Restaurant Spy - East Sussex

Alfresco, King's Road Arches, Brighton BN1 2LN

Sun, 11 May 2008 12:14:36 +0000

Address:
King's Road Arches, Brighton BN1 2LN

Review:

I visited this establishment on Friday 9 May 2008. Famed for it's location right on the seafront, with views from Worthing down towards Brighton Marina. This was a balmy Sussex evening and the London crowd was out in force.

The first shock was how quiet the downstairs bar was, compared to the bustle of the other bars. On reflection it may have been down to the lack of bar staff! We went up the stone staircase to the upstairs restaurant. This looked fabulous with floor to ceiling windows, offering superb views and light wood tables with modern but calming fixtures. We asked a gentleman for a table, but this was ignored. Eventually after feeling like the invisibles we were led to a window table and settled down.

Riddle & Finns Champagne & Oyster Bar, 129 Church Road, Hove BN3 2AE

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 08:56:41 +0000

Address:
129 Church Road, Hove BN3 2AE

Review:

I’ve reviewed Riddle & Finns Brighton establishment before but they’ve recently opened a branch in Hove so I popped in. I’ll keep this review short since the general feel is similar to their Brighton place, but smaller.

We sat down and ordered a drink. ‘Does your Guinness come in bottles?,’ I asked the waitress. ‘Yes, I’m afraid so,’ she replied. Well, since I like bottle Guinness and not draught, this was good. It arrived already in a glass. ‘Did this come out of a bottle?,’ I asked the (different) waitress. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Then why has it got an inch and a half of head on it?’ I wanted to know. ‘We pour it so well,’ she said. I frowned. ‘Oh, and there’s a widget in the bottle.’ I smelt a rat and took a sip. It was out of a can or I’m a Dutchman. I returned it and ordered a Budvar, which – interestingly – arrived at the table in its bottle, just like all the other beer I saw that night. If it’s in a can, chaps, why not admit it, or better actually get a few bottles in. Some of us know the difference.

Wimpy, 105 Blatchington Road, Hove BN3 3YG

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:07:41 +0000

Address:
105 Blatchington Road, Hove BN3 3YG

Review:

Ok so I went to Wimpy – so what?!

Wimpy is little changed from the places I remember from my 70s youth. Lots of plastic, strange food and a feeling that the driftwood of life washes up here.

There was me, Mart, and T. We had had a couple of beers and fancied a face full of something before a few more beers. Wimpy was closer than the curry house and it seemed like a novel idea.

We found a seat without trouble – there being only two other people in the place: both staff.

Simply Italian, 15-18 East Parade, Hastings, TN34 3AL

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:00:00 +0000

Address:
15-18 East Parade, Hastings, TN34 3AL

Review:

Bracing winds and intermittent rain lash the seafront at Hastings on an in-between-Christmas-and-New-Year family excursion. The crushing disappointment that the fairground rides are closed and the increasingly desperate and ultimately fruitless search for an open fish and chip shop led us to this Italian bistro on the East Parade.

We piled into a booth, kids warned to avoid the expensive chef's specials - there's seven of us for chrissakes - and a variety of pizza and pasta appeared much as we expected. My middle son kept asking for his four cheese pizza to come without mushrooms, but, you guessed it, it did. Some discussion about the desserts on the blackboard was negated because "no sir - they're all off".

Nobles Restaurant, 17 High Street, Battle, East Sussex, TN33 0AE

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:47:09 +0000

Address:
17 High Street, Battle, East Sussex, TN33 0AE

Review:

Before making our way to the freshly open ‘Nobles Restaurant’ in the High Street, Battle (opened 1st July 07) we took a peek at the website www.noblesrestaurant.co.uk. The promise of fresh seasonal produce left us salivating at the thought of rustic earthy flavours.

On arriving at the restaurant, the décor was simple, warm and welcoming, there was a healthy aura of happy relaxation and the customers who were all varying in age, seemed to be enjoying themselves. Service was impeccable, friendly but professional, coats were elegantly taken and we were seated. The menu was simple with variation to appeal to all tastes, there was no fancy speak, nothing you had to question, it was all there in black and white and in plain English. We ordered the house white, which was a 2006 VEGA DEL CASTILLO, Navarra, Spain and was very pleasantly light and fresh with a hint of fruit and accompanied our meal well. We were given a couple of slices of homemade bread with butter (the butter, unfortunately straight from the fridge and our table had been forgotten regarding side plates for the bread).

Trawlers, 32-34 Church Street, Seaford E. Sussex BN25 1LD

Sat, 30 Jun 2007 09:39:33 +0000

Address:
32-34 Church Street, Seaford E. Sussex BN25 1LD

Review:

There's only one good thing about Trawlers - everything else is abysmal. When we walked in, we could have lowered the average age significantly, but we had our 86 year old Uncle with us. However, he walks with a stick, which is right on trend for Trawlers. The tables are densely packed, and all the chairs have splayed legs, so manoeuvering around this dismal restaurant is a challenge even for the young and able bodied. When we arrived at 12.30 on a wet Friday, the place was already packed with wrinklies, we had to go up the rubber ramp to the even dingier bit at the back.

The Lewes Arms, Mount Place, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1YH

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 08:31:32 +0000

Address:
Mount Place, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1YH

Review:

There’s been a load of stuff in the newspapers, on Spy, and elsewhere about the Lewes Arms in Lewes and the successful 100-day picket by regulars. Greene King took off the Harveys bitter and replaced it with their own bitter. So the regulars stood out in the rain and explained the situation to potential customers, thereby turning The Lewes Arms into a ghost-pub. The company’s income plummeted (90% or thereabouts has been quoted), a senior guy at Greene King was finally ‘resigned’, and the Harveys went back on -- after months of bland assertions by GK that replacing the locally-brewed award-winning beer with Bury St Edmunds- or BSE-brewed Greene King bitter, was a superb idea.
Well I went in recently to see if all was back to normal. I liked the following:

Princes Marine Hotel, 153 Kingsway, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 4GR

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 10:29:56 +0000

Address:
153 Kingsway, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 4GR

Review:

You know how some dining experiences are so crappy they cross the line into farce? Well eating out last night at the strangely named Princes Marine Hotel, a hideous red cube on Hove seafront, was one of those times.

I should explain that this was an official function and that the table had been laid for 50 or so of us in ‘The Boardroom’. The strip lighting had been turned off so it was mildly gloomy, but there was still enough light to see the nasty stainless steel cutlery and the cheap paper napkins folded into a special decorative feature on everybody’s plate, and the ghastly chairs.

The Greyhound, High St, Wadhurst, TN5 6AP

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 11:55:21 +0000

Address:
High St, Wadhurst, TN5 6AP

Review:

A massive back garden with equipment for children to play on, friendly welcoming service and an impressive menu of international dishes make the Greyhound one of the ideal destination pubs to visit in Wadhurst. TOG-type locals perching on the end of stools, discussing golf stories complete the scene as a veritable mound of cheese accompanies their locally-acclaimed Ploughmans, surely one of the best Ploughmans around. Very very recommended. They have rooms too. M

The Best Beech Inn, Mayfield La, Wadhurst, TN5 6JE

Thu, 09 Nov 2006 11:50:27 +0000

Address:
Mayfield La, Wadhurst, TN5 6JE

Review:

I am getting bored of saying to people X is a great place to go, going on about it, and then taking them there to have a massive bloody disappointment. It makes me look like a self-satisfied and lying prick.
The Best Beech Inn in Wadhurst is an admittedly top place to go and I have always enjoyed my food there although every now and then I get the feeling that there is a bit of unwelcome cockiness creeping in. Some of the finsihing touches are just a little bit, well, lazy.

Zamdani, 216 Church Rd, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2DJ

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:27:17 +0000

Address:
216 Church Rd, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2DJ

Review:

Maz and I were going to see Count Arthur Strong in Brighton with Mart. He suggested a quick one in the Eclipse followed by a curry at Zamdani, which he visits often. I hadn’t been before, rather put off by the plastic flowers in the windows, the rusty signage, the murky steps down to bags of onions in the stairwell, and the absence of anyone in there ever.

But it was full of people when we got in at about 6.45 on a Sunday evening – which can’t be bad.

The Fringe, 10 Kensington Gardens, Brighton, BN1 4AL

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 11:07:27 +0000

Address:
10 Kensington Gardens, Brighton, BN1 4AL

Review:

I booked a table for two here for Friday evening, at first it sounded as if I had left it too late as the chap on the end of the phone said he didn't think there were any available.

Fortunately there were.

However, panic ensued when it became apparent that due to unforseen circumstances we would be late, I phoned through to advise and they said this would not be a problem.

We arrived to a full house - alaways a good sign - and were seated immediately. There was an excellent atmosphere about the place and the interior had a warm modern feel to it. The Menu is on blackboards and is changed daily, in the evening this consistes of nibbles, starters mains and desserts. I started with the chickpea fritters served with chilli dip and salad. The fritters were excellent, both well presented and tasty. My partner went for the Butternut squash, sweet potato and red pepper soup which I tased and thought was excellent. This was served with a mound of warm crusty bread. For mains I went for the Roasted duck with sweet potato mash and a blackberry jus, which was absolutely exquisite. The duck had been cooked to perfection and it the portion was not lame, with the jus nice and tangy. My partner went for a risotto which was a healthy portion and also very good.

Yo Sushi, 6-7 Jubilee Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1GE

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 20:44:01 +0000

Address:
6-7 Jubilee Street, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1GE

Review:

Dear oh dear oh bloody dear. I was going to say something worse but I didn’t because I am prone to not swearing in front of people I don’t know.

Young J and I went at his command to Yo! Sushi because his mum was at some important exhibition of crapshit in Birmingham. Yo! sushi is a con, insofar as it sells things called Yo! Paella, and Yo! Salad Nicoise, is staffed mainly by poles (the country not the sticks) and is just really not at all Japanese.

The White Dog, Village St, Ewhurst Green, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, TN32 5TD

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 12:12:31 +0000

Address:
Village St, Ewhurst Green, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, TN32 5TD

Review:

My partner and I came here the other evening. Having stopped at the nearby Castle Inn, we decided to venture slightly further for our evening meal. The White Dog is quite a quaint old pub, serving decent well kept ale in nice surroundings, with great views to nearby Bodiam Castle.

They have an extensive bar menu as well as specials and a restaurant menu. However, these can be mixed and matched, which I think is quite a nice little touch.

Riddle & Finns Champagne & Oyster Bar, 12b Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 11:40:15 +0000

Address:
12b Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB

Review:

I like seafood. There, I've admitted it. I know oysters are said to be like eating snot off a tortoise but I disagree. As to their aphrodisiac properties, I think that's a myth, though a friend once warned me that if you don't swallow quick enough they make your neck go stiff.

Anyway, we noticed Riddle & Finns Champagne & Oyster Bar, which has recently opened in a narrow passageway in Brighton's Lanes, just off North Street. There's a bar outside to the left of the door, where you can eat if you like to be jostled by fatties squeezing down the passageway. The kitchen is long and thin and visible through the window, which stretches along the front of the bar I just mentioned. This is greatly reassuring, since you can see what the chefs are up to and do your own impromptu environmental health review. In the window on the right of the door is a superb display of fresh fish: a work of art.