Restaurant
Pomegranate
10 Manchester Street
Brighton
BN2 1TF
Phone 01273 628 386
Website www.eatpomegranates.com
Overview
Eva and I visited Pomegranate in the Kemp Town area of Brighton the other week.
Pomegranate is a contemporary Kurdish restaurant, that serves a range of middle eastern dishes.
Ambience
The restaurant is on two floors and is very cheerful, modern yet cosy and charming (it has exposed brick fireplaces and wooden floors). The walls are decorated with a number of pictures painted by Hassan Tunc, who is also the owner and head chef.
His wife, Zelal, is in front of house and provided us with a very warm and charming welcome.
The Tuncs have run Ararat restaurants in Dallas and Austin in Texas; Hassan is also well known in the art world with a gallery in Seattle, Washington, also training as a chef in France.
Menu
The menu offers a variety of middle eastern dishes including; Tabulli, stuffed peppers, shish kebabs, lamb and beef with pomegranate.
Service
The service by Zelal was charming, friendly, efficient, and extremely attentive. Nothing was too much trouble.
Food
I opted for chicken kebabs as a starter. These were delightful, lightly spiced and seasoned served atop a small salad. A first class starter.
My main course was lamb shank with a light apricot sauce, accompanied by rice. The shank had been braised gently for a number of hours. The meat was succulent, tender and flavoursome and fell of the bone.
Eva started with prawns with garlic and hot pepper, these were piquant but not overpowered by the garlic or pepper.
She then had the chicken breast topped with walnuts. The breasts were grilled and served with walnuts, butter and rice. A very pleasant dish, the walnut perfectly complementing the chicken.
We also shared a side dish of garlic mashed potatoes, which tasted fantastic.
Dessert, a rarity for us, consisted of a bowl of stuffed figs with walnuts, honey topped with pomegranate paste. They were absolutely delightful.
The meal, which included a bottle of Chablis and a large number of Irish coffees came to £105 including service.
Overall Opinion
A splendid restaurant, which is well worth visiting.
