Brighton’s Best Restaurants for Business Lunches & After Work Dinners

I have no doubt about the best place to eat, and the best thing to eat, in Brighton. It’s a hot kipper roll and a cup of tea from Jack and Linda’s Smokehouse on the beach. As a lunch venue, however, you need to pick your companions carefully. The sun doesn’t always shine, the seagulls don’t always respect your personal space, or food, and it’s going to be a little unorthodox for some. Of course, it’s even possible that some people won’t like kippers. Stranger things have been known. Well there’s many other fishy and seafood treats and a really great cup of Gazpacho to be had. But go to Jack and Linda’s with your very best friends.

There are plenty of other venues in Brighton whether it be for a business lunch with clients or after work dinner with colleagues.

So which are Brighton’s best restaurants? Here’s a few of our favourites…

64 Degrees Restaurant

64 Degrees Restaurant is a small open kitchen restaurant by Great British Menu 2017 winner chef Michael Bremner. It’s one of the places that makes Brighton special. It features small plates of innovative food prepared with high quality, fresh, ingredients. It will impress foodies especially those with a taste for innovation and creativity. Do book in advance, there’s very little chance of getting in otherwise.

• Web: 64 Degrees Restaurant
• 53 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB
• Email: info@64degrees.co.uk
• Tel: 01273 770115

Silo

Head chef and owner, Doug McMaster was formerly part of St John’s in London. The flavours in his cuisine are futuristic and inventive with the additional bonus of being extremely sustainable for the environment. The business aims to be ‘zero waste’, they churn their own butter, make their own almond milk and are proud of their ‘nose to tail ideology’ using every part of the animals which end up as part of their meat dishes. Silo wears it’s heart on it’s sleeve and doesn’t compromise it’s principles. For that, along with some really excellent cooking, we applaud it.

• Web: Silo
• 39 Upper Gardner Street, Brighton, BN1 4AN
• Email: reservations@silobrighton.com
• Tel: 01273 674 259

Goeman

Goeman nearly didn’t make it onto this list because, at heart, I am selfish. I’ve had some of the tastiest food I’ve eaten in Brighton here, the staff are friendly and cheerful, it’s great value and a generally pleasant place to be. It’s also getting to be very popular and one of these days I’m going to get my timing wrong and will have to wait for a table. But I’m not really that selfish, so I’m sharing. The Ramen is excellent and available is small, medium and large. The pumpkin croquets are a thing of beauty and wonder and their grilled Gyoza better than some I’ve paid twice the price for in the trendy corners of Charlotte Street. I have every intention of slowly working my way through the menu. Goeman are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and get busy by 1pm.

• Web: Goeman
• 12 Preston St, Brighton BN1 2HN
• Tel: 01273 241226

Plateau

Modern French food and Sulphur free wines, what more could you ask for? Probably an afternoon off to follow. Plateau is a lovely relaxed venue in central Brighton with sharing platers and a choice of individual mains, always good for people who find sharing awkward. It’s worth visiting just for the ever-changing wine list which features organic, biodynamic and natural varieties. Come what may, you won’t want to be parsimonious when it comes from the small and very tempting selection of deserts.

• Web: Plateau
• Bartholow Mews, Brighton, BN1 1HG
• Email: info@plateaubrighton.co.uk
• Tel: 01273 733085

Murmur

It’s hard to resist the lure of the beach. And for friends and clients from London a trip to Brighton is always enhanced by a spot of ozone and a glimpse of the waves. Michael Bremner’s new restaurant (see 64 degrees, above) focuses on fish and seafood but there is plenty on the menu for ichthyophobs, meat lovers and vegetarians. It’s all a lot more traditional than 64 degrees but still very relaxed. I was a bit underwhelmed by over attentive service and less than generous portions on an early visit but that may have been teething problems now long ironed out.

• Web: Murmur
• 91-96 Kings Road Arches, Brighton
• Email: info@murmur-restaurant.co.uk
• Tel: 01273 711900

Market

A popular venue for business lunches, Market is from the team behind, and indeed based in the very venue of, the much praised, now closed, Graze. Market offers a good selection of Spanish inspired small plates along with some larger portions from an open kitchen. Lovers of the pig, or at least lovers of eating bits of the pig, will be very happy here. They also serve a wide range of very fish and veggie dishes including some very good salads. They have a better than decent wine list with a pleasing selection of both Sherry and desert wines. Relaxed and friendly just over the border in Hove, Market is accessible but likely to impress.

• Web: Market
• 42 Western Road, Hove, BN3 1JD
• Email: info@market-restaurantbar.co.uk
• Tel: 01273 823707

Fourth and Church

A bit of a walk from central Brighton but you are rewarded by a relaxed vibe, excellent wines and an imaginative but reliable menu. Church and Fourth deserve a mention because they are a passionate, independent wine merchant providing an alternative to the mass produced, soulless homogeny of the supermarkets. I’ll stop now before I enter full rant mode. Their menu is mainly small plates (what is it with Brighton and small plates?) and snacks but plenty for a working lunch. The world is a better place because of people like Church and Fourth.

• Web: Fourth and Church
• 84 Church Road, Hove, BN3 2EB
• Email: mail@fourthandchurch.com
• Tel: 01273 724709

Drakes

A spot more traditional, and a spot more indulgent than some of the other restaurants on our list but when we last looked they were offering three courses from their lunch menu for £20, as opposed to their already great value £25. So why not? The wine list, while excellent, features a couple of bottles for around £20 and then leaps up those scary bottles with triple figure price tags. There is a good selection of wine by the glass and half bottle for those amongst us with restraint and discipline. The food is sophisticated modern European with attention to detail and creative flourishes that continue to impress. While their set lunch is, all considered, something of a bargain, it’s also our favourite place for an indulgent breakfast. But that’s a secret. Let’s not tell anyone.

• Web: Drakes
• 43-44 Marine Parade, Brighton, BN2 1PE
• email: info@drakesofbrighton.com
• Tel 01273 696934

So that’s a few of our choices. We’d love to hear where you head to for a working lunch, a quick bite with colleagues or the start of an indulgent afternoon off in Brighton. And what does your choice of venue say about you?