Places to eat in Brighton

With so many excellent eateries to choose from, it’s not hard to find somewhere to satisfy your hunger. The difficulty comes in sifting through the hundred-odd restaurants in Brighton and finding the ones that’ll knock your socks off. The good news is we’ve done some of the hard work for you; we’ve made our way through the menus, gorged on gazpacho, conquered the Crème brûlées, and fell the filet mignon to give you our pick of the best bistros, restaurants, chippies, curry houses and pizzerias in Brighton. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.

On the corner of Church Street and Portland Street (just a stone’s throw from our Brighton City Centre (North Street) hotel), you’ll find one of the best cafés in Brighton, The Coffee Counter. It offers a delicious menu for breakfast, brunch and lunch, including some of the best vegan offerings of any eatery in the city. The pancakes are pukka, the coffee cracking, they play good music, the staff are friendly, and the Reuben sandwich is well and truly magnificent.

Next to Brighton Open Market, you’ll find one of the absolute favourite places to eat in the city. The Sunbird Deli is essentially culinary heaven if you like mezze boxes, baklava, wraps and similar selections of Mediterranean food. Again, it caters superbly for vegans, with a wide range of delicious dishes to choose from. It’s cheap, it’s charming, and well worth checking out.

If you’re looking for somewhere near Brighton Beach, ThewitchEZ Photo Design Café Bar on the Marine Parade is well and truly one of a kind. It’s the brainchild of a group of web and graphic designers who realised they preferred working in cafés instead of offices, so they decided to set up their own. It’s no gimmick, though. The menu is a collective of the team’s favourite dishes, and everything is freshly made. Having said that, you do have to wait a little longer for your food, but it’s well worth it; it’s genuinely some of the best in Brighton.

A short walk away, you can also try Wheat & Beans on St. James’s Street, which is a fab family-run independent café. All of their bread, pizzas and empanadas are baked fresh every single day. Their homemade cakes come in all tastes and guises, and they do great tea and coffee. But, best of all, the service can’t be faulted; you’ll always be given a warm welcome to this cosy den of delicious food and drink.

Staying in Kemptown, the Compass Point Eatery is one of the best-known and most popular of all the independent cafés in Brighton. So much so that you will have to reserve a table if you want to sample their exquisite food and revel in the quirky decor of their American style café. If you’re looking for a recommendation, the Compass Point Eatery pancakes may well be the best you ever eat.

Last but by no means least, we’ll make our way to the marina and the Laughing Dog. As the name might suggest, it’s a dog-friendly independent café that also serves as an art gallery, print studio and gift shop. It’s a big space, and there’s seating outside, so there’s plenty of room even at peak times. As you can expect from one of Brighton’s best, it’s another café that caters brilliantly for vegans. The Laughing Dog offers surprising value for money, which is more than can be said for many of the other places that enjoy a prime location in Brighton Marina.

Every Saturday, you can pick up some of the finest local produce in Brighton at the Florence Road Market. It’s a neighbourhood farmers’ market that sets up its stalls in the courtyard of One Church. You’ll find craft sourdough, fresh dairy straight from the farm, a local butcher, fishmongers, exceptional coffee, and delicious street food.

If it’s more street food you’re after, then you won’t want to miss out on Street Diner Brighton & Hove. It’s a street food market that takes place every single week on Fridays from 11am to 3pm in the gardens on the corner of Queens Road and Church Street. You can feast on everything from paella to Korean bao buns and Persian mezze. It’s less than a five-minute walk from our Brighton City Centre hotel, so if you’re staying with us on a Friday, we’d definitely recommend wandering over, gorging on some gorgeous food.