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