There is no menu here, no recipes, and no waiters – at least not in the traditional sense. Nanima Asian Kitchen is not really a restaurant. It calls itself a ‘kitchen and café’, which is pretty apt, but it’s quite a bit more than the sum of those two words. You’ll understand, as soon as you enter its calm, cosy embrace, why Nanima is one of the best-loved institutions in town – last year’s winner of the highly coveted BRAVO Best Value for the whole of Brighton and Hove.
What You’ll Love
- Ever-changing daily dishes
- Warm, personal service from owners Lonnie and Nicky
- Authentic, home-style Asian cooking
- Award-winning value
- A calm, cosy atmosphere that keeps regulars coming back
A kitchen without rules
Instead of a waiter, Lonnie, who opened Nanima with his wife Nicky at the start of Covid, greets every customer and talks through the dishes of the day, all of which are on display behind a glass-fronted counter and listed on a blackboard on the bright pink wall above. On the day of our visit, my wife and I immediately placed our trust in Lonnie and asked him to bring whatever he thought best.
Cooking by instinct
We started with a mildly spiced soup of beetroot and roasted red pepper. My wife, who is braver than me, asked for the recipe, but there isn’t one. Nicky, who is half Malaysian and half Punjabi and runs the kitchen, was raised in a world of raw ingredients, long days in the kitchen, huge banquets and grand matriarchs (the word ‘nanima’ means maternal grandmother in Punjabi).
Nanima is an expression of her experience, and she cooks a range of Asian dishes that span China, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, entirely by intuition.
You can tell a lot about someone from how they cook. Nicky rejects fussy presentation and wild ideas, and I’d lay a bet that the word ‘chef’ makes her cringe. It’s clear that someone like this would no sooner follow a recipe than you or I would read a Haynes Manual to learn to breathe.
A different kind of dining experience
Lonnie does the shopping every morning and calmly runs ‘front of house’, a nonsense phrase in Nanima, as there is no such theatre going on. As for the lack of a menu, this gives Nicky and Lonnie the flexibility to bend to the prevailing winds of the moment. The day of our visit, for example, was one of persistent rain. Chinese chicken congee would (obviously!) be perfect in the damp hug of an English low-pressure system in early March, which is why Nicky had just started cooking one.
Through the steamy window, we could see cars swishing through puddles on the street outside. It felt intensely cosy, hiding from the city, with blues gently playing on the stereo and Lonnie’s gentle, reasoned chat; we spoke a lot. The bogeymen of the modern restaurant scene – QR menus, waiters who don’t know what they’re serving, and the “Is everything OK with your meal?” routine – seemed galaxies away.
Simple dishes, exceptional flavour
We followed up with madras chicken, served with delicately cooked coconut rice and vegetables, and Szechuan salmon with noodles. Much like the soup earlier, both dishes whispered of a cuisine refined over generations, where every spice or herb is a team player working towards the end goal of amplifying the flavour of the main ingredients. It’s subtle, delicious and very real; it’s not restaurant food, really, but more the sort of home cooking that many would aspire to and few would achieve.
A local favourite with loyal regulars
Despite the lack of a menu, there are a few traditions here, like the Saturday laksa soup that one woman – who we chatted to at the next table – and her son come in for every week from Arundel, a county away. Then there’s the once-monthly supper club that quickly books up. It almost feels like a betrayal of the people of Kemptown to let this secret out, but you get a three-course meal with wine or beer for £35. And don’t let the ‘club’ bit worry you – you’re not expected to host the next one or anything.
Why Nanima is special
So, Nanima is not a restaurant, and it’s quite a bit more than a café. Where else in Brighton can you sit down to a home-cooked lunch with a drink for less than £15? And it’s healthy stuff. You don’t leave Nanima feeling guilty and bloated, nor hungry and irritable. You leave Nanima ready to take on the Brighton Marathon (“maybe the half marathon,” cautions Lonnie). Lonnie is very proud of the Best Value award, and he should be.
Making dazzling food limited to those who can afford it has its moment. Making great food differently, day after day, year after year, at a price where almost anyone can enjoy it, though? That’s one small gift to mankind.
If you haven’t been yet, Nanima is well worth seeking out.
Nanima is open for lunch Tuesday through Saturday, and also for dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. See nanima.co.uk.
