After six weeks of public voting, the winners of the 2022 BRAVOs are announced (Tuesday 5 April). The BRAVOs (Brighton Restaurant Awards Vote Online), are Brighton and Hove’s only entirely publicly generated food and drink awards. It produces top-20 lists over 16 categories. The winners are featured in the ‘best for’ listings for a whole year.
The first-place winners in each category are:
Afternoon tea, The Grand Brighton
Brunch, Starfish and Coffee
Best cafe, Moksha Caffe
Best restaurant, Burnt Orange
Best cocktails GungHo!
Best local The Geese
Best roast Haus on the Hill
Best team Jo & Co
International Bincho Yakitori
Best wine list Plateau
For the family Fatto a Mano
Plant champions The Roundhill
Sussex finest Pitch
Eat well for less Smorl’s
Sustainable The Roundhill
Good to go Carlito Burrito
Highlights from the 2022 BRAVOs
The most coveted of all the BRAVOs is Best Restaurant, which this year sees newcomer, Burnt Orange, jump to first place. Burnt Orange is the youngest sibling in the successful BlackRock Group (The Coal Shed, The Salt Room). Since opening in June 2021 the all-day bar and restaurant has gained local and national praise.
Former winners of the best restaurant BRAVO include Duncan Ray’s The Little Fish Market (2019) and Steven Edwards’ etch. (2018). Securing the BRAVO for 2022 cements Burnt Orange’s position and reputation among the very best of Brighton’s restaurants.
In 2020 independent vegan pub, The Roundhill made national and international press by winning the BRAVO for best roast, pipping establishments that served a full menu of meat and plant roasts to the prize. This year they’ve scooped up two awards (a BRAVO first) for plant champions and most sustainable. This achievement comes ahead of the opening of their new vegan fine dining restaurant, Kokadema, on East Street.
Co-owner Max Aben said:
“Brighton is often voted one of the best places in the world for vegan food and we are so proud to be at the forefront of this!
Winning Sustainable Eats shows that eating a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to help the environment.”
Friendly rivalry
This year, the highly sought after best roast goes to Haus on the Hill, a Brighton Bier pub, returning the gaze of roast aficionados to Hanover. Haus on the Hill also secured second place for best local, adding local praise to the microbrewery’s collection of awards. For seriously good pubs eyes are now very much on Southover, with The Geese coming in first place for best local, while also making a top-three spot in best roast.
The BRAVOs encourage friendly rivalry between local businesses in the race to the crowns and two such rivals continue to battle it out for best cafe (Moksha Caffe, North Laine) and best brunch (Starfish and Coffee, Hanover).
Tony Marks, owner of Starfish and Coffee said:
I’m absolutely gobsmacked to have won the Best Brunch award again. We’re only a small cafe, on a street with very little footfall, so to have won four BRAVOs in a row is just incredible. We love our little spot on the corner of Queens Park and Hanover and our customers really are the best in Brighton!
