Breeze

Andrew Kay finds that the kitchen at Breeze is cooking up a storm

Just a few weeks back we had a Q&A with the owner of Breeze in Trafalgar Street. After a long history of running a restaurant in Hove, he has upped sticks and found new premises in the North Laine. The North Laine is pretty well served with pubs that do food but there are very few restaurants so Breeze is a very welcome addition.

Mrs E joined me for a spot of lunch there a few days ago to find out a bit more about the quality of the cooking and have a good old gossip. I like a nice gossipy lunch but we hardly had a chance once the food came.

The menu is simple enough, peppered with a few classics that I am always glad to see on any menu but also with one or two rather interesting new dishes.
Lunch is not always the best time for me to review as I can seldom manage to do the full three courses but Mrs E was happy to have a main and dessert so I did the opposite and had a starter and a main so that you could get an impression of each level.

“It’s a big dish, hearty, robust even, but she made a pretty good attempt at clearing her plate”

I started with some crispy chilli with squid. I love good squid but I hate bad squid, too. I’ve suffered from inedible rubber bands in greasy batter one too many times and as a consequence I am apprehensive about ordering squid. But I decided to give it a go and very glad I am too. At Breeze it was crispy but tender and oh so sweet. Mrs E, not a fan of squid, had a taste and she too was impressed. It looked good, too. The chef had taken a real pride in both the cooking and the presentation of this dish and the chilli sauce was particularly fine. There was the right amount, too, not too little but not too much. A first class start.

Mrs E was drawn to the confit duck, especially when she heard that it was prepared in the kitchen and not bought in. I make confit duck from time to time but it takes a lot of time and patience and I am far happier to let someone else do it. The chef at Breeze does it justice, a large moist leg and thigh with crisp skin sat on a superb melange of lentils and shallots in a mahogany coloured sauce and with some pretty fine potatoes too. It’s a big dish, hearty, robust even, but she made a pretty good attempt at clearing her plate, probably getting through more than I might have managed before licking her lips and conceding. I couldn’t blame her. After all, she had to do pudding later.

I stayed with fish for my main course with an oven baked cod fillet served with chorizo, potatoes and cherry tomatoes. I love chorizo, I like the way it oozes spicy oil, but sometimes it can go too far and dominate a dish. It was my only concern about the dish but I need not have worried. The chef had cooked the cod perfectly so that it fell into pearly flakes. The chorizo had been cooked separately so that the pimenton-laden oil dressed the potatoes and mixed leaves. It looked and tasted delicious and was surprisingly filling, probably enough for me at lunchtime without the squid, but I wouldn’t have missed out the squid either so I ate the lot and sat back with a contented grin.

Mrs E then had to choose dessert, not easy as she too was pretty full. We both searched to find what we hoped would be the lightest and somehow ended up with cheesecake. Now I know that cheesecake could hardly be described as a light dessert but there you go. We had two spoons so I will confess to digging in, in the interests of science and not greed you understand. It was good, too, not too sweet, light and American in style I suppose. We did our very best and managed about 95 per cent of the pud before sighing and slumping in our seats.
Breeze is certainly cooking up a storm. The chef has good skills and uses some of his ethnic influences in the spices of his dishes to very good effect. It’s also satisfyingly generous food that will leave you feeling that you have had great value too. It’s well worth looking out for special menus, too, weekly offers and deals and also be aware that you can go in simply for a drink, a snack or a full blown feast.

Breeze, 98 Trafalgar Street, Brighton, BN1 4ER, 01273 693377, info@breezebrighton.co.uk