Andrew Kay enjoys a tasty dinner at Coast Grill in Brighton’s Lanes
Griller warfare
Much as I love my fancy foods, I’m equally at home with the simpler things in life.
And, so often, a restaurant that focuses on doing the simpler things well, will, to my way of thinking, be so much more satisfying. Coast Grill has recently rethought what it does and to great effect. The simpler menu leans heavily on the grill and I have to say, it works.
I arrived early evening with my friend Ms L, we were off to the theatre after but after a long day at the coal face of modern media we both had hearty appetites. This is a good thing at a grill restaurant as, quite rightly so, the menu does not err on the side of dainty, far from it, the food here was very generous. In fact, in hindsight, as we eased ourselves in the snug theatre seats, we might have ordered less.
We didn’t though, we gave that menu a thorough, and very enjoyable, thrashing.
Starting out by sharing some fishies. A sharing platter of whitebait and calamari was excellent, piping hot with tasty fishes and tender rings of squid. To accompany this I also ordered the king prawns. These too were top notch, great big beasts packed with flavour and accompanied by a good dip. It was both delicious and generous and on a less hungry night it might well have done the trick without going any further. It was, however, not a light bite night, and we pressed on.
Ms L decided that a burger was a good idea and had spotted on a board of daily specials a lamb burger served with minted yoghurt. I have to say that the combination sounded good and the speed with which she devoured it was confirmation of the fact that it was. Not that I am saying that she is a gannet, just that she relished the plate of food before her.
A few days earlier I had sat and watched as my friend Ms C daintily picked her way across a plate of delicious pork ribs. I watched with envy as she did so. I love ribs, I like them dry with salt and chilli, I like them sticky with chilli sauce, I like them glazed with honey and I particularly enjoyed these with a Jack Daniel’s glaze. Well, what’s not to like about food that involves good booze?
I could have had a plate of ribs alone but there was an option for a plate that was half ribs and half chilli chicken wings. These are another favourite of mine and I can happily sit and pick at them until the – well, until the chickens come home to roost. Our dishes came with excellent fries and tip top onion rings too, and by the time I was finished I was surrounded by bones and sticky to the wrists, a delicious state of affairs to my way of thinking.
Puddings should have been a no go area on this occasion but you know how seriously I take this job, so my health was cast to one side as I endeavoured to provide a full and fullsome report. Ms L was happy to join me in this and made light of a very good crème brûlée. This time I went to the specials board and chose the Malteser cheesecake. Now the man that came up with this idea is a bad, bad person. I mean Maltesers are delicious enough as they stand, but to incorporate them into a cheesecake was devilish – devilishly good, that is. I would have only one complaint and that was that the portion was too big, well too big for me really. It meant that for the rest of the evening I had to waddle around, more-so than I usually do.
We shared a bottle of Argentinian Malbec that hit just the right spot but had no room for coffee, no surprise really after our huge feast.
Coast Grill has had a bit of a make-over too. It’s looking good, cosy and warm inside. Sadly at this time of year dining alfresco on their large terrace was not an option. I know that in the warmer months dining there is a great buzz and you can often be entertained by some rather good street musicians, although that can be a bit hit and miss if, like me, you have an aversion to jazz of the trad kind.
Sometimes it takes a radical rethink to make a restaurant work and the team that have gone into Coast have done an excellent job by focusing on a smaller but no less ambitious menu, filled with favourites that are certain to please. Simple can be so good and at Coast it was simply delicious.
Coast Grill, 28 East Street, Brighton, BN1 1HL, 01273 723256, coastbrighton.co.uk/
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