Andrew Kay gets tucked in to a fine Sunday Roast at the De Vere Grand in Brighton
When it comes to Sunday lunch I’m rather traditional. I like the right sauces with the right meats, gravy in a gravy boat and Yorkshire puddings only with beef (except when there are a few left over and then it’s okay to have them with jam). I get asked all the time what my favourite restaurants are but almost as frequently I get asked where the best Sunday lunch can be found. I invariably answer at my place but that sometimes prompts an unintended invitation.
Recently I have had some very good Sunday lunches out, mainly in pubs but the better ones seem to be getting rather expensive and most suffer from being served with a tsunami of gravy already covering the plate.
Last week Mr R and I went along to The De Vere Grand, Brighton’s most famous hotel, to sample their Sunday offering. After years and years of rather disappointing catering at The Grand, the food of late has turned a massive corner and is now not only very good but very reasonably priced too.
Sunday lunch is served in the King’s Restaurant, their most imposing dining area. and we were shown to a nice table looking out over a wintery sea. The menu offered a choice of roasts, a vegetarian choice and a fish of the day. I was definitely in the mood for some meat but in a fit of devilment Mr R decided to give the nut roast a whirl.
Before that though, we decided to have a starter. Mr R had the ham hock terrine with soft-boiled quails’ eggs and chips – a dish I had tried on a previous occasion and loved. He loved it too. I chose a salad with black pudding, bacon and soft poached egg. It was superb but hardly a salad and more of an almost full English breakfast. At £4.95 each they were both delicious and a bargain; I would expect to pay far more for the quality in almost any food establishment.
“The pudding was pleasantly light, the sauce pleasantly heavy. and the milk ice cream on the side he declared a total triumph”
So on to the main event. First out were dishes of piping hot vegetables, followed by screamingly hot plates on which came Mr R’s nut roast and vegetarian gravy and my Yorkshire pudding and beef gravy, in pretty silver sauce boats I might add. Moments later a grinning chef arrived with a rather stately, if elderly, meat trolley complete with silver hood. Beneath were two joints of meat, rib of Sussex beef and some very fine looking pork with a mountain of crackling. I had ordered beef but the waiter prompted me to have a slice of pork and crackling as well and I am very glad he did as it was first class.
The beef was perfect: rare at the heart but nicely caramelised on the edges. I gave the nut roast a taste and liked it. It had a good mushroom flavour and soft texture coated in crisp breadcrumbs. Not bad at all as nut roasts go.
Cauliflower cheese, carrot and swede purée, French beans and roast parsnips were all go. If anything was a disappointment it was the roast potatoes which were simply okay – not as good as the rest but not awful.
The price for the roast included a pud too. I had a decent, if rather old-fashioned, trifle which I thoroughly enjoyed. Mr R, on seeing sticky toffee pudding was fixated on that from the start and he was not disappointed. The pudding was pleasantly light, the sauce pleasantly heavy, and the milk ice cream on the side he declared a total triumph. We drank a bottle of sensibly priced Côtes du Rhône and finished with coffee and chocolates.
So what does Sunday lunch at The Grand cost? Well, rather surprisingly the main and pud comes in at a very acceptable £13.95, which is hardly bank breaking for the quality and for the excellent service. In fact, it’s cheaper than a lot of pubs and restaurants. The starters at £4.95 were also equally good value. I would say right now that it is possibly the best tasting and best value Sunday lunch in town.
The Grand, 97-99 King’s Road, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2FW, 01273 224300, www.devere-hotels.co.uk
