A Visitors Guide to Restaurants in Brighton
Being a tourist in a different city gives you plenty of different adventures and challenges, particularly when it comes to finding a good restaurant. You just don’t want to be disappointed; you want to find and eat the best food in town.
You may be searching for a restaurant in Brighton because you’re here for a weekender, a holiday, or you are discovering the city because of a stint with work. No matter the reason, we have all been there in a new place. You arrive somewhere and you want to make the most of your time in a city and you want to be pointed in the right direction. You may be looking for a candle-lit dinner, award-winning cuisine, or you may be looking for somewhere quiet and boutique so you can impress a work contact; different budgets and companions call for different restaurants.
Restaurants Brighton is built in collaboration with local Brighton people who have a background in tourism and hospitality, and a passion for great food. Our restaurant guide for Brighton, Hove and wider Sussex is drawn together for its users and the information featured is from a local’s perspective and is an effort to highlight the great restaurant options available to you. We aren’t food experts or chefs (but we do like a good feed!) and we are thankful to a team of chefs and independent proprietors in the city who encourage our exploratory attitude to food.
What is easy to do in Brighton is just follow the crowds; arrive at the station or on the sea front and get swept 
away with the bustle. Before you know it you are sitting there with a bag of chips wondering if you have taken the right approach.What this post will help you do is think about the different neighborhoods of Brighton, and we will guide you into a few recommended independent restaurant favourites in the Laines, Hove, Brighton Marina, the Seven Dials, Hanover and Kemp Town. These areas give you a true essence of the cities restaurant scene and we hope they will encourage you to break away from the throng.
You can use the search facility on our Restaurants Brighton website (top right) and the directory will generate different options available to you. If you are fortunate to be travelling with your own transport too, why not try a trip into wider Sussex and sample some of our recommended country pubs and Sussex restaurants. There are so many fabulous places to visit and, if you combine them with a little walk or some sightseeing, you can reward yourself with extra pints or pudding – we do!
A City of International Cuisine.
Our ‘visitors guide to Brighton restaurants’, must start with a little bit of information about Brighton itself. Brighton gets called a ‘mini London by the sea’ and has been considered the best place to dine in outside of London by the likes of Remy Martin in their 2007 awards. Brighton has over 400 restaurants of international cuisine to choose from and it is considered to be the vegetarian capital of the UK. Brighton really is a Mecca of food just waiting to be explored.
Brighton attracts close to 12 million visitors a year and is one of the most visited cities in the UK. Not that we are surprised when you think about it: nightclubs, theatre, festivals, sport, universities and those extra days of sunshine which makes us one of the sunniest places in the UK (beaten only by Eastbourne). So, if it is leisure and entertainment you are looking for, you will find it among Brighton’s interweaving streets; from the sea to the Dyke, from the promenade to the Lagoon.Brighton is a small city, which boasts individuality, freedom, escapism, and it retains a sense of community spirit, which you will see if you go and explore those neighborhoods.
Brighton’s Love Affair with Food and Festivals
Back in April, the 2012 Spring Harvest festival event (part of the Brighton Food Festival) attracted close to 60,000 visitors to 90 stalls. Brighton Food Festival’s September event last year brought in 160,000 visitors to Hove Lawns, New Road, Jubilee Square and numerous other locations. Not bad at all considering that Brighton only has a population of 260,000. The Brighton Food Festival is a showcase for food and attracts restaurants, grocers, farmers, food retailers and producers from all over the South East, plus it also has a growing children’s food festival. Put the September dates in the dairy for this year now and come along to sample the Bloody Mary Mix Off, the Live Food Kitchen at Churchill Square, a mini Whiskey Festival and all the other little treats that they have in store.
Our Recommendation to you
Brighton as a destination needs to be explored. So, depending on how long you have to spend in the city, your budget and how much dining you plan to do, you should try to explore the different neighborhoods – maybe start at the seafront and work your way inwards. There are so many choices that we have struggled to put together even a simple circuit for a day trip!
As you leave the station walking down to the sea, morning coffee and a delicious cake can be had at Cocoa, Queens Road. Go for your seaside stroll and when you are ready for a pint and a snack try the Cask on Middle street or you could do Riddle and Finns in the Laines (breakfast, lunch or dinner).
You could move on to The George on Surrenden Road, Kemp Town and then stroll along to The Greys in Hanover for some real ale though, depending on the company your are in Hudson and Bridges on Eastern Road, Kemp Town might be a nicer treat.
The Eastern Eye London Road is a great place for one of the cities best (and cheapest) curries or you could move on to Sam’s at Seven Dials. Just down from Hove station is Foxy’s Roast and Grill where you can eat very well as well as The Small Batch Coffee company. OK, so we aren’t going to be able to help you without knowing a little more about what you are looking for. Let us know how you get on with the directory and we can tweak it and make it better.
Oh, and try these:
Top Ten Restaurants in Brighton & Hove
Find it, eat it and tell us!
