helenah

Food was good but not exceptional. I agree on the service - it was poor. Although it is still early days. From aperitifs, through to extra bottles of mineral water, bottles of wine, extra glasses of wine, chocolate truffles, a jug of tap water - something was forgotten from the order and we had to work hard to catch someone's eye to remind them. This was partly because a group of floor staff stayed permanently huddled by the door chatting and keeping an eye on Ruth Rogers table and ignoring everyone else. Very frustrating! Also interesting to see the manager with his coat on at the bar drinking a glass of wine before departing at 10pm, leaving a full restaurant in flow. Might not have made such a bad impression if the service had been up to scratch.

Neals Yard Dairy. They have several British unpasteurised butters.

Again, this is in Brighton - well, Hove actually. Brighton and Newhaven Fish Sales, or BNFS for short, can be found just past Hove Lagoon: South Quay, Basin Road South, Aldrington Basin Tel 01273 430646. They supply a good chunk of Brighton restaurants (including us) and have a thriving retail shop with a very good selection. Worth a trip to try them out. Website www.brighton-fish-sales.co.uk

....and very good it is too! (Actually, he only looks after Lewes and Hove. He's not that good at paninis.)

Also, the Real Eating Company is in Horsham - a smaller version of what we do in Hove and Lewes. We run Steamer Trading's cafe on East Street. Coffees, cakes (which we make in our restaurant kitchen) sandwiches, soups etc - plus some deli goods. Sally Clarke's bread, Brindisa olive oil, Rococo chocolates etc

We've just got back to the UK having spent some time eating and drinking our way round California. We stayed close to La Jolla for a while and tried some of their restaurants: Georges at the Cove - we went to their more casual dining place upstairs. No reservations needed but a waiting list in operation. Get there early if you want a table. Open terrace overlooking the sea - fantastic view. And we thought very good food. Definitely recommend. The smarter restaurant ldownstairs looked extremely good and was also very busy -clearly the 'in' place with the locals. Trattoria Acqua - average Italian-style food further along Prospect Street. OK. Alfonsos - Mexican opposite Georges at the Cove. Very casual and very busy. We didn't like it but that could be our British palate! It was obviously very popular. We thought there was just too much fat (everything completely covered in cheese, sour cream and guacamole) and stodge (lots of chips, tacos etc all very greasy). You can imagine when you combine it with a few margaritas you don't walk away feeling very well.

I would go to the Gingerman at Drakes for Saturday dinner. Fantastic food prepared by a chef who is still clearly passionate about what he does - it shows in the menu and the food. My top tip for Sunday lunch would be a relative newcomer to the Brighton restaurant scene - Riddle & Finns. It's a shellfish/seafood and champagne bar set up about 3 months ago by the owners of Due South. Its quite small and is in the Lanes (and not along the seafront as you might have hoped) but despite its less than obvious location, it is wonderful and just what Brighton needs. Lots of oysters, heaving platters of shellfish, great chips and salads, potted crab, whitebait etc and all very good quality. They serve several champagnes by the glass and have a good wine list. Puddings are limited but if you've worked your way through the shellfish platter don't know if you'll manage anything else .

After VAT, sort of the same example: Cost of sales 30% Staff 30% All other overheads 30% Profit 10% All food that is ordered by the kitchen should really be covered by your GP - this includes any wastage (which hopefully there won't be very much of!) as well as staff meals. Some restaurants also include the cost of kitchen laundry within their GP (rather than as an overhead).

There are many successful restaurants run and owned by chefs/managers as well as some that fail. Having hands-on experience running a kitchen or working front of house is not what I think ultimately makes or breaks a business though. I think it is as important, if not more so, to have a very good understanding of what the restaurant overall has to deliver to survive - whether it's keeping your customers satisfied, your staff happy and motivated, an awareness of what your competition are up to and have an idea of where your business is heading generally. This may make you more reliant on your staff than you would like to be, but ultimately I think that key staff who are good have to have some real input into a business and feel they have some autonomy over their teams/depts in order to get the best from them. No-one is indispensable though - even the owner. As a business, it must function this way. If one person takes this piss, and of course the law of averages dictates that this happens occassionally, the rest of the team generally don't tolerate it. I'm not a great believer in luck or crossing fingers when it comes to opening a restaurant with often hundreds of thousands of pounds at stake. This is again why I think that business expertise is probably more important than hands-on experience.

I am happy to help with your financial planning. I set up a restaurant 3 years ago and would have really benefitted from some hard facts and data. The first thing I would stress though is do not just toy with the idea of opening a restaurant. It will cost a lot of money as well as your sanity for the first 12 months I would agree that first and foremost, it is a business and should be run as such from the start. Not sure I agree with other comments that you need practical, hands-on experience. As long as you set your staff budgets that they are expected to work to and that they understand what you are trying to achieve, it can work without you having to prove that you can cook, serve customers, empty the dishwasher, pay in the cash etc etc. Your three biggest on-going costs or overheads will be: property (rent, rates, repairs, utilities, insurance); your cost of sales (the raw ingredients) which will be in direct proportion to your profit margin on food, alcoholc etc and finally labour. And of course don't forget the VAT man. The best starting point is to look at what you need to turnover each week to break-even, allowing for these key things. The first year you will almost certainly lose money, the second break-even and the third start making a profit. But that is where you passion and belief in what you are doing will carry you through! Starting a restaurant is not for the faint-hearted If you want specific advice, maybe email me off-line?

Try www.montezumas.co.uk. They're a Sussex-based company with some shops dotted around the South East and I think one about to open in Spitalfields. But you can shop on-line. Their chocolate is very good (at least on a par with Rococco if not better)and their dark 73% is especially good. They also do a variety of novelty flavours and shapes, as well as kilo bars (this may be a special order though).

On your logistics, there is an amazing hotel called Mas de Torrent, about 30 mins taxi ride from Can Fabes. It is a Relais & Chateaux hotel, that not surprisingly has a very good restaurant www.mastorrent.com. Beautiful setting, wonderful rooms....and great food, if you feel you can eat any more!

I have thought about organising a regular food market in Hove but, to be honest, I haven't got the will to battle with the council for years and get absolutely nowhere. Customers I know want us to do it but I think I would lose the will to live if I tried dealing with the bureaucrats.....I really don't understand what the problem is with Brighton and Hove...they seem to be able to manage good farmers markets in most other towns and cities in Sussex (my favourite is Lewes the first saturday of every month). A great place to buy fish is brighton and newhaven fish sales, down by Hove Lagoon. Most (good) restaurants in Brighton get their fish from them and it is straight off the boats. They now have quite a large retail section, where they've got a really good selection. I even managed to buy some fantastic razor clams from them last week. A sorry state of affairs though is when the majority of their wholesale catch gets shipped to Paris every week, where they seem to appreciate it more than us Brits