Meet the Restaurants Brighton Team: Local Food and Drink Experts in Brighton and Hove
Who Runs Restaurants Brighton? A Local, Family Owned Team of Food and Drink Experts
Restaurants Brighton is a local, independent and family owned food and drink guide to Brighton, Hove and Sussex, founded in September 2012 by husband and wife Nick Harvey and Ivanka Majic. Our team of five lives and works among the city’s neighbourhoods, from Hanover and Kemptown to Hove, Portslade and across Sussex, and between us we bring decades of experience in hospitality, marketing, food photography and food styling, journalism, television and user experience. We visit, photograph and write about the venues we feature ourselves, work with more than 120 local businesses, and run the BRAVO Brighton Restaurant Awards, the city’s public vote for its favourite places to eat and drink. This is what we believe in.
Nick
Nick Harvey is the founder of Restaurants Brighton and one of the city’s most experienced hospitality professionals. His career began at 16 in a Nottingham hotel and took him from silver service waiter and night manager to hotel general manager in the French Alps, overseas tour operations manager and Sales and Marketing Manager at Drakes Hotel, winner of the very first BAHBA award for best newcomer. With almost four decades in hospitality, tourism and marketing, Nick now spends his days visiting, photographing and writing about Brighton’s restaurants, and founded the BRAVO Awards to give the public a vote for their favourites.
Nick is a sales and marketing expert by day, a biker by night and a ski enthusiast for as many weeks as he can get away with. Nick is also part of the Restaurants Brighton food photography team and deals with our press enquiries.
Nick’s favourite places to eat and drink in Brighton and Hove
Living in Hanover, Nick is surrounded by some of Brighton’s best loved community pubs, and you will often find him at The Howard, The Haus on the Hill or The Dover Castle, all within a short stroll of his front door. He is a regular at the Hanover Beer Festival too, a highlight of the neighbourhood’s year.
For food, his all time favourite is Unithai in Hove, where he always orders 6C from the menu, a tangy, creamy seafood noodle soup he has never been able to resist. He has been a huge fan of The Coal Shed since the earliest days of Restaurants Brighton, and he and Ivanka love its seasonal lunch and pre theatre set menu, where a Caesar salad and a steak cooked over the fire have been firm favourites. The service, he says, is exemplary.
His new favourite lunch spot is Kernel Canteen, where the Glow Bowl with shawarma spiced chicken is hard to beat, served with turmeric rice, hummus and red shatta, Lebanese slaw, carrot and sweet potato with red pepper sauce, and a tomato and cucumber salad with sumac dressing.
Read Nick’s full story and his views on Brighton’s food scene in our interview with Nick Harvey.
IVANKA
Ivanka serves as Restaurants Brighton‘s technical backbone and a source of emotional support. If there’s a problem with a piece of technology or you’re feeling a bit blue, she’s the one to speak to. When she isn’t helping us she can be found doing user research and design for the likes of Wellcome, Labour, or a government department. She is an active campaigner for climate change and likes to make sure that Restaurants Brighton is a sustainable business by all definitions of the word. Ivanka is also currently working with the University of Brighton to implement a restaurants sustainability toolkit and leads on our Women in Hospitality events plus backs the Brighton and Hove Living Wage Campaign. Get in touch with Ivanka about all things sustainable as she would love to hear from you and see you at one of our hospitality events and sustainability workshops.
Ivanka’s favourite places to eat and drink in Brighton and Hove
For Ivanka, one of the best evenings out in the city is at Tinto Taperia, where she likes to start with drinks Bar Valentino upstairs before heading down to share a table full of small plates. Her must orders are the pimientos de padrón, flash fried and finished with crunchy sea salt flakes, and the jamón ibérico de bellota from Jabugo, aged, acorn fed and melt in the mouth.
One of her favourite dishes ever is the seafood lasagne at Cin Cin, a plate she still talks about. Terre à Terre has a special place in her heart too: it has long been a favourite, and it was the first place she and Nick went for afternoon tea after their daughter was registered at Brighton Town Hall.
When it comes to indulgence, anything from Honey Cake by Mary will do, and their daughter agrees wholeheartedly. Next on her list is Coconut Island, the Sri Lankan restaurant she is determined to work her way through, one dish at a time.
Emma
Emma’s role at Restaurants Brighton is the Content Manager, she is responsible for making sure the website content is up to date and that our social media schedule is planned. Emma also account manages a number of our partners working closely with their venues, updating their pages, creating ideas for the Restaurants Brighton food directory and booking in content for them. Emma is also a Brighton food photographer so you might see her with a camera visiting restaurants in Brighton on our instagram reels or blogs!
Emma’s favourite places to eat and drink in Brighton, Hove and Sussex
Emma lives a little out of the city in Sussex, so she loves discovering the food trucks, vineyards, breweries and pubs dotted around the county. The Secret Vineyard is a particular favourite when weekly food trucks such as Momo Nepalese set up among the vines. Their dumplings are seriously moreish! She also loved Kiek in de Kook’s food at a Bignose & Beardy Tap Night. Their lamb wrap paired with a cider made right there was the perfect combination for an evening of live music, friends and hanging out around a fire.
Over in Alfriston, Poco’s Pasta Workshops are a great way to learn a new skill while eating delicious pasta. Their Sunday Sharing Roasts are also on Emma’s list to try. Just outside Lewes, The Jolly Sportsman serves seasonal pub food using produce from its kitchen garden. A summer visit included gazpacho, followed by a clarified Bloody Mary, which was a bit of wizardry!
In Brighton, Kernel Canteen is a favourite for a work lunch, with the mushroom banh mi bowl being a particular highlight. Halisco and Fatto a Mano are regular choices for dinner with friends, while Shaanxi is hard to beat when she’s craving noodles.
Places still on her list include Beak Taproom in Lewes with Irori Japanese food truck, and Knepp Wilding for Fireside Fridays.
Torsten
Torsten joined Restaurants Brighton in 2020 to write about the incredible food and drink in the city and beyond. He now serves as Partnership Ambassador, networking his way around Brighton and Hove restaurants, making parties a work-related bonus and interviewing some of the finest chefs in Brighton.
Outside of Restaurants Brighton he writes about creativity and technology for live entertainment, about LGBTQ+ lives, and destinations for Condé Nast Traveller. Here is one of Torsten’s favourite reviews at Brightons The Salt Shed. If you are interested in becoming a Restaurants Brighton partner then please get in touch with Torsten.
Torsten’s favourite places to eat and drink in Brighton and Hove
Kemptown has Torsten’s heart and, in the upper echelons of the neighbourhood, The Bell Tower is the definition of a gastropub, with its monthly changing small-plates menu that defies what a local should taste like. In Brighton Marina, Malmaison’s bar, with daily happy hours and views of the boats from its expansive terraces, shines on a sunny day.
In the unassuming Bell Tower Industrial Estate, Loud Shirt Brewing opens its taproom for taster sessions on Friday evenings and throughout Saturday afternoon and evening, where wonders such as pickle beer and a range of others keep things interesting.
Further into Kemptown, Kemptown Klub is the place where, at the end of the evening, everyone knows your name, while The Vine House allows at-bar dining (a particular favourite).
Dim sum is up there with Torsten’s all-time favourite things to eat, and China Garden on Preston Street does the tradition proud. The prawn har gow dumplings are to die for.
Jude
Jude is the Content Producer at Restaurants Brighton, bringing a background in television production to the way we tell the stories of the city’s restaurants, pubs and cafes. From the kitchen pass to the dining room floor, she captures the people, dishes and moments that make Brighton and Hove’s food scene so special, both front and back of house.
Jude also account manages a selection of our partner venues, working closely with them to make sure their latest news, menus and events are always up to date on the site. Ask Jude about neighbourhood eating in Hove and Portslade, independent cafes and the best steak in town.
Jude’s favourite places to eat and drink in Brighton and Hove
Jude lives west of the city in Portslade and has loads of great eats in her neighbourhood. The Foghorn is her favourite local pub on the Hove side of Boundary Road, it’s a brilliant independent micropub with excellent pours with regular visiting food trucks from Chuckaburger to Irori.
Little Bruce is the best place for coffee, closely seconded by Cafe An An, a Japanese cafe that is quietly delightful. Local guilty pleasures are a Joe’s Burgers takeaway at the weekend, and Wheelies Cafe is the champion of the fry up. Homemade bubble and squeak, a fried slice and their mushrooms are always great (the sign of a good fry up in her eyes).
Jude’s other favourite spots around Brighton are Open Bakery in Kemptown for their chewy brown loaf – there’s a secret ingredient don’t you know. If she wants to grab a quick lunch Lavash is the top pick, Chicken Shawarma wrap stuffed inside of their freshly fired Lavash bread – bang for your buck too. And if she’s out out it usually involves steak, her hot spots are Embers or Kindling. Pink Moon is her favourite place to drop in for a coffee or bottle of Helles served in an iced glass. This city centre gem is tucked into Ship Street – and to her it’s the epitome of the Brighton experience, big hearted, a day to night home of live music, arts and culture – owners Jake and Jordan along with their friendly team make Pink Moon not just cool, but inclusive-cool.
Our friends
Keeping our website looking professional are Tom and Hayley. They are based in Lancaster and Gloucestershire, they don’t need to be local to do their jobs and we like them. Most of the photos you see on our website are taken by Nick, the talented Jo Hunt photographer whose world travel photographs and beautiful food shots make for some enviable lifestyle ogling or Ellen who also takes beautiful photos.
Su at designers-i designed our branding and came up with the identity for the BRAVOs and, more recently the Sustainability Toolkit.
Brittany writes reviews and also helps us out with lots of other things in her capacity as Virtual Assistant and overall super woman of socials.
Quite a few people help us by eating out and eating in and writing about their experience. At the moment, our lovely regular food writers are Lucy, Carys, Elle, Taryn, Charlotte, Nammie and Emma. We love this article where our reviewer Jodie talks about her families experiences with foraging in Sussex. Please get in touch if you would like to join our team.
Many people have helped us create Restaurants Brighton with their enthusiasm, writing skills, photography skills and willingness to eat great food and tell everyone about it.
A massive thank you to all of you. ❤️
Q
&
A
Restaurants Brighton is run by husband and wife Nick Harvey and Ivanka Majic, who founded the guide in September 2012. Nick brings almost four decades of experience in hospitality, tourism and marketing, and Ivanka is an expert in user experience and leads our Sustainability Toolkit with the University of Brighton. They are joined by a local team of food and drink specialists – Jude, Emma, Nico and Torsten.
Yes. Restaurants Brighton is a local, independent and family owned business, built from scratch and entirely self funded, with no investors or backers. We have never taken money from larger corporations, and we are free to champion the venues we believe in, with a particular focus on the independent businesses that give Brighton and Hove its character. We also cover micro chains, and some larger corporate chains, but only a handful.
Restaurants Brighton is based in Hanover in Brighton, where Nick and Ivanka live and work. The wider team lives across the city and county, from Kemptown to Hove, Portslade and Sussex, so between us we know the neighbourhoods we write about first hand, and you will often see us cycling between venues on our Bromptons, camera in hand. We all therefore work remotely, meet together weekly and we meet all the restaurant business owners every week.
Yes, we visit all the restaurants, pubs and cafes we feature. Our content is written and photographed by the Restaurants Brighton team of Nick, Ivanka, Emma, Jude, Nico and Torsten, whose backgrounds span hospitality, food photography, food styling, journalism, television and user experience. We also work with regular local contributors and professional photographers, including Ellen Richardson, Harvey and Justyna, all of whom live and eat in brighton and Sussex.
Restaurants Brighton has been covering Brighton, Hove and Sussex since September 2012, giving us almost fifteen years of specialist experience of the local food and drink scene. The Restaurants Brighton founder Nick Harvey has worked in hospitality since he was 16, and since 2017 we have also run the BRAVO Brighton Restaurant Awards, the city’s public vote for its favourite places to eat and drink.
We feature venues based on local knowledge, first hand visits and what our readers are looking for, from new openings and neighbourhood favourites to the best Sunday roasts and set menus. We pay particular attention to independent businesses, and the BRAVO Awards add the public’s own voice, with more than 71,000 votes cast in 2026. The Restaurants Brighton editorial policy gives you further information.
Some venues partner with us and make a contribution towards marketing costs, and in return we promote them across our website, newsletter and social channels. We also write about many non partner venues, pop ups, food and drink events and festivals, and entry to the BRAVO Awards is free for every venue. How partnerships work is set out clearly in our Editorial Policy.
We cover Brighton, Hove and Sussex, including neighbourhoods such as the Lanes, North Laine, Kemptown, Hanover, Preston Park and Brighton Marina, along with towns and villages including Lewes, Worthing, Shoreham, Eastbourne, Alfriston and Hurstpierpoint. We have no plans to cover other cities, because deep local knowledge is what makes our guide worth trusting.
