Having first visited Brighton with my family in the 1980s on our way to France, I have fond memories of sailing from its port to Dieppe, Fecamp, or Le Harve. I returned for a JISC program meeting in July 2004, where I stayed at the lavish Grand Hotel. Although I found it a bit too posh for my liking, I enjoyed dinner at a French restaurant in The Lanes—likely a now-closed Café Rouge. Another visit took place in June 2005 during a holiday in Bognor Regis. Last year, I had planned to stop in Brighton for a meal on a driving holiday to the continent, but I ran out of time and ended up in Horsham instead. Attending a conference there this week has been a pleasure, and it’s been great to see the city once again. I especially enjoyed the conference dinner on the Brighton Palace Pier and all the great food I ate while I was there.
Having enjoyed both the cassoulet and the bouillabaisse, it was something of a no brainer that on my final evening, I would go back to Petit Pois for dinner.
The bistro had a casual, French-inspired atmosphere with wooden tables and chairs. The walls were decorated with an eclectic mix of art and objects, and the place was bustling with people. I was lucky to get a table.
I decided I would try out the set menu, I did plan only to have a starter and a main course, but in the end, I had three courses. There are a limited number of choices at each stage of the fixed menu, but I think that’s a good thing.
For my starter I went with the crispy calamari. This is a dish I regularly have when eating out.
The calamari came with a mixed salad, lemon, and aioli. The calamari was best described as okay, maybe I had unrealistic expectations having had some great food at Petit Pois. It was crispy and actually quite flavoursome; however. I felt maybe it was a little overcooked.
For my main I had initially decided I would have the steak frites, but that is something I can cook, and I have had that at other places. Looking over the menu I went with the skate wing, crushed new potatoes, courgette ribbons, capers, and butter sauce.
After the slightly disappointing calamari, the skate was an incredible dish. The skate was grilled to perfection. It was sat upon a bed of crushed potatoes. I liked the courgette ribbons, and the sauce brought everything together. The skate was cooked well and was easy to remove from the bone. I really enjoyed the skate; the whole dish was delicious.
I had intended to only have two courses but then I am a sucker for cheese and biscuits. The assistte de fromage came with chutney, grapes, celery and crackers. There was a choice of cheeses, I left it up to the chef but asked for no goat’s cheese.
This was a pretty serving slate, there were three different kinds of crackers, a small bowl of chutney, a few grapes, a slice of something, think it was made of figs. There were three small pieces of cheese, some camembert, a blue cheese and a hard cheese. The cheese was quite ripe, and had sweated in some instances, but was flavourful. It was also quite difficult to find amongst the other stuff on the slate.
Overall, I was pleased with the meal, all the dishes were nice, however the skate was outstanding. That skate more than made up for the shortcomings of the calamari and the cheese.