Craig Robson started out as a 14-year-old kitchen porter washing pans for cash in hand. Today, he is the Food and Beverage Director for 37 Malmaison and Hotel du Vin properties across the UK, shaping the restaurant and bar experiences that sit at the heart of two of the country’s most recognisable hotel brands. In this interview, Craig traces the journey that took him from the kitchen sink to the boardroom, explains how the Japanese-inspired rooftop concept SORA was born, and tells us why Brighton Marina felt like the natural home for it.
Please describe your role at Malmaison and Hotel du Vin.
I lead the food and beverage strategy across all 37 Malmaison and Hotel du Vin properties, which means shaping the restaurant and bar experiences that sit at the heart of both brands.
It is a role that brings together creativity, commercial thinking and operational reality.
The challenge is not just coming up with strong concepts, but making sure they drive guest demand, work for the teams delivering them, and perform commercially.
A concept can look brilliant on paper, but if it falls apart on a full terrace on a Saturday night, it is not a concept, it is just an idea.
Across Malmaison, that includes Chez Mal, our brasserie and bar, the Josper grill offer, which is all about flame, smoke and steak, and SORA, our Japanese-inspired rooftop restaurant and bar. With Hotel du Vin, we have Bistro du Vin and our collection properties, including One Devonshire Gardens, Avon Gorge and Cannizaro House.
Ultimately, my job is to make sure every part of the experience works together: the food, the drinks, the service, the atmosphere, the team, the guest journey and the commercial performance. The best hospitality feels effortless to the guest, but behind that is a huge amount of planning, detail and operational discipline.
Please can you share a whistle-stop tour of your career?
I had humble beginnings as kitchen porter when I was 14. Cash-in-hand, washing pans, doing what I was told. But it was the perfect place to start. As a KP, you see the whole machine: the pressure, the pace, the chefs, the front of house team, the panic and the pride when a service comes together.
From there, I worked my way through the business, first as a glass collector, then behind the bar at 18. By 21, I was supervising a restaurant, cocktail bar and club. It was chaotic, fast and brilliant. You learn a lot very quickly in that environment. How to read people. How to stay calm. How to keep a service going when everyone wants everything at once.
How to make a guest feel looked after, even when the room is spinning.
I moved into hotels and joined Malmaison in 2013 as Bar Manager in Liverpool, moved into food and beverage management, then general management, before becoming more involved in the group’s wider F&B strategy and the development of SORA.
So yes, I started off washing the plates. Now I help decide what goes on them. That is one of the best things about hospitality. If you are willing to work hard, learn every part of the business and stay curious, it can take you a very long way.
How did the SORA concept first come about?
SORA came from one of those moments where you either do the safe thing or you do the brave thing.
When we were opening Malmaison York, the rooftop was originally going to become Chez Mal. That would have been the obvious route. It was the known concept, the familiar option, the one everyone understood.
But the more we looked at the space, the more it felt like it deserved something else. It had height, views and energy. It was not a space that wanted to be ordinary. It had the potential to become a destination in its own right, somewhere people would choose, talk about and come back to.
That is where SORA started.
Malmaison has always had a bit of “dare to be different” in its DNA, and this felt like a chance to lean into that again. We created a couple of propositions, and the Asian-inspired idea was the one with the strongest guest and commercial potential. It had colour, atmosphere and potential. It felt in tune with the way people wanted to eat and drink: less formal, more social, full of flavour, and built around experience as much as the meal itself.
The honest answer is that we were not Japanese cuisine experts at the start. We had to put the work in. Covid gave us something hospitality almost never gives you: time. Time to test, taste, rethink, sharpen and go again.
John Woodward, our Chef Director, worked on the food. On the drinks side, we worked with James Boker, who was then a brand ambassador for House of Suntory and had worked in some of the best cocktail bars in Japan.
James brought in that understanding of Japanese cocktail culture, which is incredibly precise.
It is not just “make a drink and garnish it”. It is ice, glassware, balance, preparation, movement, detail. There is discipline in it, and that influenced how we built the bar.
Then came months of tasting, testing and refining. We wanted the Japanese inspiration to feel considered, not tokenistic, and the flavours to feel bold, balanced and beautifully put together. It was about taking the discipline and detail of Japanese food and drink, then creating something that felt elevated, generous and unmistakably SORA. At first, it was just an idea. At first, it was just an idea. Through that process, it became a restaurant and bar proposition with real identity, energy and purpose.
Why did you want to bring SORA to Brighton?
SORA means “sky” in Japanese, so the setting has always mattered. It is not just where the restaurant happens to be. It is part of the whole idea.
SORA should feel elevated: a place to look out, switch off and feel like you have escaped somewhere. Brighton Marina gives us that immediately. You have the waterfront setting, the open-air terrace and that feeling that you are somewhere slightly away from the city, even though you are still in Brighton. On the right day, with the sun out, a drink in your hand and plates arriving at the table, you could be on holiday.
Brighton also has the right personality for SORA. It is creative, independent, open-minded and full of people who enjoy food, drink and experiences that feel a bit different. This is not a city where you can just open something average and expect people to be impressed. Brighton knows good hospitality.
The Marina is interesting too, because it is beautiful, but it needs fresh reasons for people to come back and spend time there. SORA gives it a bit of theatre. It gives people a reason to cross that bridge and say, “Actually, let’s make a night of it.”
For us as a business, Brighton is exciting because it tests SORA in a new way. We know it works in York. We know it works in Manchester. Brighton has its own rhythm, its own locals, its own visitors and its own food scene. That makes it a strong test of how SORA can flex across different markets while still feeling unmistakably itself.
What should diners expect from SORA?
SORA is high-end casual dining, but with the formality taken out.
It is relaxed, colourful, social and full of flavour.
You are not locked into starter, main, dessert. The food comes out in waves. It is designed for sharing, talking, tasting and ordering a bit more because the table next to you has something that looks good. That is part of the fun. A bit of sushi, something from the Robata grill, something crispy, something glazed, something spicy, another round of drinks because the sun is still out.
It is also very visual. The plates have colour, the cocktails have personality, and the whole thing feels vibrant. Japanese-inspired food can sometimes feel quite serious or intimidating, but SORA is deliberately more approachable. It has quality and craft behind it, but it is not trying to make people feel like they need a rule book to enjoy it.
You can come for a Bento Box at lunch, a Matcha Piña Colada on the terrace, afternoon tea without the finger sandwiches, a date night, a work gathering, or a big group dinner.
For me, that is why SORA in Brighton works. It lets guests use the space in different ways. From a business point of view, that flexibility matters because the same concept can work across lunch, drinks, dinner, groups, events and hotel guests.
What are your standout dishes?
The Korean Fried Cauliflower is a bit of a quiet hero on the menu.
Its vegan, crispy, sticky, savoury, a little bit fiery, and completely moreish. It has that dangerous quality where you say, “I’ll just have one more,” and then suddenly the bowl is empty.
What I love is that it holds its own against everything else on the menu. We have had tastings with wagyu, tuna, salmon and beautiful premium ingredients, and people still talk about the cauliflower. There is something very satisfying about the humble cauliflower stealing the show.
The Black Cod with Miso Glaze is another standout. It is rich, silky and full of that deep, savoury-sweet miso flavour. It has that melt-in-the-mouth texture that makes people go quiet for a second, which is usually a good sign.
Then there is the Robata grill. That is where you get the smoke, the char and the sizzle. Pork belly, chicken yakitori, skewers cooked over heat, glossy with flavour. It is the kind of food that makes the table lean in.
The Dragon Roll is great if you want sushi, and the Taste of SORA menu is perfect if you do not know where to begin. It gives you a proper flavour of the concept without having to overthink the order. There is a vegan version too, which is important in a market like Brighton.
The best way to eat at SORA is to order a mix, share everything, and accept that someone will absolutely try to take the last piece of cauliflower.
Why is SORA a great addition to Brighton and the Marina?
SORA gives people a reason to rediscover the Marina.
Brighton has a brilliant food scene, but SORA brings something that feels a bit different. It is not just dinner. It is the view, the terrace, the drinks, the music, the sharing plates, the energy. It is that feeling of arriving somewhere and thinking, “This is going to be a good night.”
For locals, it is flexible. You can use it for lunch, after-work drinks, date night, birthdays, group dinners, afternoon tea, business lunches or just a drink in the sun. It is not one-dimensional.
For the Marina, I think it is important because places need fresh energy. People need a reason to rediscover somewhere they think they already know. SORA can help do that.
There is free parking, there is the view, there is the water, and now there is a food and drink concept that makes the most of the setting.
The best restaurants give people a feeling as much as a meal. That is what we want SORA Brighton to do. We want people to feel like they have escaped for a few hours, even if they are only ten minutes from home.
