If you need to know where to eat in Brighton, look no further.

If you need to know where to eat in Brighton, look no further. From a long-awaited Michelin star in Hove to counter dining in the Lanes, fire-cooked small plates and the vegetarian restaurant that has been ahead of the curve for three decades, here is where to eat in England’s most restless seaside city. Scroll down for our pick of ten tables to build a weekend around…

Maré

The headline act. Brighton and Hove spent years being described as the biggest UK city without a Michelin star; Rafael Cagali’s Hove restaurant put an end to that, and now holds the only star in the city. Cagali brings together his Brazilian heritage and Italian training, applied to Sussex produce and, above all, to the sea a few streets away. Expect precise, high-concept cooking and a room that feels grown-up without being stiff. The most special-occasion meal in the city, and priced accordingly.

Terre à Terre

The vegetarian restaurant that made Brighton a vegetarian city, still going strong after three decades and voted the best restaurant in Brighton and Hove by locals in the 2026 BRAVO awards — its second win in three years. The cooking is maximalist, playful and dense with ideas; dishes arrive with more components than seems reasonable and somehow work. Even committed carnivores tend to leave converted for the evening. Book well ahead, particularly at weekends.

The Flint House

A Bib Gourmand stalwart in the Lanes, and the model for how Brighton likes to eat now: perch at the counter, watch the pass, order small plates as they occur to you and keep going until you stop. The menu turns over constantly with the seasons, the wine list is short and interesting, and the whole thing is designed for two people with an appetite and no fixed plan. Walk-ins are possible early; later, book.

Cin Cin

Modern Italian done with real discipline, and holder of a Michelin Bib Gourmand for nine consecutive years — a run that says more about consistency than any single accolade could. Handmade pasta is the reason to come, along with a menu that changes with what Sussex growers and Cantabrian boats are sending in. The Hove room is small and convivial; sit at the bar if you can.

The Little Fish Market

Duncan Ray’s tiny Hove dining room does one thing: a set menu of whatever came off the boats that morning, served to about twenty people at a time. There is no à la carte, no chorus of choice, and no need for either. It is regularly named among the best fish restaurants in the country, and the intimacy is central to the appeal. Reserve weeks out.

Riddle & Finns

Brighton’s champagne and oyster bar, and the most reliably enjoyable seafood in the city centre. There are two sites: the original in the Lanes, all marble tables, candlelight and steam from the open kitchen, and a larger one on the seafront with the beach through the windows. Oysters by the half dozen, whole grilled fish, lobster, and a glass of something cold. Neither is quiet, and that is rather the point.

The Coal Shed

The steak restaurant that helped set the template for Brighton dining, working a charcoal grill over dry-aged Sussex beef, with fish and a good line in sides doing more than making up the numbers. It has aged well: still busy, still consistent, and still a fixture in the city’s annual top twenty. Good for a proper dinner when nobody wants small plates.

Kindling

The one locals reach for when asked what is genuinely interesting right now. Sustainability runs through everything — sourcing, waste, what the kitchen chooses not to use — but the cooking never turns into a lecture. Menus are short, seasonal and built around live fire, and the result is thoughtful without being austere.

Burnt Orange

The one for a night that runs long. Fire and coals in an open kitchen, sharing plates that lean Middle Eastern and Mediterranean, cocktails that are taken seriously, and a warren of a room in the Lanes that fills with noise as the evening builds. A locals’ favourite and a regular in the city’s top twenty, it is the antidote to a tasting menu.

Donatello’s

Not every meal needs a tasting menu and a reservation made a month out. Donatello’s has been feeding the Lanes for decades: a big, cheerful, reliably busy Italian doing pizza and pasta at prices that still make sense, with tables spilling out onto the pedestrianised street in summer. It is where Brighton families, students and anyone who has misjudged their budget all end up, quite happily.

Also worth your time:

Embers for live-fire cooking; Palmito for Latin American and Asian-inflected small plates; The Ginger Pig for a pub kitchen operating well above its station; and LOST in the Lanes for the best breakfast before any of the above.