I'm feeling a little out of touch with the restaurant scene in Brighton since having my little boy. The days of great meals out, wine, cocktails, and wallowing in the subsequent hangover have long since gone! However, It was my partner's birthday so we decided to celebrate with a long overdue date night. With both top two restaurants on my to-do list fully booked, I stumbled on the newly opened Jetty restaurant and was impressed by the menu which has a focus on seafood. Babysitter booked we were ready to go.
We arrived slightly late due to a problem with the trains (surprise, surprise) but were seated with no issue. The restaurant has a very nice ambience, friendly and relaxed, even with the stark bare concrete walls. We were presented with a menu and decided on cocktails and a tempura prawn appetiser. I went for a peach blossom aperitif and my partner a strawberry spritz - both were delicious and gave us a taste of what the cocktail bar has to offer - we are already planning a cocktail tasting date night! The tempura prawns were tasty but very small for a £2 each price tag. We questioned this at the end and were told that they had sold out of the big ones. Fair enough, but I would have expected a discount for this.
Starters were next, a seafood soup for M and Tuna and Avocado for me. Mine was lovely but the tuna could have been a little more rare and the avocado came in ice cream form (which I love) but was missing the wasabi kick that was stated on the menu. The seaweed accompaniment worked well, however. Moving on to mains, I went for the plaice. Unfortunately, it had been deboned meaning the dish lacked on presentation, however the flavours were good, my partner went for the cod and crab dish. There was quite a long wait between starters and mains, apparently due to something going awry in the kitchen, but this wasn't a problem. Puddings followed - a delicious passionfruit soufflé for me and peanut butter parfait for the other half - both amazing!
Drinks wise, we had a lovely bottle of Sauvignon/Sémillon. Unlike the tables around us, the bottle was kept in a cooler away from our table. This wouldn't have been a problem if the wait staff could of maintained an awareness of our drinks, but we did have to keep asking for refills which was a little annoying. We also went for matched dessert wines which finished off the meal nicely.
Our waiter was very courteous and friendly, and did a fantastic job given that he had only worked there a week.
The bill was a little on the high side for the quality of the food. £150 for two is verging on Michelin star prices. However, we had a wonderful night and would definitely return, hoping that the small errors are ironed out given a little more time. Definitely good to have another great food option in Brighton. read more