Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Withdean
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Withdean restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 66 restaurants in Withdean and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Withdean restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Withdean Restaurants
1. The Lamb at Angmering
British, Modern restaurant in Angmering
The Square - BN16
Next to the South Downs, this Georgian pub (with rooms) has been owned by the Newbon family since 2011. The menu mixes ‘classics’ (burger, fish ’n’ chips, steak) with more brasserie-style items. It was highlighted this year for its “good-value set lunch and pleasant service”.
2. The Chilli Pickle
Indian restaurant in Brighton
17 Jubilee St - BN1
“Still one of Brighton’s top Indians” – this Arts Quarter operation (est. 2008) offers “very good authentic cuisine, with dishes you usually never see here in the UK” – barbecue surf and turf, say, or interesting regional curries – and benefits from a “great atmosphere” too.
3. English’s
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
29-31 East St - BN1
“Traditional seafood in pleasant surroundings” has proved an enduring formula for this seafood veteran in the Lanes – one of the UK’s few historic provincial restaurants, dating as it does from the 1890s and run by the Leigh-Jones family since 1945. More critical reports say the “food quality can be a little hit or miss”; or alternatively that it’s “very good, but more pricey than it needs to be”. But “sat outside enjoying the sun, with great service and full-on Brighton atmosphere, you can have a great meal”.
4. The Tasting Room, Rathfinny Wine Estate
British, Modern restaurant in Alfriston
Rathfinny Wine Estate - BN26
Panoramic views of the vineyards and South Downs accompany a trip to this seasonal dining room (which is closed in October during the wine harvest). Some reports are of outstanding cuisine from chef Chris Bailey, although there is the odd concern about some “huge mark-ups” on certain items. You can always opt for the “really relaxed” Flint Barn dining room also on the estate (“keenly priced, lovely posh grub with a large choice of wines to wash it all down”). There is also The Hut at Rathfinny – a wine bar with week-round opening.
5. Limes Thai Kitchen
Thai restaurant in Lindfield
67 High Street - RH16
“Really impressive and tasty food that’s a cut above usual Thai fare” and “attentive service” win praise for this local Thai, on the high street of a super-cute village. Top Tip – “top delivery” too: “speedy delivery and delicious food; and a good range for vegans too”.
6. Terre à Terre
Vegetarian restaurant in Brighton
71 East St - BN1
“So many dimensions of flavour on each plate, each excellently balanced” and service with “just the right balance of the professional and the friendly” mean this veteran of The Lanes remains, for most reporters, “a revelation of how pleasing a vegetarian restaurant can be (and I am an omnivore!)” thanks to its “complex” dishes and “truly original flavour combinations”. Indeed, this “lively” venue is the most commented-on destination in town in our annual diners’ poll and the UK’s most prominent meat-free venue. Ratings, though, were dragged down a little this year by a few more cautious reporters who feel “it used to be a trail blazer but hasn’t moved on” and is “not as pleasing as it was”. On most accounts, though, it remains “worth the trip to the south coast”: “you don’t feel like you’re missing out on meat or fish”.
7. The Set
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
50 Preston Road - BN1
In June 2021, Dan Kenny found a new home for his project in Café Rust, not far from Preston park and underneath the viaduct. It’s a small place, with a two-person team in the kitchen aiming for big, umami flavours from a fixed 14-20 course tasting menu over two-and-a-half hours, and though it inspires somewhat limited feedback, fans say results are “just flawless”.
8. Urchin
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
15-17 Belfast St - BN3
“A shellfish gastropub? Yes, exactly” – the winning formula at this much commented-on corner boozer with a “quirky dining area”. By all accounts the grub is “fabulous” (“simply and expertly cooked”) and “the homebrewed beer adds an additional dimension which makes it really good to visit”.
9. Wild Flor
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
42 Church Road - BN3
Well established as “a real favourite” since launching in 2019, “what it does – modern British cooking in a relaxed bistro setting – it does brilliantly”, while “the wine list brings it a cut above many other locals. Rob (Maynard, co-founder with James & Faye Thomson) seems to find amazing different things to drink”. Top Menu Tip – “don’t miss out on side orders: blue cheese and leek gratin and pommes Anna are both amazing”.
10. Fourth and Church
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
84 Church Road - BN3
Eat “surrounded by bottles in this friendly and informal bistro”, which also doubles as a wine bar and shop. Reporters love the “inventive small-plates food and excellent wine list” – especially the set menu, which is “full of more adventurous things you might not normally order à la carte”.
11. Etch
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
214-216 Church Rd - BN3
“Exceptional food, wonderful service and great ambience” combine to provide an “amazing special-event evening” at MasterChef: The Professionals winner Steven Edwards’s conversion of a former Hove bank, now with a basement ‘speakeasy’ bar. There’s a selection of tasting menus: from five courses for £70 per person to nine courses for £120. “If Etch was in London, it would cost three times as much”, agree local fans of its “always interesting menus”. “A very good selection of English wines is a bonus”.
12. MEATLiquor
Burgers, etc restaurant in Brighton
22-23 York Place - BN1
“The Dead Hippy burger is a dirty, dirty legend” – the best-named burger on British menus and “if not the easiest burger to eat definitely the tastiest” (especially when chased down by a boozy “hard shake”) – at the “cool” chain founded 15 years ago by Scott Collins and Yianni Papoutsis. The expansion of recent years seems to have ground to a halt with the closure of branches in Boxpark Croydon and Clapham Old Town, with a new strategy based around boosting sales via a national network of delivery kitchens launched in 2023. Top Tip – “root beer is available if you want a bit of real Americana!”
13. The Little Fish Market
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
10 Upper Market St - BN3
“What a spot!” – working solo, chef Duncan Ray “turns out five-star dishes, each one meticulously thought out, beautiful and tasty”, to just 20 guests at a sitting in this “hidden away” seafood specialist in Hove. With a big reputation after 10 years in business, it’s now “hard to actually get a table in such a small venue” – but “well worth trying” for the “sublime experience”.
14. La Choza
Mexican restaurant in Brighton
36 Gloucester Rd - BN1
2023 Review: Decked out with neon lights, graffiti, sugar skulls and vivid flowers, this ten-year-old cantina has also spawned a (larger) Hove spin-off. Such feedback as we have says its “great value, with really enjoyable food” – more reports please!
15. Gingerman
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
21a Norfolk Sq - BN1
This “little gem of a side-street restaurant, just up from the sea front” delivers “tastes that go Wow!”. The first in chef Ben McKellar & his wife Pamela’s successful local group, it has maintained “the same standards as ever” for more than 25 years now. Top Menu Tip – “there’s always a delicious soufflé for pudding!”.
16. Iydea
Vegetarian restaurant in Brighton
17 Kensington Gardens - BN1
2022 Review: “A fire before lockdown, followed by Covid restrictions, mean it's been a tricky time for this well-loved Brighton institution”, but the “fabulous” North Laine veggie and vegan café is happily once again back in business. “Beyond-delicious food, lovely people and a great atmosphere” ensure that it's “definitely worth a visit even if you’re not vegetarian”.
17. Isaac@
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
2 Gloucester Street - BN1
2023 Review: Isaac Bartlett-Copeland’s ambitious and ultra-local operation in Brighton’s boho North Laine is “so original and never the same twice”, with its ‘taste of Sussex’ menus and an all-English list of wines. The “NYC vibe” goes too far for some tastes (“well-meaning front of house told us everything, and I mean absolutely everything, about every dish…”)
18. Fatto a Mano
Pizza restaurant in Brighton
25 Gloucester Road - BN1
This popular Neapolitan-style pizza pie joint (born in 2015) now has three outlets in Brighton and Hove – plus a newer one in King’s Cross; solid ratings, if little in the way of feedback this year, but what there was reported the pizzas “excellent” (they do pizzas of the month, and also run a pizzaiolo competition).
19. Bincho Yakitori
Japanese restaurant in Brighton
63 Preston Street - BN1
“This real hidden gem” serving “Japanese yakitori skewers with sensational flavours” is “the favourite restaurant of many people in and around Brighton” – “the only problem is it’s so popular it’s hard to get a table”. “We love sitting at the counter watching the chefs”, led by founder David Miney, who picked up the authentic techniques while working in Japan before opening here nine years ago.
20. Basketmakers Arms
British, Traditional restaurant in Brighton
12 Gloucester Rd - BN1
2023 Review: This “little” Victorian boozer on a North Laine corner is “a bit away from the centre but not far from the station, so perfect when arriving at lunchtime” – “the menu’s not massive, which is usually a good sign, and you’ll find Sunday roast, fish ’n’ chips, and classic pub dishes”.
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