Food & drink: Andrew Kay declares that the hottest joint in town is 64 Degrees

From my very first taste I knew that something very special was happening at
64 Degrees in Meeting House Lane. Once a café, this is now the most innovative dining experience in the city serving incredible food that combines real cooking skill with excellent sourcing of produce and a generous helping of wit.

Innovation in dining experiences can be such a minefield and so many excellent chefs have fallen by the wayside when led down the dark alleys of foodie fashion. The concept behind the menu at 64 Degrees is smaller plates of food so that you can share a wide range of dishes. Lesser minds might have called it tapas, but it’s not really that at all, what it is is a tasting menu that offers you choices. The culinary equivalent of the old Pick ‘n’ Mix in Woolworth, and by saying that I do not mean that this food is cheap and cheerful. Nor is it expensive, but then I have very fixed ideas about the pricing of food and feel that a bad dish priced low is in truth far more expensive that a great dish that cost twice as much. I hope that makes sense.

Any way, off I went with Mr M for dinner. We’d already had a Sunday lunch at 64º, but we were keen to try the complete experience. And experience is the best way to approach this as the food is a real journey of culinary skill, textures and flavours. We started with a drink, obviously, and what a nice change to have a glass of sparkling English wine served in a coupe and not a flute.

Our first dish was a taster, crisp salmon skin topped with salmon tartare, crisp and meltingly soft at the same time and quite delicious. Next a dish that we had tried before but could not resist having again. Chicken wings with a blue cheese dressing and dehydrated kimchi leaves is stunning and the Korean cabbage element is truly addictive.

Next came blow torch seared mackerel fillets served with bashed cucumber, curls of crisp mooli and a coconut cream. I love mooli, the clean fresh flavour perfectly balances the rich fish and coconut cream and the delicately pickled cucumber lifts the whole.

We followed this with spiced cauliflower puree, roast cauliflower and delicate shards of raw cauliflower with pomegranate and sultanas all topped with a shallot bhajee – I know, a really multi-layered cauli experience. Mr M got very excited about the bhajee but the simplest onion ring can put a smile on his face.

On then to a remarkable dish of purple potatoes, baby artichokes and sage tempura all sat on an almond cream. This really is a wow dish, the cream reminding me of the wonderful white gazpachos of Andalucia and the sage leaves in the most amazingly crisp and bubbly batter. Halibut came next, a perfect disc of golden fish served with fregola dotted with intensely flavoured mussels, sauce vierge and pickled butternut squash. If you are by now wondering at our greed then rest assured that we were sharing each dish! Again, what a dish, truly delicious and full of contrasts in flavour and texture.

Kneidl with cabbage and smoked butter was a warming favourite of the evening, the potato dumplings cooked in butter until crisp but remaining light and fluffy inside, the white cabbage peppery and sweet and the whole basking in the delicately smoked butter.

Goose skirt had us thinking, but it turned out to be an intensely flavoured cut of beef wittily served witha confit egg yolk topped with a film of bearnaise reduction. It looked as good as it tasted too, a treat for all the senses.

And at this point the savoury dishes ceased and we moved on to three delightful desserts, a burnt cinnamon cream with rhubarb and milk crisps was a jewelled plate of deliciousness. The hot chocolate with a pumpkin marshmallow biscuit was a serious indulgence for the seriously indulgent. The rum jelly bears are simply an alcoholic treat not to be missed and I for one would walk some way to have one of those each day, I’m sure I could justify them as part of my five a day regime if pushed.

64 Degrees is an amazing addition to Brighton’s culinary scene and a must do for the serious gourmet or gourmand, you decide which you are. I could waffle on about innovative techniques and adventurous pairings for ever, but what you really need to know is that this is superb cooking by any standard and the informal theatre style seating means that you are fully involved in the whole cooking and dining experience. It’s a true joy,a thing of loveliness and one to get to fast.

64 Degrees, 53 Meeting House Lane, Brighton, BN1 1HB, 01273 770115