The Signalman, Ditchling Rise, Brighton

This used to be a good, solid back street local when it was the Railway Tavern. It sold a useful pint of Harveys, was a bit scruffy and had interesting railway memorabilia on the walls. Its opposite London Road station. Its now been tarted up - fireplaces scrubbed up, walls knocked through, books bought by the yard and 'new' railway memorabilia put up.
It sells gastro-pub grub like 'hand made fish sausages' (perhaps a section of eel?). When visited on a January Saturday night by 2 of the GOGs and 2 other grumpy old gits it was heaving with what looked like students and recent London immigrants with stupid haircuts. One of them, sitting under a 'Smoking Prohibited' sign was snogging his small dog. The ale was good - Arundel Sussex Gold and Bitter and Hophead (and I think another one as well) but at over £3.30 a pint, expensive.
2/5

Red Snapper, 90 Dyke Road, Brighton

This is a popular 'Bring your own' Thai restaurant near 7 Dials. We arrived about 9.40 pm, were greeted like heroes by other diners because we sported false moustaches and had to choose quickly as the kitchen closes at 10pm. Its popular because its unpretentious and not too pricey. We had a spicey seafood salad, various other squid and beef dishes and some nice coconut rice. One of the unifying features of the dishes were ubiquitous carrots - as far as I know, not a native vegetable to Thailand.
3/5

Open House, Springfield Road, Brighton

On the north side of the railway near London Road station.
It's a pub that was poncified a few years ago and they made quite a good job of it with high ceilings, mosaics and a woodburner stove. Its been voted in the 2009 top 20 of British pubs in the Morning Advertiser - the trade paper. Its a long time since I've been there but had arranged a lunchtime visit on a snowy Sunday in early January 2010 with family and another GOG to meet another family. We sat in the back room where families tend to go. The only slight irritation was the loud piped music which the staff did turn down when asked. Between us we had 3 falafel burgers with chunky chips, one with mash, a sausage and mash and a child's fish and chips. Generally, it was good modern pub grub. The chips were super chunky and well fried, the mash that came with the falafel was a bit on the sparse side, the falafel was a big ball - not the usual supermarket tiddly things - and a bit crumbly but nicely spicy. Mains were £8 - not bad value at all. Banoffee pie was sweet and sickly - but I think its supposed to be like that. The sprog polished off her fish and chips and wanted more.
Superb Hophead and they also had another Dark Star on and another ale.
4/5

Pizza Express, Jubilee Street, Brighton

I went there on a wet Monday lunchtime in late November 2009 with my ravernous 3 year old after a session at the Prince Regent pool. Pizza Express is normally fairly reliable and as this is a new branch (part of the library redevelopment)I was hoping for a good meal. There were about 10 other customers and it was all a bit desolate. I ordered a Fiorentina - my usual in PEx - which comes with an egg in the middle. Sometimes the waiter asks how you want your egg but this didn't happen this time. When it arrived, the egg was runny (which I like) but the rest of the pizza was too. When I queried this with the waitress she said you could ask for a 'well done' pizza - like a steak! Having just got back from Rome and had the best pizza of my life (see other post), I find this impossible to believe.
The gent's toilet door didn't lock and its too far away from the toilet bowl to jam your foot against.
1 out of 5
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