The deal is on, with latest dining deals.
Andrew Kay test drives Latest Dining Deals and books a table at Hotel Seattle
When first approached with the Latest Dining Deals concept I admit to being ambivalent. There has been so much made of coupon dining in the last year and some of it rather bad. I’m also most likely to choose where I dine based on what I feel like eating rather than being offered a coupon with a massive discount. The proof, as they say, would be in the pudding. As a mere pudding would not be evidence enough, this would be getting the full three course trial.
So I embarked on my very first Latest Dining Deals adventure. It starts online and it’s easy enough to find on our home page at thelatest.co.uk, to the right and down a bit. Click there and it will take you to the Latest Dining Deals page.
Once on the page I found a list of participating restaurants for that day, lots of choice and some real bargains. But I was looking for something a few days ahead. Was that possible? Yes it was, I quickly found at the top of the page a way of making an advance booking. Once on the date that I required a further list of restaurants popped up and in amongst them Hotel Seattle.
I have enjoyed many great meals at Hotel Seattle so I was happy to fill in the form when I had hit the red ‘Book A Table’ button. I then had to select a time, confirm the number of people and fill in a simple form with my mobile number. The mobile number is the way you receive your booking confirmation, by SMS text message, but also the way that you pay your booking fee which is £5 for a table of two and three and £10 for tables of four and over.
“A short while later the phone went ping and there it was, signed sealed and delivered so to speak”
A short while later the phone went ping and there it was, signed sealed and delivered so to speak. It really could not have been simpler, and the £5 booking fee is a small price to pay when your food bill is literally halved.
On the Saturday I went down to the Marina with Mr R and his mum. I simply showed the waiter my SMS message and he welcomed us to a great table in the glazed terrace. No mention was made of the deal and the only time that it came up was when the bill arrived and there the 50 per cent discount had been clearly made on our food.
The restaurant at Hotel Seattle is as good as ever and very soon we had a good bottle of muscadet, sparkling water and a plate of divine home made bread. Mr R started with an excellent chicken and foie gras parfait with toast. Mummy R chose scallops, a generous portion with crisp pancetta and cauliflower puree. I went all retro and had whitebait, really good whitebait, with a chilli mayo that had been made with sweet chilli sauce, an odd idea but one that worked rather well with the crisp little fishies.
For main course Mr R had chorizo with mash and confit onions. He loved it but wanted more onion. It was no problem and an extra portion arrived pretty fast. Mummy R had roast chicken with roast season fruits and vegetables. It too was great, although rather large and she did struggle to finish.
I chose the slow roast pork belly with bubble and squeak and I loved it. It should have come with glazed carrots but very obligingly they allowed me to change that to cabbage. The pork was very good, the crackling crackled and the bubble was bliss. I was a very happy Latest Dining Dealer.
Mummy R failed to get to dessert but when pushed had coffee and petit fours, very pretty they were too. Mr R had an espresso creme bruleé which was damned fine and I had a good bread and butter pudding and a brilliant cup of piping hot espresso.
I was glad of the coffee too when the manager brought over two different glasses of grappa for me to try. He is a big grappa fan and has quite a collection, an eye opening collection too. My memories of grappa always come with a stinker of a headache but these were very nice indeed, fragrant, delicate even.
A real revelation. I suggest you ask him to advise as I am certainly a convert.
All in all a first class meal for which our bill came to around £35 for the food with drinks on top, £12 a head for three courses. Now that really is a deal and frankly, even if we had not been on a deal and had paid £24 each for the food I would have been very impressed, Hotel Seattle looks great still and the kitchen serves up a treat. There are other great deals on their menus that are worth looking out for as well.
Hotel Seattle, Brighton Marina, Brighton, BN2 5WA
01273 679799, www.hotelseattlebrighton.com
