Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Hove
Hardens guides have spent 31 years compiling reviews of the best Hove restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 64 restaurants in Hove and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Hove restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Hove Restaurants
1. Terre à Terre
Vegetarian restaurant in Brighton
71 East St - BN1
“Still the best vegetarian after all these years” – this epic Lanes destination remains many reporters’ nomination as top veggie in the country. “The menu is creative and full of wonderful descriptions” (“not a nut roast in sight!”) and delivers “complex” cuisine, whose “unusual and amazing tastes are definitely a gastronomic experience for vegetarians, and meat eaters are wowed too!”.
2. La Choza
Mexican/TexMex restaurant in Brighton
36 Gloucester Rd - BN1
2018 Review: “Fun, chaotic, loud, colourful and wipe-clean” North Laine street-food bar which provides “everything you need for messy Mexican food with lots of friends”, including “lethal margaritas” and “superb” burritos and nachos.
3. The Set
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
50 Preston Road - BN1
2021 Review: Eat from a “tempting short menu” (“there’s no longer just a set menu”) at Dan Kenny’s funky former pop-up that’s now permanently parked in a “relaxed and quiet” location, within a trendy boutique hotel. “How can kale taste like heaven? How can sultanas make such an intense jam? How can rhubarb zing in an eclair? Go visit The Set and discover for yourself!” But hurry – in December 2020, Kenny announced that the restaurant would cease trading at the end of March 2021.
4. The Coal Shed
Steaks & grills restaurant in Brighton
8 Boyces St - BN1
“Always a pleasure, always full” – the grilled meat at Razak Helalat’s Brighton original has won a loyal following, and spawned a London branch near Tower Bridge. According to fans, “it remains the best place to get an expensive steak in Brighton”.
5. The Chilli Pickle
Indian restaurant in Brighton
17 Jubilee St - BN1
“Still the leading Indian restaurant in Brighton” – this lively Arts Quarter staple “really packs a punch” with its “delicious” dishes, and regulars are pleased to report that it “has picked up after a couple of indifferent years”.
6. The Salt Room
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
106 Kings Road - BN1
“The best terrace of any restaurant not directly on the beach, and serving some of the best fish in Brighton” – the twin key selling points of this successful and “friendly” seafood brasserie near the old West Pier: one of the most commented-on destinations in the city. If eating inside, “ask for a window table” (“most of which have views overlooking the seafront”) “as the lower level is rather charmless” by comparison. In a June 2021 review The Daily Mail’s Tom Parker Bowles acclaimed ‘a feast to sate Neptune’ here. Our reporters are only a tad more reserved, praising its “excellent fresh, tasty, well-cooked and beautifully presented seafood”.
7. Fourth and Church
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
84 Church Road - BN3
“Now a major fixture on the Hove scene” – this neighbourhood deli-restaurant and wine shop (founded in 2015) makes a “lovely place to drop into and hang out at” and as a result is also a “destination for many” nowadays. Arguably “it’s all about the wine”: “a vast interesting aperitif offering and extensive selection of wine from the shelves”. But the “beautiful and clever” small dishes are “creative” too (and at weekends, a tasting menu is served). “Exactly what you hope eating out will be. You can also buy the wine and take out cheese. Perfect!”.
8. Wild Flor
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
42 Church Road - BN3
“A good alternative to The Gingerman” (and featuring some of their staff), this “pricey but stand-out” two-year-old bistro is “simply the best neighbourhood restaurant you could wish for”; in addition to the “interesting” seasonal dishes, the wine list generates particular excitement – “there are longer ones for sure but few pack in so much variety. It's a list written for wine lovers and sommelier Rob will guide you to a great bottle”.
9. Due South
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
139 Kings Road Arches - BN1
It’s a case of ‘Back to the Future’ at this beautifully situated site on the front, which operated here under the Due South name from 2004-2011, before becoming Riddle & Finns on the Beach. In May 2021, owner Rob Shenton decided to return to its former branding, having moved Riddle & Finns on the Beach to a new location nearby. No reports of the new, er old, regime as yet.
10. Urchin
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
15-17 Belfast St - BN3
A pub “for lovers of fruits de mer”, washed down with Larrikin craft beers from the on-site brewery. There’s “a short menu which could change a little more, but simple pub grub this ain’t” – and the “excellent seafood is so so delicious”.
11. Etch
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
216 Church Rd - BN3
Steven Edwards’s cooking is “breathtakingly good” at this converted bank in Hove, near the seafront, where diners can choose to eat five, seven or nine courses. The venue from a MasterChef: The Professionals winner has lived up to its early promise, generating enough trade to justify expansion and redesign, completed in late 2021, which has increased its size, taken on a new monochrome look and created a subterranean bar. There’s also a “great range of exceptional and different wines from across the world”.
12. The Ginger Pig
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
3 Hove St - BN3
“Just fantastic”, say fans of this Hove gastropub-with-rooms (from the local Gingerman group), which generates nothing but enthusiastic feedback. “I’ve been here lots, eaten lots of croquettes and pies, and every time it’s a winner…”, “year after year there’s nowhere better for wonderful seasonal local food”.
13. Market
restaurant in Brighton
42 Western Rd - BN3
2018 Review: A “really well-executed” two-year-old, on the former premises of Graze, and clad in verdant Victorian metro tiles; it combines a “fun atmosphere” and locally sourced small plates.
14. The Little Fish Market
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
10 Upper Market St - BN3
“Duncan Ray is one of the UK’s best but relatively unsung chefs”, say fans of his “small but perfectly formed” Hove 20-seater. “He continues to put 100% into improving the entire offer, not just the omakase-inspired tasting menu” (fish-centric, and entirely prepared by the aptly named Ray) “which is more sophisticated and delicious than ever, but also refurbished surroundings and a new front-of-house team”.
15. Gingerman
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
21a Norfolk Sq - BN1
“Simply fabulous every time we go and never failing to be both brilliant and very relaxed” – Ben & Pamela McKellar's “small, intimate” stalwart (the founding stone in the Ginger empire) continues to please its veritable army of fans.
16. La Choza Hove
Mexican/TexMex restaurant in Brighton
Western Road - BN1
2019 Review: “Fun Mexican, a notch above nearby chains” – this two-storey Hove newcomer is larger than its six-year-old sibling on Gloucester Road in North Laine, and also takes bookings (at the original it’s just for larger parties). You can also just roll up for drinks here (there’s an extensive mescal list).
17. Murmur
British, Modern restaurant in Brighton
91-96 Kings Road Arches - BN1
Great British Menu winner Michael Bremner’s sibling to 64 Degrees, right under The Arches on the seafront, makes a “great place to eat outside by the promenade and watch the world go by while eating delicious fish!”. Feedback this year did suggest, however, that it's been “slightly off its game very recently”, with a number of reports featuring meals that were “a bit of a mixed bag”.
18. Shelter Hall
International restaurant in Brighton
Kings Road Arches - BN1
Close to the British Airways i360 observation tower, Brighton’s brand-new seafront food hall has launched in a restored Victorian building with a line-up of seven self-service eateries led by Sussex chefs, plus craft beer, wine and cocktail bars. Of particular note: Pan, from high-end chicken shop Lost Boys; Worthing golden boy Kenny Tutt's Ox Block for a Robata grill experience; and Brighton favourites VIP Pizza. The outdoor terrace is a real winner, too.
19. Bincho Yakitori
Japanese restaurant in Brighton
63 Preston Street - BN1
“The restaurant I return to again and again” – “once you’ve had the ridiculously tender pork belly or the hot, sweet and crispy Korean chicken wings you will be addicted” to David Miney’s elongated izakaya; even better, “unless you get seriously stuck into the sake list it's impossible to run up a big bill here”.
20. The Regency Restaurant
Fish & seafood restaurant in Brighton
131 Kings Rd - BN1
“Amazing fish and chips” of the old-school variety make this traditional seafront operation “a bit of an anachronism” in trendy contemporary Brighton – “but all the better for it”. There’s an “outstanding range of fresh fish and seafood”, all at “good-value” prices – no wonder it’s “always busy”.
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