When the moon hits your eye , like a big pizza pie ... that ’ s Amari . Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted a new Spanish restaurant sending our gastro Gull all a-flutter in her About Town column at the end of last year . We sent Gilly Smith to investigate
When the moon hits your eye , like a big pizza pie ... that ’ s Amari . Eagle-eyed readers will have spotted a new Spanish restaurant sending our gastro Gull all a-flutter in her About Town column at the end of last year . We sent Gilly Smith to investigate
This delightful find off the London Road in Baker Street is the kind you might chance across as you veer off the tourist track in Barcelona or Madrid . With its small plates of pretty food set against an unassuming backdrop of blue tiles and nononsense tables , this is for foodies who love their tapas well sourced , creatively cooked but without the fuss or the price tag .
And after just nine weeks , it was propelled into the mighty Michelin Guide 2025 , a great big stamp of validation for chef Ian Swainson , partner , Tyna Maria Ciurus and his backers , Mo and Ali Razavi , the Halisco brothers who are steadily buying up Preston Street . Their Mexican taqueria stole the OctoberBest show and steamed in to Time Out ’ s top 25 restaurants in Brighton last year , while Anakuma just opposite hits the spot with its Asian street food . Just last month , they turned Gungho into the brand new Halisco bar in just 24 hours .
“ They ’ re great guys ,” Ian told me . “ They ’ re very , very supportive on everything that we do . But they also don ’ t get too heavily involved with this particular restaurant - they ’ re very busy in their own places .”
And that ’ s because , Michelin aside , Amari is getting the love from all quarters ; Ian ’ s fans have followed him from Murmur , The Pass at South Lodge , and of course , Halisco , but as the word spreads about his oysters baked in squid ink hollandaise with pickled gherkin , the torched mackerel with smoked cod roe mousse with olive and sorrel dressing , and the tocino de cielo ( flan ) with rhubarb sorbet and fresh raspberries , there ’ s an orderly queue forming down Baker Street .
“ This is Mangalitsa pork ’, he told me as he placed a pretty small plate of rare breed pork loin with truffled celeriac puree and Amontillado sherry sauce in front of me . ‘ They ’ ve got this kind of nuttiness about the flavour . They ’ ve got quite a large fat content that runs through , a bit like a kind of a sort of piggy wagyu . You ’ ll love it .”
Originally from Hungary , the Mangalitsa is a rare breed pig which Ian gets from Northumberland via his trusted supplier in Wales . He loves the idea that it ’ s had a good , long life ( for a farmed pig ), regenerating the farmland that it ’ s been free to root on and fertilise naturally while restoring the biodiversity of the soil . But sourcing sustainably , although better for us , the planet and a chef who ’ s all about flavour , means having to work creatively with limited supply .
“ You ’ re not going to have a massive steak here ”, he says . “ You ’ re having a number of smaller dishes , so it does make a huge difference on pretty much everything that we do here with regards to the ingredients .
We want to be an affordable restaurant that people want to come back to on a fairly regular basis .”
When I asked him how hard it is to keep your principles up and your prices , if not down , reflecting the true cost of food , he said it ’ s hard . “ We ’ re in a time now where we have to pay our staff more than we ’ ve ever had to . We have to pay higher prices for ingredients than we ever had to . But people want to go out , but they ’ re really struggling at home as well , as we all are . And so , from that perspective , if you charge large money , people just can ’ t afford it . So it ’ s very , very difficult to balance it all , but you have to do that , I think , by really keeping a small team of
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Meanwhile , he ’ s having a ball playing with his small plates . “ We put on a special for Valentine ’ s Day that was something that Tyna and I had when we were over in Seville on holiday recently . It was this amazing kind of prawn tartare that was finished with caviar . And the reality is , we had to take quite a massive hit on it . It was on at £ 19 and it should have been on at £ 36 , but it was just kind of like , well , I really want to do this and it ’ s almost a bit of a treat from us .” Amari , 15 Baker St , BN1 4JN 01273 435992 @ amari _ chef
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