Kids Food Review: Part 1

The kids dish it up! Latest 7’s annual children’s restaurant reviews

Much as I love my job as the magazine’s food and drink editor, nothing gives me greater pleasure than this annual feature, now in its eleventh year!

Every summer, in time for the school holidays we gather together a group of future foodies and send them off on a mission to do what I do (and scarily they do it rather well).

Their brief is pretty open, they can choose what they eat and drink, although we do say no to booze, and they report back – on almost every aspect. From the interiors, the staff and of course the food, they love the food. And each year I am impressed by the fact that, on the whole, youngsters are adventurous, they’re not afraid of spice, or strange ingredients, they certainly want to eat what the grown ups eat and over the next few pages you will be able to read about their views.

Many thanks to all the restaurants who joined in this year and to the parents who took their kids along to make all this possible. I’m delighted to read that so many of you like this selection of great local restaurants, all of which I love too.

– Andrew Kay

BARDSLEY’S

I’d recommend this place for a small family outing. The waitresses were nice and there’s a good variety of choices without skimping on the vegetarian options. I ordered the fishcake which was nicely seasoned and I quite liked the chips as I prefer them soft with plenty of potato. My mum had the haddock which she liked as the batter was crispy without being greasy and the fish itself was firm without being dry. I meant to take pictures but I ended up over halfway through my meal before remembering to and “had” to steal some of my mum’s chips.
Kate McCourt
22-23a Baker Street, Brighton, BN1 4JN, 01273 681256

BOHO GELATO

I went to Boho Gelato for my review. My favourite flavour was apple and ginger. The lady who was serving us was called Maria and she let me try loads of different flavours such as pink lemonade, mango, Cherry Bakewell, spicy biscuit and cucumber and rose. I think this is the best ice cream and sorbet place I have ever been to. I love this shop. Also Maria let us keep all the spoons! I would rate this place 10/10 thank you Latest Homes for giving it to me. I will definitely be returning with the rest of my family.
Harry Blood
6 Pool Valley, Brighton, BN1 1NJ,
01273 727205

BREEZE

The first thing I saw was the drink menu. It was so hard to choose because the options were unbelievable but in the end I went for an appletiser. Our waiter was so nice and polite and he helped us with all our questions. We were sitting on one of the many booths watching the tennis which coincidentally was on. The atmosphere was also calm and relaxing. For starter I had bruschetta which came speedily and was absolutely sunning. For main I had a chicken burger and chips which was absolutely spectacular and massive. For dessert I had chocolate fondant which I was in love with. I would rate this lovely place 100/10 it has been an amazing experience and there is definitely something for everyone.
Izzy Blood
98 Trafalgar St, Brighton, BN1 4ER, 01273 693377

CHAULA’S

As we walked towards Chaula’s restaurant you could smell the food, and it was a really nice! Inside the restaurant, there were paintings on the wall, which were nice to look at. The lights were pretty and not too bright and there was Indian music which I really liked. We had poppadoms with dips while we looked at the menu. I liked the mint yoghurt best. For starters we chose vegetable samosas, chicken samosas and lamb tikka. They looked nice and came with salad as well. The lamb was really tender and wasn’t spicy. The samosas were crispy (a little bit spicy for me) but still tasted really good. The waiter helped me pick something for my main. We had palak paneer and lamb lucknovi (Dad had lamb dansak but I didn’t taste it), rice and a garlic naan bread. The rice was fluffy and delicious. The meat was really tender, there was quite a lot of meat too and the sauce was so nice. It wasn’t too spicy for me either. The paneer was nice, and the garlic naan was the best I’d ever tasted. I really enjoyed my meal and would definitely go back .
Lilly Packham
2-3 Little East Street, Brighton, BN1 1HT, 01273 771661

CURRY LEAF CAFE

When I arrived the outside stood out and I liked their logo. When I walked in it was very colourful and straight away I felt like I was in India.
For my meal I had nibbles to start with and I really enjoyed them. I then had chicken makhani with rice which was really nice and my mum had a lamb dish which she enjoyed. I had watermelon sorbet for my pudding which is made special for them and it was delicious.
Everyone there was very friendly and always had smiles on their faces, the whole place felt very homely.
Lani Beal
60 Ship Street, Brighton, BN1 1AE, 01273 207070

CHILLI PICKLE

The restaurant is modern but with plenty of exotic colours which made it feel warm. To begin with, we had two types of poppadoms – roasted (which were spicy) & normal fried ones, which came with three types of dip, my dad loved the apple chutney one. For starters we ordered Pani Puri which were crispy puff shells with a spoonful of chickpea salad inside & pork dumplings which came with a spare rib soup which was delicious. All of the starters came with two or three little side dishes to dip things in which was nice. Main course, I had a chicken curry with naan bread and it was creamy and not too spicy which was perfect and my dad had a biryani. The portions were so big that we couldn’t eat all of it though. For pudding we shared a banana ice cream with a popcorn crumble, which finished the meal off perfectly. The staff were very nice and explained all of the dishes to us when they arrived. I love Chilli Pickle.
Johnny Windsor
17 Jubilee Street, Brighton, BN1 1GE6, 01273 900383