Review: BBQ Shack at World’s End pub, Brighton

Review: BBQ Shack at World’s End pub, Brighton

This was another pub on my hit list to visit owing to a lot of buzz about it on social media. A friend of mine visited the week before and when I asked how it was he just showed me a photo and said “man, my eyes were bigger than my belly.”  Challenge accepted!!

When we arrived at around 2pm the pub was fairly quiet. It’s very spacious and the clientele was very mixed – young, old, families, couples and it had a very friendly vibe.

The barman was equally friendly and evidently very proud of their American fayre menu.  As if we needed to be taken through the “concept”, he asked if we had been before and how they make everything from scratch, do their own meat smoking and only serve homemade bbq sauce as a condiment - mayo and ketchup are sacrilegious apparently.  We said we were here for the famous burgers to which he recommended the Memphis burger and warned us it was big! No problem J.

My monster-sized burger arrived after a little while (all cooked to order) and came piled high with the most tender, succulent pulled pork piled on top. I ate that mostly separately, drizzled in the bbq sauce so I could savour the flavour. The meaty burger was wide but not too thick and they cooked them all the way through which I believe might be an EU law. It had a nice smoky char flavour and packed with umami savouriness. It wasn’t all that juicy because it was on the thin side, but it gave a nice chewy texture, complemented by the coleslaw underneath.

Pickles and tomato were placed on the side – this is something I am starting to realise is done by restaurants as they are the extras that divide people when it comes to burgers. Plus a hefty helping of French fries. Think they were packet ones, but who care – all chips are lovely!

The only small criticism is the bun. It was just a bit ordinary compared to the effort they had gone to with their meat and bbq sauce etc. Just a basic supermarket white burger bap – and this was where the challenge defeated me. I left about a quarter of bun. That’s all though (and surely you can forgive me for leaving a measly bit of bread?)…  everything else was demolished with greedy gusto… and followed by a long nap at home! 

Review: The Ginger Fox, Albourne, Near Brighton

Review: The Ginger Fox, Albourne, Near Brighton

One of the Brighton-based Gingerman restaurant group, The Ginger Fox pub is in a remote countryside setting, close to Devil’s Dyke. I had been many years ago when it was fairly newly opened and getting surprise rave reviews from critics of the nationals. I remember it always being nice but a bit… um poncey. I think they were trying too hard, and the clientele were very much the local ‘yah-yah’s’ which made the place a bit stuffy and formal for me.

Anyway a friend and I stopped there for dinner unexpectedly as The Sportsman pub at Goddards Green were full (having an early St Paddy’s shindig apparently). Well we were frankly lucky to get a table there too as even at 7pm it was almost full. The diners didn’t look like they had changed since I last went (grey, conservative, twin sets etc) and I was certainly one of the youngest at the chirpy age of 34!

A lovely waitress showed us a table and took our coats and we chose a bottle of Malbec to drink while we munched on warm complimentary bread with balsamic and rapeseed oil that you pour yourself from the bottle on the table. The menu isn’t extensive, 5-6 choices for starters and mains, although there are specials on the board. I chose the Chorizo Glazed Rarebreed Pork Belly with Carrots and Chicory and my mate went for the Foie Gras Ballotine with Champagne Rhubarb and Sesame Toast.

Our plates arrived beautifully presented. My pork belly slice was on top of a smear of sticky chorizo syrup and was garnished the tiniest baby carrots I have ever seen and a little bit of lettuce. The pork was soft, sweet and fatty but as there were only two bites worth, £8 seemed a tad steep. The foie gras was rich, naughty and thoroughly gorgeous! Quite a small portion for the amount of toast it came with but you really couldn’t eat too much of this heavenly, smooth pate. It was also prettily decorated with radishes I think.

We both had the Char Grilled Redlands Farm Rib Eye with Duck Fat Chips, Roasted Onion and Balsamic Vinegar Butter and Roasted Parsnips with Almonds (£19.50) Wow wow wow - the steak was cooked to juicy medium perfecttion as requested and tasted so beefy with a lovely, smoky char on the outside. Yes there was quite a lot of fat on the meat, but that's ribeye for you, and it all adds to the flavour. The chips (am a proper chip fiend at the moment) were easily the best I have ever had - dark gold, super crunchy and absolutely gorgeous It was almost like they had been fried in a batter - they sounded like glass but were fluffy inside. Reckon they might use the Heston triple cook method, but whatever it is I am coming back for these on my lunch break!

So the bill came to £80 with the wine, and the food was excellent, it really was. If it was 10-12% cheaper I would eat here often, but given its formality and the extra expense, think it might be a place for special occasions only or possibly business meetings. 

Review: The North Laine Pub & Brewery, Brighton

Review: The North Laine Pub & Brewery, Brighton

After an afternoon drinking in the North Laines on the first properly sunny day of the year (yes, in March!) it was time to think about eating something to soak it all up and stop things from looking so blurry.  However, due to the blue sky and 19C temperature, the whole of Brighton and probably the rest of Sussex were in town and everywhere was packed out. So I wrack my slightly fuzzy brains for a large establishment which would have more room than the little caffs and bars nearby and remembered the North Laines pub which used to be my old nightclub haunt, The Gloucester, back in the day.

Of course, no one told me the rugby was on too, so on getting there we actually struggled to find a spare table in the huge place! Never mind, we eventually settled upon two stools around a table converted from a beer barrel. It is worth pointing out on that note, that this pub has its own brewery attached to it – you can apparently book a tasting tour and sample the various nectar.

Back to food, the menu is pretty extensive without being overwhelming – I think they cover off just about everything anyone could want – fish and chips, steak, pie to more unusual fare such as hot dogs with sauerkraut and mustard, hearty lamb hotpot and dumplings, turkey schnitzel (was very tempted by this), and the interesting-sounding sausage sharing board which are a mix of four local sausages with gravy and piccalilli to dip! Sounds brilliant!

However, my alcohol- induced hunger meant I needed some bulk so I went for the Angus Beef burger (they do lamb and rosemary and Cajun chicken, plus ‘The Greek’ halloumi for veggies) and my mate chose the posh ‘fish finger’ sandwich. We were told there was an hour wait on food – I expect that is not the norm at 3.30pm on a Saturday but it really was heaving so we got another glass of wine and waited.

Exactly one hour later the food arrived and I felt strangely sober again. We asked for cutlery as I didn’t want to push my face into my burger like I did at Burger Brothers! The fish fingers were indeed not from Birds Eye but were pleasing rustic breaded goujons and were clearly handmade. No clue what the fish was, but tasted nice and juicy apparently, and the thick cut white bloomer was the correct type for a fish finger sarnie in my opinion. My 8oz burger came in a nice soft brioche bun from a Brighton bakery and included a tumbled mass of bright purple onion relish (it looked like it was made from very thinly sliced boiled red onions – it was strangely tasteless, possibly because it was fridge cold). The fresh lettuce, tomato, gherkin were fine, but I took out the raw red onion as a matter of personal taste. Sadly the burger was very overcooked and without going for optional cheese, it was dry, hard and unpleasant to eat. The chips on the other hand were AMAZING! They still had their skins on and were of different sizes so some of the really slim ones were so crispy it was like eating baked potato skin – almost healthy, right?!

For £9.25 my burger and chips wasn’t bad value, just a shame the meat had no juices left in it. Going to try eating there again when it is quieter as I am convinced they will win points back on food, and the lively atmosphere was fun to hang out in.