Re: Autumn 2016 | Page 42

The Jetty 64 King’s Rd, Brighton, BN1 1NA 01273 916916 brighton-harbour-hotel.co.uk/dining/the-jetty-brighton Brighton is a city that is not short of good eateries, in fact there is roughly one for every 250 people that live there; so when yet another restaurant opens up you can be forgiven for thinking ‘so what’. But Brighton is considered the food capital of the UK (having overtaken London for the first time) so when someone opens here, they have to do it exceptionally well. View from our table The Jetty only opened its doors in July and already has gathered quite a reputation. Based in the ground floor of the new Harbour Hotel on the seafront at the bottom of West Street it follows on from the success of The Jetty restaurants in Christchurch (shortlisted for the Caterer and Seafish UK’s 2016 Restaurant of the Year) and Salcombe (voted number 1 in ‘The Times Top 20 Places to Eat Seafood’). With this provenance I had high hopes for my meal there and so with my fellow fish lover, Jo, we set of to see what was ‘crackalackin’ at the Jetty. Stepping off the busy Kings Road we were greeted with a warm smile from Simon behind the bar and head waiter Jonny who made us feel very welcome. The HarBAR is the cool drinking space that comes as part of the Jetty concept, a stylish, well thought out bar that we perched at whilst we perused the menu. Chatting to barman Simon it was obvious that the staff here know their stuff and the cocktail menu was both innovative and extensive. I find a good measure of a bar (and the mixologist) is to try their negroni which has long been a favourite of mine. I wasn’t disappointed. Served over a hand carved block of ice with a dried orange slice, sprig of rosemary and some home smoked salt; it was delicious. Jetty Bites For starters I couldn’t resist the tuna tartare which was served with pickled ginger, seaweed and wasabi. Jo opted for a scallop nicoise which include fresh anchovies. Both dishes were beautifully presented on long plates. For mains Jo chose the ‘Cod and Crab’, a huge cod fillet that was cooked to perfection (possibly the best I have ever tasted) and topped with Devon crab served with crushed peas and a silky smooth mash. I ordered ‘Hake and Ham’, a fillet of hake that had been wrapped in prosciutto and roasted, served on a bed of crushed potatoes with peas ‘a la Francaise. We washed this little lot down with a beautiful, crisp viognier from their extensive and eclectic wine list. The dessert menu looked pretty good I loved the way they had suggested pairings of wines to accompany each dish. I don’t Choosing from the menu was hard, really hard; I wanted to try everything. We opened with a range of pre-starters: delicious raw oysters, some amazing cockle and clam popcorn, soft-shell crab and a selection of ‘Jetty Bites’ which included the most delicious octopus I have ever tasted. Cockle and clam popcorn 40