the service is very good. Atmosphere is a little "canteen-ish" if you know what I mean, with punters wandering around filling their plates, but I guess that's just the nature of an a-y-c-e.

Its alright though.

 

[Beach Hut]

Om - Worthing

Starters were very good all had different things well cooked by the main of lamb tikka masala was disappointingly watery to say the least. Previously nice a thick masala sauce.

Need to try and find a new curry house locally.......

5/10

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Yummy

 

[Springal]

Om - Worthing

Starters were very good all had different things well cooked by the main of lamb tikka masala was disappointingly watery to say the least. Previously nice a thick masala sauce.

Need to try and find a new curry house locally.......

5/10

Shafiques

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Yummy

Good looking burger. I've noticed that the Germans do seem to like these thinner, slightly greasy fries (double cooked?) with their burgers. Is the texture / thickness due to the potatoes available to them being differenct from those we get over here?

 

[Beach Hut]

Shafiques

Been there a couple of times, very good as well

 

[BensGrandad]

I went to OM recently for brother in laws 60th and wasnt over impressed although he likes it, hence going there. As Beach Hut says our starters were all very good but the actual curry main dish I had was very bland. I know this is a Nepalese restaurant as opposed to an Indian who cook their curries differently. The service was very slow and we found a number of overcharges on the drinks. So not really impressed. The rest of the party said their main was ok and the only two who really liked it and raved about it was brother in law and his wife.

 

[Withdean Chappy]

Just changed some Tescos clubcard vouchers into £50 vouchers for Zizzi. Any good? Will probably go to the Haywards Heath branch

Okay if you just want pasta or Pizza

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Good looking burger. I've noticed that the Germans do seem to like these thinner, slightly greasy fries (double cooked?) with their burgers. Is the texture / thickness due to the potatoes available to them being differenct from those we get over here?

We don't do the beef eater/chunky style chip here; its usually thin chips. I think this is purely a cultural thing as the German chip is derived from the French fry; chips are actually named after the French term and called pommes here as well. As for the texture and potato type I have no idea I'm afraid. The place where these photos come from definitely deep fry them longer than most which contributes to their colour and crispness. Whether there is a conscious choice of potato behind this as well I don't know.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Yummy

You’ve got better kept fingernails than I would have guessed you would have.

 

[MattBackHome]

Evening all. I'm looking for somewhere for lunch tomorrow. Basically I want informal (the less restauranty the better) and delicious.

I remain, as ever etc

 

[CHAPPERS]

Curry Leaf Cafe!

 

[MattBackHome]

Excellent choice [MENTION=13]CHAPPERS[/MENTION] and much appreciated. However since my posting Mrs MBH has decided we're going to Makara instead.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Finally got to Etch on Wednesday night for a birthday meal.

I love the dining room, the cooking was mostly good to great and the wines were excellent. However there were a number of small annoyances that I didn't get at 64 Degress.

Restaurants Brighton are doing a promotion code at the moment for 20% off in some local restaurants and Etch were taking part. RB said to just quote their discount code when you booked but Etch wouldn't take it, meaning we had to mention it again when we arrived. This got us a really sniffy look but it didn't help, since when the bill came they'd "forgotten" to apply the discount. It's not like I'm some homeless guy. It only applied to the 8 courses with wine flight so we still dropped well over £200.

I do like that they cook things I wouldn't normally eat in an interesting and fantastically tasty way. I'm not really a fan of celeriac or beetroot and yet the celeriac starter was devine, rich with truffle and full of seasoning and the beetroot with horseradish ice-cream was also excellent. However, they also managed to take pork and rhubarb - two things I absolutely love - and mess them up. The promised crispy pork belly wasn't, the dish was too large for the end of an 8 course meal and the way they did the crackling doesn't work. The rhubarb was too sharp and went uneaten. It needs a little sugar.

The two best dishes were the pigeon and scallop. Both were beautifully designed, perfectly cooked and out of this world tasty. And both were only available on the 8 course menu.

It feels like I'm moaning and I'm not - it was a solid 7.5 out of 10 and I preferred it to Isaacs but there's room for improvement. I'd go back though.

 

[Springal]

Off to The Set for the first time tomorrow! Could only get a really early table (6pm) but allows for a few drinks after...

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Finally got to Etch on Wednesday night for a birthday meal.

I love the dining room, the cooking was mostly good to great and the wines were excellent. However there were a number of small annoyances that I didn't get at 64 Degress.

Restaurants Brighton are doing a promotion code at the moment for 20% off in some local restaurants and Etch were taking part. RB said to just quote their discount code when you booked but Etch wouldn't take it, meaning we had to mention it again when we arrived. This got us a really sniffy look but it didn't help, since when the bill came they'd "forgotten" to apply the discount. It's not like I'm some homeless guy. It only applied to the 8 courses with wine flight so we still dropped well over £200.

I do like that they cook things I wouldn't normally eat in an interesting and fantastically tasty way. I'm not really a fan of celeriac or beetroot and yet the celeriac starter was devine, rich with truffle and full of seasoning and the beetroot with horseradish ice-cream was also excellent. However, they also managed to take pork and rhubarb - two things I absolutely love - and mess them up. The promised crispy pork belly wasn't, the dish was too large for the end of an 8 course meal and the way they did the crackling doesn't work. The rhubarb was too sharp and went uneaten. It needs a little sugar.

The two best dishes were the pigeon and scallop. Both were beautifully designed, perfectly cooked and out of this world tasty. And both were only available on the 8 course menu.

It feels like I'm moaning and I'm not - it was a solid 7.5 out of 10 and I preferred it to Isaacs but there's room for improvement. I'd go back though.

I have a booking here at Xmas. Comments noted; I’ll report back.

As an aside I’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with the Stone Brewery Tap room and restaurant. 75 craft taps ranging from solid classics to their totally out-there stuff with excellent pub/bistro food to eat in a quite incredible setting. Third visit in as many weeks tonight.

 

[Machiavelli]

Finally got to Etch on Wednesday night for a birthday meal.

I love the dining room, the cooking was mostly good to great and the wines were excellent. However there were a number of small annoyances that I didn't get at 64 Degress.

Restaurants Brighton are doing a promotion code at the moment for 20% off in some local restaurants and Etch were taking part. RB said to just quote their discount code when you booked but Etch wouldn't take it, meaning we had to mention it again when we arrived. This got us a really sniffy look but it didn't help, since when the bill came they'd "forgotten" to apply the discount. It's not like I'm some homeless guy. It only applied to the 8 courses with wine flight so we still dropped well over £200.

I do like that they cook things I wouldn't normally eat in an interesting and fantastically tasty way. I'm not really a fan of celeriac or beetroot and yet the celeriac starter was devine, rich with truffle and full of seasoning and the beetroot with horseradish ice-cream was also excellent. However, they also managed to take pork and rhubarb - two things I absolutely love - and mess them up. The promised crispy pork belly wasn't, the dish was too large for the end of an 8 course meal and the way they did the crackling doesn't work. The rhubarb was too sharp and went uneaten. It needs a little sugar.

The two best dishes were the pigeon and scallop. Both were beautifully designed, perfectly cooked and out of this world tasty. And both were only available on the 8 course menu.

It feels like I'm moaning and I'm not - it was a solid 7.5 out of 10 and I preferred it to Isaacs but there's room for improvement. I'd go back though.

I'd agree with the general thrust of this. There are some real heights at Etch, and there's real ambition too, but it is marred by inconsistency and -- along with 64 Degrees, Set, Isaac's -- trying to be too clever, nice, precise, etc, which does leave me pining for something more substantial rather than stylistic. This is why Silo works for me, as does Salt Room and, especially from outside Brighton, The Sportsman which manages to combine both of these attributes. It's also stunning value -- £65 for c13 courses, which took us c5 hours to eat -- and this is another factor that left me unimpressed with Etch in contrast to, for instance, Isaac's, and it's probably this that makes me want to return to Isaac's before Etch, although I haven't been to 64 Degrees for far too long, so that's currently at the top of my wish list.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Just had lunch at St Johns; lovely as always. The great man himself, Fergus Henderson, was also having lunch. For the record I had roasted bone marrow, pigs head salad, roasted ox heart and bread pudding with butterscotch sauce.

 

[BensGrandad]

Just had lunch at St Johns; lovely as always. The great man himself, Fergus Henderson, was also having lunch. For the record I had roasted bone marrow, pigs head salad, roasted ox heart and bread pudding with butterscotch sauce.

That sound revolting pigs head and ox heart as I dont like heart and pigs heads were only used to make brawn