The sister to the excellent Latinoamerica next door, a brunch, wine and tapas bar. Really nicely fitted out cafe, and great empanadas, and lethally sweet dulce de leche cheesecake!
Verdict: Awesome
Location: 34 Church Road
Iydea
Cool little place right in North Laine, vegetarian canteen – you choose a main, then two sides and two toppings. I had chickpea and leek fritters with chilis, with lime and thyme wedges and garlic cabbage, with aioli and hot sauce. Really good, real food.
Verdict: Awesome
Location: 17 Kensington Gardens
Shelter Hall
Really cool location, with a “food hall” of currently 7 kitchens, the lineup of which does change at times. All ordering done online which is great, and we had amazing food from the Salt Shed (incredible bavette), Zest Hanoi Kitchen, and a temporary Santa Monica thing. Definitely worth a trip.
Verdict: Awesome
Location: Kings Road Arches, Shelter Hall
No Catch
Vegan chippy, and I think pretty good. It’s bigger and nicer inside than it looks, and the food is presented beautifully. I wasn’t a massive fan of the smoked haddock, though I did like the texture, but I liked the jumbo lemon prawns. I’ll be back to try more.
Verdict: Awesome
Location: 127a King’s Road
Bonsai Kitchen
Vegan Japanese, tapas style, and easily one of the best restaurants (meat or not) that I’ve been to in this town. Particularly good was the tempura cauliflower and “chicken” bao burger, but basically we had 12 things, 1 was pretty good, and all the rest were wow.
Verdict: Awesome
Location: 44-45 Baker Street
Hove Tandoori
Gave these guys a try as they popped a menu through our door. Bad idea. First issue, got pinged that order was on the way and it took ages – I can only assume they did several deliveries in one go, which meant the food was cold. Soggy bhaji which I might chalk up to that. But chicken passanda was gritty, chicken was dry and chewy. Won’t do these guys again.
Verdict: Don’t go
Location: 175 Church Road
Tlaloc at The Old Pier
I struggled a bit with this one, as we enjoyed a lot of this. Nice joint, for one, not too cramped, nice but not too fancy. Good service too, and I appreciated that the small plates aren’t thrown at you all at once. But ultimately the food was a bit uneven. Some very enjoyable corn fritters and mushroom tacos, then middling fish tacos (great when you got the sauce, but not enough of it) and octopus tacos that didn’t hit the mark, and chicken parcels in a domineering sauce that was out of kilter with everything else.
Verdict: Ok
Location: 135 Kings Rd
Donatello
Excellent Italian, very reasonably priced and delicious food. Super fast service too.
Verdict: Awesome
Location: 1-3 Brighton Place
Bluegrass BBQ at New Unity
Had intended to go to the restaurant but babysitter cancelled so got Deliveroo. It’s a little spendy, but goodness me the meat is INCREDIBLE. I think the fries would be ok too but they’d clearly sat there before delivery. I want to go to the resto badly!
Edit: Have now been into the New Unity and had the food, and it was really great, and I think more affordable than over takeaway! Big benefit of eating in is you get a whole host of BBQ and hot sauces which makes a big difference too.
Verdict: Awesome (just don’t get fries delivered)
Location: 52-53 London Road
Perfect Pizza Company
Had a Just Eat but must remember to go direct next time for free delivery. Short story really, they do cheese and garlic pizzas, and they are awesome.
Verdict: Awesome
Location: 48 Lewes Road