Restaurant Reviews and Food Musings

Restaurant

King’s Restaurant
The De Vere Grand Hotel
Kings Road
Brighton

Phone:- 01273 224300

Overview

We celebrated Eva’s birthday in King’s, which serves a variety of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes in opulent surroundings; evocative of the Victorian era.

Ambience

As noted, the décor of King’s is evocative of the past glories of the Victorian era. Two silver carving trolleys mount guard to the entrance, which leads into the spacious dining room and sea front veranda. The dining room is resplendent with marble columns and dark wooden panels. The tables are laid with crisp white linen and silver cutlery.

We were given a veranda table, which afforded us a splendid view of the sea.

However, it was sad to see that were only a few other diners in the restaurant. In my opinion, a place such as this would benefit from being busier. The lack of customers also negates the restaurant’s ability to serve roast meats on their splendid carving trolleys; there is after all no point in roasting a joint if you only have a few customers. A point that was readily accepted by one of our waiters.

Menu

The menu offers a variety of dishes including roast lamb, Dover sole, chateau briande, lobster (Friday and Saturday only) and breast of chicken stuffed with cous cous.

Service

The staff were very professional, and the service polite and attentive.

Food

I started with the smoked salmon which came with a twist of lemon and sprig of dill; no brown bread oddly enough. However, it was fine way to start the meal.

I chose the roasted half English duck, in orange and liqueur sauce, for my main course. I am pleased to say that it was well cooked (unlike some establishments who offer you a carcass dripping in blood). The meat was succulent and tender, the sauce was a well balanced combination of liqueur and oranges.

The meal was accompanied by sauté potatoes and cauliflower au gratin. The latter, to my view, was undercooked; and on raising this with the waiter I as offered a replacement or no charge. I opted for the latter.

I finished my meal with a selection of cheese and biscuits, the latter being served from a magnificent silver serving bucket.

Eva started with asparagus with Hollandaise sauce. The asparagus was tender and not stringy. However, Eva noted that the hollandaise had started to curdle.

She chose pork fillet with sliced apples in a green pepper sauce, accompanied by thyme and red cabbage. The meat was tender, and the accompaniments were an innovative and welcome change to the more traditional apple sauce

Eva opted for herb buttered new potatoes as a side dish, these were cooked to perfection.

The overall bill which included; champagne cocktails, a bottle of Chardonnay, brandy and Irish coffee came to £122 before service.

Overall Opinion

We enjoyed the evening, and rate this as a good quality restaurant. However, I would suggest that the prices are more akin to central London rather than to Brighton. This may account for the lack of customers, which to my view negatively impacts the restaurant’s atmosphere.