Brighton Restaurant Award Winners

The Best Restaurants in Brighton

BEST RESTAURANTS IN BRIGHTON – THE TOP 20 THIS YEAR

When it comes to voting for the city’s best restaurants, Brighton and Hove has so much to offer that it can be hard to choose a favourite. In this category, we’re looking for the whole package.

Every year, the BRAVOS provides a snapshot of the diversity, ingenuity and creativity of the amazing food and drink scene right here on our doorstep and, because it’s voted for by the public, it also captures a flavour of our community. The Best Restaurant list embodies the city’s attitudes and priorities in 2024; our openness to innovation, desire for quality, interest in sustainability, appetite for variety and insistence on genuine, authentic hospitality.

Best Restaurant is always the most hotly contested BRAVO category and this year more of you voted than ever before. Every restaurant on this list is as unique as it is wonderful though they each boast a great menu, a fabulous team and a memorable ambiance. We truly hope you have the good luck to visit as many of these restaurants as possible over the year ahead. Happy Eating!

And the winner of the BRAVO for Best Restaurant Brighton goes to –Terre à Terre. Huge congratulations to the team.

First place

A sparkling jewel in Brighton’s food and drink crown, this year’s Best Restaurant is still at the vanguard of sustainable and ethical cuisine having recently celebrated its 30th year delighting Brighton’s diners. Terre à Terre is a pioneer of vegetarian fine dining and one the the most influential restaurants in the city – quality and passion never get old! The restaurant maintains a playful and innovative approach to vegetarian cuisine and, alongside the gloriously colourful à la carte menu, there are much-loved favourites to enjoy including the tapas-style sharing plates and wonderfully creative afternoon teas. The drinks list features a selection of the best English, organic and biodynamic wines, local craft beers and ciders and hand-crafted seasonal cocktails plus an excellent choice of low-no options. The restaurant attracts and retains a friendly and committed team who welcome guests with warmth and share expert knowledge. As a legendary food writer once said of Terre à Terre ‘It is singularly and eccentrically marvellous…’ – it seems you all agree!

Terre à Terre has also placed in the Best Team and Best Vegan Food categories.

Second place

Burning bright in Brighton’s beating heart, this relative newcomer to The Lanes has won the BRAVO for Best Restaurant twice already (2022, 2023) and takes the prestigious second place this year. Since Burnt Orange opened in 2021, it has wooed and wowed the Brighton public with its seasonal menu designed for sharing. Taking inspiration from the Mediterranean basin, dishes are cooked over wood fire lending the excellent food its distinctive, moorish, smokey flavours. Striking the perfect balance between glamour and comfort, there’s a gorgeous bar serving pitch-perfect cocktails as you enter, a thoughtful wine list and a friendly, switched-on team. Front Of House is ready with ideas and advice to make sure you have a wonderful time, every time you visit. And we reckon that’ll be a lot more than once!

Burnt Orange has also placed in the Best Team, Best Lunch and Best Cocktails categories.

Third place

Brand new to the top three in 2024 is fabulous Cin Cin in Hove. Cin Cin has come a long way since its humble beginnings in a festival van, with its stylish Hove restaurant and now sister venue in London’s Knightsbridge. But the owner’s dream remains the same; to serve delicious, authentic, Italian food to grateful UK diners. The menu is seasonal, and changes regularly, keeping the experience fresh and customers coming back for more. Delicious hand-made pasta is a constant highlight but couple this with great wine, a lively vibe, frequent feasts showcasing regional specialities and super-fun pasta masterclasses and it’s no wonder this great place has developed such a loyal following.

Cin Cin has also placed in the Best Lunch, Eat Well For Less, Best International Cuisine categories.

fourth place

Bincho Yakitori on Brighton’s lively Preston Street has indisputable cult status. So much so that if you fail to book – you might find yourself queuing – for a very long time. Why all the fuss? Because it’s absolutely brilliant. A favourite haunt of local chefs, Bincho has earned a spot in BRAVO Best Restaurant category for five consecutive years. Based on the concept of Izakaya (a Japanese tavern), Bincho serves up mouthwatering Yakitori skewers of meat, fish and vegetables cooked over a dramatic, open grill with an exciting menu of tapas style small plates to order alongside. Bincho offers a connoisseur-worthy selection of Japanese craft beers, wines sake and whisky. Take a coveted seat at Bincho’s bar and allow the exotic smells, authentic flavours and excitingly dark, smokey interiors to transport you to the backstreets of Tokyo.

Bincho Yakitori has also placed in the Best International Cuisine and Eat Well For Less categories.

FIFTH place

Less than a year since it opened, chef Tom Stephens and restaurateur Maddy Riches’s new venture Dilsk has strolled confidently into the BRAVO Best Restaurant category at #5. The elegant dining room is located within Brighton’s iconic Drake’s Hotel on the Kemptown seafront where Dilsk offers a masterclass in modern British fine dining. The very best ingredients are sourced from ethical, local producers with the aim of creating a culinary journey taking inspiration from the South Downs. Expect every dish on the tasting menu to delight with flavours of depth and complexity. The wine flight – and wine list – are Maddy’s pride and joy, story-led with plenty of surprises, and bottles from the best Sussex vineyards too. Watch this space…team Dilsk is going places!

sixth place

Before opening Furna a little over a year ago, chef Dave Mothersill had run many of the city’s best loved kitchens. All the while he was forming a picture of his perfect restaurant. Furna is the result of a couple of decades of obsession mixed with a total lack of compromise and the result is spectacular. Guests are welcomed into a faultlessly beautiful dining room then treated to a culinary experience that knows no bounds. The truly contemporary tasting menu is inspired by Mothersill’s life and travels. Delicious, delicate flavours and the best quality seasonal ingredients are enhanced by innovative culinary techniques from around the globe including a ‘library’ of house ferments. It’s divine. The wine list has already won several awards, the walk-in cellar boasting some very serious bottles and seasonal cocktails are hand-crafted at the bar.

Furna has also placed in the Best Wine List category.

seventh place

The remarkable team at Bonsai Plant Kitchen is continuing its quest to show Brighton the limitless delights of vegan food. From lockdown takeaway, via pub pop-up to one of Brighton’s hottest addresses in a few short years, Bonsai Plant Kitchen is thriving with its fresh, plant-based take on South-East Asian flavours. Dishes of ‘dirty rice’, steaming bowls of ramen and plates of grilled dumplings are cooked in the open kitchen over hot Japanese coals to produce smokey, umami-rich flavours it’s very hard to resist. There are always bright, fruity cocktails on the menu, the music is cool, it’s a vibe. We love it and so do you!

Bonsai Plant Kitchen has also placed in the Best Team, Best Vegan Food, Best Cocktails and Best International Food.

eighth place

Embers

Another very welcome newcomer to the BRAVOS in 2024, Embers has been brought to us by stalwarts of the Brighton food and drink scene. The restaurant, situated in the heart of Brighton’s historic Lanes, was almost guaranteed to be an instant success with its beautiful, open kitchen, warm ambience and friendly, committed team. The menu is thoughtfully designed for sharing and then there’s the fact that absolutely everything is cooked on an open wood fire. Expect big, bold flavours and fun kitchen theatrics from the fire cage centre stage. A selection of innovative, seasonal cocktails complete the picture.

Embers has also placed in the Best Lunch category.

Ninth place

Il Bistro

From its home in an 18th century fisherman’s cottage, Il Bistro has been delighting Brighton’s residents with its delicious menu since 1976. Inspired by the Italian and French culture of the Mediterranean coast, the restaurant was one of the first places in the area to serve delicacies like fresh pasta, arancini, dry aged beer, tiramisu and negronis! Standing by its commitment to using local suppliers, fresh ingredients and bright flavours, the restaurant has become a much-loved Brighton institution for generations of diners. Expect a warm, Mediterranean welcome to match the cuisine!

Il Bistro has also placed in the Best Team and Best International Cuisine categories.

Tenth place

English’s of Brighton has been serving Brighton’s diners, visiting dignitaries and celebrities from its landmark home in The Lanes for over a century. In family ownership since 1947, English’s has become synonymous with friendly, refined service and very good, very classic fish and seafood dishes. There’s an elegant oyster bar and sunny terrace to enjoy during the summer months. Relax in the historic dining room, with its crisp white linens as your catch of the day is expertly prepared table-side. At English’s, guests know they’ll be taken care of, eat well, drink well and leave happy. Which is why they keep coming back to this fabulous establishment, year after year.

English’s of Brighton has also placed in the Best Wine List and Best Team categories.

Palmito
Eleventh
Halisco
Twelfth
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Take a look at your other BRAVO winners
Best Brighton restaurant
Best Restaurant category
Best Sussex Restaurant
Best brunch
Best vegan food
Best cocktail
Best Brighton Pub
Best for family
Best team
BRAVO 2019 category
Best Sussex pub
Best cafe
Best lunch in Brighton category BRAVO 2024.
Best lunch
Best roast
Best wine list
Best int. cuisine
Most sustainable
Eat well for less
Best takeaway
Best Coffee - BRAVO Awards Icon
Best coffee

Q
&
A

There are an increasing number of vegan restaurants in the Brighton top 20 best restaurants year on year. This year Bonsai Plant Kitchen (vegan) and Terre á Terre (vegetarian) finished in the top 3 and many of Brighton’s best restaurants offer plenty of strong vegan options.

According to the Brighton Restaurant Awards 2024, the public voted most popular restaurant in Brighton right now is Terre á Terre. They have been voted the public favourite in 2024. The top 20 best restaurants can be seen here.

Brighton has a number of chefs who have appeared on Masterchef the Professionals and they include Steven Edwards from etch. Kenny Tutt from Shelter Hall (Patty Guy) and Duncan Ray from The Little Fish Market is always highly regarded in the National Restaurant Awards. A round up of the best quality restaurants voted by the public can be discovered here.