Seven Dials Restaurant Brighton

[Andy Lynes]

Went to Sevendials Restaurant in Brighton on Friday night on a bit of a whim. The place has recieved good reviews locally and was also featured in the Guardian guide the day after we went. The chef is from London and has worked in 192, The Groucho, Chez Nico and other places, but at what level and for how long I don't know.

The place has been converted from a Burger King and it looks like a great deal of money has been invested in it. Hardwood abounds from the floor to the tables and chairs. This is offset by lots of natural light, some abstract art and nicely dressed windows.

However, nothing could be done about the wedge shape of the buiding itself, and the dining room consequently lacks space for "good" tables. All are either too near the door, which opens on to one of Brighton's busiest roundabouts, or too near the bar and open kitchen pass. The nicest banquette tables in a relatively quiet corner away from the traffic of waiters and the traffic itself is in the smoking area of the room. Go figure.

The menu is relatively short (a good thing in my opinion) with around 8 starters, 6 mains and 5 desserts. I chose Oxtail ravioli with parsnip puree to start and salmon with spinach and tomato hollandaise as a main course, whilst the missus had seared tuna with what I think was a marinated salad of mooli and carrot with sesame to start, and chicken with lentils and bacon for a main.

We started with an appetiser of slightly undercooked scrambled egg and good smoked salmon with some salad leaves (other tables recieved soup which would have been preferable as I had ordered salmon from the menu). This would have been improved by the addition of a blini or a crouton to add a little crunch. Bread is poor and tastes like commercial sliced "premuim" loaves you get in the supermarket these days.  

My oxtail came in thin pasta, sat in the puree and adorned by deep fried parsnip crisps and parsley. This was a nice idea , but lacked flavour and was under seasoned.

The tuna was served properly rare, but the dish as a whole was underwhelming, with the salad being of little interest. Simon Hopkinson has an excellent recipe for Thai salad along similar lines which would have improved things no end if it had been used.

The chicken was a smallish breast sat on a large bowl of lentils du puy and bacon with more of the deep fried parslay that had come with the ravioli. It was ok but culinery fireworks were conspicuous by their absense.

The salmon was perfectly cooked but the tomato in the hollandaise did nothing to improve the sauce and I would have prefered the original and best version.

The main courses read from the menu as a rather dull collection, including mushroom risotto, fillet of beef, braised leg of lamb and skate. This seemed to be playing it a little to safe, compared even to the opening menu at the restaurant which had featured partridge, halibut and red mullet.

We decided against puddings, which again included the over familiar in terms of creme brulee and sticky toffee pudding.

The bill for 2 X 2 courses, a bottle of house chardonnay, a gin and tonic and a beer came to £63.00 including 12% service charge. Service appeared to be well organised, but our waitress seemed to be a bad mood the whole time we were there. I was a little annoyed to hear other tables being offered a starter of seared fois gras as a special after we had ordered. We had not been given the option for some reason. Although very busy, the room lacked atmosphere, which may be a result of the less than fully engaged front of house staff.

Overall, Sevendials has not yet pulled itself above the general rather mediocre standards of Brighton's restaurants. It may have the potential, but there needs to be more care taken in the construction of dishes, ensuring the food delivers the expected degree of flavour (the mmmmm factor is missing at the moment) and that customer care is made number one priority.

http://www.sevendialsrestaurant.co.uk/

(Edited by Andy Lynes at 10:49 am on Jan. 13, 2002)

(Edited by Andy Lynes at 10:52 am on Jan. 13, 2002)

[Andy Lynes]

Jay rayner has reviewed Seven Dials in the Observer today : click

In his review, he poses the question "where the hell were the rest of you? Brighton is full of Observer readers. Some of you even have a little taste. But plainly not enough to get you up to Sevendials. We went on a Friday lunchtime and we were the only people there. "

Well Jay, I can't speak the whole population of the town, but I know that on the day you were there, one Brighton based "Observer reader with a little taste" was almost certainly sat in his office, bored out of his mind and no doubt more than a little peckish.

[jayrayner]

rest assured, my observer email box is stuffed full of messages form irate brighton residents telling me I have no taste or judgement. So that's one town the Observer doesn't have to trouble itself distributing to any more. ALl i can say is that I wrote as I - and Henry Harris - found on the day.

j

[Andy Lynes]

I was trying to make you feel bad about not inviting me along, I'm willing to believe it's improved in the 14 months or so since I was there, although I have to say word on the grapevine to not great.

[Charlene Leonard]

Went here last weekend for a Hen night. We hired the private dining room “the Vaults” which is in the basement of this former bank. The room comfortably seats 14 and has its own bar and sound system so you can bring your own music but we were happy with their funky chilled selection. They had no problem with us putting out “amusing” place mats and sparklers and service was friendly and efficient from the start. We started with a Cosmopolitan which was enamel strippingly strong hence perfect for the start of a hen weekend!

A pre starter of pea soup was ok, I don’t really like peas so it was never going to bowl me over. I had to pre-choose 3 starters, mains and desserts for the group (£23 for 2 course, £26 for 3). I picked Open lasagne of shrimp and mussel with caper cream, Warm salad of duck confit with grilled red peppers and raspberry vingarette and Asparagus with poached egg and chive butter for starters. Mains were Chicken with butter mushrooms, smoked bacon, morels and mashed potatoes, Grilled halibut with purple sprouting broccoli and tomato hollandaise and Asparagus and golden cross goat cheese asparagus. Hence the veggie had to have asparagus for both courses. Duck salad was fine, the confit was a bit to dry and the portions seemed to vary considerably around the table. The hailbut was way over cooked and as Andy said the tomato added nothing to the hollandaise. I ordered a side of fried artichokes which turned out to be Jerusalem artichokes, these were delicious, sliced artichokes in a light crispy well seasoned batter.

Puddings were passion fruit crème brulee, chocolate amaretto fudge pot with raspberries and cheese. The cheese was too sweaty but that’s all I remember by this point.

Service was excellent, and whilst the food was no more than OK it was the perfect place for a hen night. Bill was £460 for 12 which was exceptional value.

[Andy Lynes]

Charlene, any reviews of the bars of Brighton for us, or did it all get a bit blurry once you left 7 dials?

[Charlene Leonard]

would it be really sad to say that on both nights we ended up back at the Premier Lodge Hotel Bar? (hides face in shame)

[Andy Lynes]

Shame on you!!

[Basildog]

Nice of you to post a photo from your trip to Brighton as your avatar Charlene, whose your mate?