Shares are up

Andrew Kay shares a succulent rib of beef at The Coal Shed in Brighton

When the name The Coal Shed came to my attention I did wonder how they had chosen it as a name for a restaurant. Having been brought up ‘t’up north’ I wasn’t too convinced it married well with the idea of good food. How wrong I was. Resisting to attend in the first few months, I was delighted to finally get there in mid December.

What once was a rather ordinary pub is now a rather smart restaurant, the look is functional, slightly industrial even but rather successful with muted greys and natural wood. The menu is equally simple with a small selection of starters, main courses and desserts. But the core to their food is a coal fired Spanish oven, and hence the name. Steaks and fresh fish rule although I was impressed to see two vegetarian dishes that sounded rather good, as if the chef has actually made an effort to keep the veggies happy. But the steaks are what you go for and very good they are too, and sharing is the idea with the larger cuts sold by weight and ideally suited to both the cooking methods and couples who like to share.

But I am getting ahead of myself as usual. So, after a very welcome glass of champagne at the bar we settled at our table for starters. Mr R had grilled prawns and loved them. I was as pleased as he was to find that they had been half shelled on arrival, he’s not keen on fiddly food (recently dismissing peas as being too much effort). The prawns came with shredded vegetables and pickled ginger, an excellent bowl of food. I chose razor clams and loved them, sweet, tender, plentiful and bathed in a great herb laden broth with good sourdough for mopping up.

“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, the steak. A 700gm rib was our choice and I asked the chef to cook it so that he thought it was right, after all, I don’t often get to order a whole rib of beef so how was I to know? When it arrived it was perfect, charred on the edges and bloody inside, and packed with flavour. The high temperature of their clever oven clearly does a great job and we loved helping ourselves to thick slices of rare beef. There was plenty too, if not too much. If there had been three of us we would not have gone hungry and we would certainly have finished the excellent chips which we did rather neglect. We chose two sauces to go with the meat, a classic green peppercorn sauce that was perfect and a herb and chilli chimmichurri which had a lovely fresh balance to it.

So steak; first class, on to the side dishes. Now I know that side dishes can be a let down when so much effort goes into the main event, but not here. I was blown away by an English green salad, it was made with great care, well seasoned and packed with delicious things like tiny slices of cornichon, pin head capers and de-seeded cucumber slices. The heritage tomato salad, I hate the word heritage, but here I will forgive it as this was a plate of once again well dressed ingredients and varieties in abundance from deep maroon cherry tomatoes to tiger strips and sharp crisp green varieties. This was impressive stuff and at £2 each really great value.

Puds were as good too: an excellent chocolate mousse with salt caramel pecans and a trifle made with pears, panettone and vin santo that came in a knickerbocker glory glass with the appropriate spoon. I liked that.

We had a glass of white with our fish and red for the meat from a good and well balanced list and finished with great espressos. Starters are £5.50 to £7.50. Mains start at £8.50 and rise according to weight. Puds are £5.50 to £7 for the cheese. I really cannot wait to go back, even if it’s just for those great, great salads.

The Coal Shed, 8 Boyce’s Street, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 1AN 01273 322998, www.coalshed-restaurant.co.uk