You'd think that vegetarians would burst into flames on passing the doors of MEATLiquor wouldn't you? Home of those messy, naughty burgers that everyone loves diving into, surrounded by graffiti, neon, chain mail booths and nightclub lighting. There's the name too. But here we are, behind the beast it's a pretty inclusive place.


I still can't get over how much I like it here. Anyone that knows me would probably laugh at this - you wouldn't think it would be my thing, but then my collection of heavy metal normally raises a few eyebrows too!

Although I like the standard burgers, being the carnivore I am, today was all about the vegetarian specials and the "dry" cocktails.


Starting with the "Poppaz", which were cheese and jalapeño croquettes, crumbed and deep fried. Eaten molten hot, there's not really too much to complain about. The ranch dressing served with them helped cool down the spice.


I can't imagine salad is the first thing on any one's mind here but after trying it, I would definitely order the Blue Corn Tortilla Salad again. Probably one of the genuine healthier options, this included a decent portion toward your five a day in the beetroot, corn, cucumber, tomato and lettuce. There was a sprinkling of feta and serious crunch from the crushed blue corn tortilla chips and sunflower seeds. It's a really generous size too - at £6.75 a bargain for lunch.


On the other end of the health scale were the Black Bean Chilli Fries. Beautifully thin fries topped with a well seasoned black bean chilli, jalapeño, finely diced white onion and mustard. (These are vegan without the cheese option by the way.)

Although I really like the chicken Monkey Fingers on the menu, the paneer version made a really nice alternative, the firm texture holding up well. Still slathered in that finger licking hot sauce and served with a blue cheese dip.


As there was so much food to get through, the cheddar and Hobo Beer dip for the tortillas had congealed a bit as it cooled. That savoury beery taste was there though and eaten hot this would not have been an issue.


Drinks were lush and even without the recommended booze addition for each, were really interesting. I hate fizzy soda (cola is the DEVIL), so if I'm not drinking booze I tend to struggle with drinks. Hopefully they'll keep these on past January. Root 69 with it's vibrant colour from the beetroot was fresh and zingy with soda and lemon juice and the Carrot Top with turmeric I could have been drinking in some clean eating cafe for twice the price.


Although people should be well and truly off the January wagon by now (MEATliquor even did a ‘Falling Off the MEATwagon’ package deal to celebrate), don't rule this place out if you are going easy on meat or if you are vegetarian/vegan. There are of course still the vegetarian and vegan options on the burger menus as well as the Setan Fingers and sides you can bolt on to the specials. Whilst I would still opt for a Dead Hippie or buffalo wings on future visits (because, you know...MEAT) I would absolutely consider the meat free options again after trying them out.


(Excuse the odd colour on the photography, the interior is bathed in a red light district ambiance.)

MEATLiquor Brighton
22-23 York Place
Brighton BN1 4GU

I dined as a guest of MeatLiquor. Words and thoughts, as always, my own. 

So here I am on the third leg of my food home delivery service and it's a biggie. This time I'm trying out the UK's second best takeaway as voted by hungryhouse's customers from more than 10,000 restaurants. The vote is based on "their consistently positive customer ratings, their ability to deliver food to hungry customers without fail, and their high Food Hygiene Rating scores". All good news to me.

One of my most popular requests, other than generally good dining, is for vegetarian or vegan food in Brighton. But not everyone wants to go to the typical "marinated tofu and sprouting hemp cafe", or want to offer their carnivore dining companions more choice. Thankfully, there are actually plenty of great places to go here that cater very well for those on meat and/or dairy free diets.

I know what you are thinking. You in MEATLiquor? It's brash, loud, disorientating and serves calorific fast food - the thing I'm always moaning about. And yes, the prim and proper part of me (yeah it exists) shouldn't like it; I mean for one there's no tablecloth or fine cutlery for goodness sake (the horror). Instead, food is served on a metal tray with just a sheet of greaseproof paper for company and a domestic kitchen roll to wipe your mouth with. Kitchen roll!

But I really like this place. MEATLiquor burst onto the scene as a totally different dining experience that others since have tried to imitate, failing miserably. The brand and interiors have been really well considered by great design studios, with sophistication in the face of the style of graffiti, collages of unsavoury women doing unsavoury things and fizzing neon signs.



This visit was the first time I had been in the day, and it actually is far tamer. The music is low (racked up to ear bleeding at night) and the lights were on. Being quieter, you could have one of the booth rooms to yourself and service, as I found before, was really friendly. There is also a really good value lunch deal of any burger, fries and refill soda for £10.



Sitting down in a booth, surrounded by metal chains and whipping off my MAC Russian Red as prep for what was in store, I thought it was lucky I was meeting an old colleague for lunch. Trust me, you need to go here with people you have spent many hours with. This ain't no first date territory.

Having not tried their signature burger, the Dead Hippy, before I decided to tick that box. This had two mustard fried beef patties, the Dead Hippy sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, minced onions. The burgers here are really juicy, drippingly so. And doubled up meant double the mess but actually, I did manage to eat this without it completely collapsing on me. They are the Southern-US style of burger that meltingly squelch down so they just about hold together.

Normally I prefer my burgers cleaner but there is something about the unashamed naughtiness of these that are quite a pleasure. The patties had a lot of flavour and the pickles were very thick cut, something this pickle addict appreciated very much. I'm not going to even attempt to figure out what was in the secret sauce but the acidity cut through the fat of the meat to balance it out really well.

The generous portion of fries were almost too much to finish, very thin, very crisp and very salted. I didn't have room this time for the fried pickles, shrimp or the monkey fingers (strips of chicken fillet doused in hot sauce) but they are very good too.

I can't abide fizzy cola or lemonade so the fresh lime and soda included in the deal was good enough to wash it down with. If it were post the watershed then their cocktail menu is definitely worth a look.

MEATLiquor don't buck the the trend of what some burger places do. They don't even attempt to  market themselves with sustainability, where the food is sourced from or their organic credentials. All of which I think is actually very important in the food industry. But sometimes, just sometimes, you need a bit of sin in your life and I guess that's what we have MEATLiquor for.

MEATLiquor Brighton
22-23 York Place

The chilled Santa Barbara Country Pinot Noir by Byron Estate was ideal with Mr GF's burger which came...on a plate. Not a board, not a slate, not a dusty scaffolding plank but a plate! I almost wept happy tears. The burger itself came cooked through with no other option which was a shame but the patty was well flavoured and seasoned. The brioche bun was excellent in texture and sweetness, holding together throughout eating. The charry smoke from the bacon gave it that BBQ summer edge and it was a darn fine burger. I know the fashion is for these sloppy, grease dripping burgers, but this is perfect for a man like mine that wears decent Grensons if you know what I mean. Frites were nice and crisp and the crunchy side salad nicely considered.


My classic salmon main with silky hollandaise is exactly what I want to eat on a hot day. Good quality, simple food which is well cooked. The plate, which you can just make out, was a nice fun touch as well.


We finished up with a summer essential of sorbets and ice cream and both said how much we enjoyed our meal, which no doubt would have tasted even better in the fresh air.

I had fallen out of love with Hotel Du Vin in recent years, it used to be excellent, we even celebrated our engagement here many moons ago, but thought the standard had begun to slip on the last of my visits. Today, the bar and bistro seem buzzy again and with ideas like this new menu and their eye on details like the exterior, I think they are back on track with creating the quality experience we've come to expect from them.

Hotel Du Vin Brighton
Ship Street

Their deep purple signage and branding is slick and the interior looked, well, like a real restaurant. The ingredients seemed very well sourced, heavily local and the drinks menu was excellent. I found myself uncharacteristically attracted.

The food menu itself is streamline, which I also like, and confidently focused on the core offering of burgers, a few sides and desserts and little more. There were no gimmicks, no monster sized burgers, no chicken, ribs or whateverthehell and nothing had been given a tacky name. And the best bit? The lovely staff came over to my table to take the order! The sooner we nip this trend for ordering at the till in anything other than a motorway service station the better.



I opted for the simplest burger of them all; 6oz with tomato, mayo, lettuce and pickles. There was a choice of beef dripping or vegetable oil for the triple cooked chips. What? Is that a trick question? Is there a trap door under your chair that opens onto the hot flames of the grills if you choose the veg oil? There should be. Beef dripping, duh!

And they were really excellent chips. Crisp and fluffy and worth every single calorie of the dripping.



On my first visit, the burger bun was as dry as Ghandi's flip flop. They turn out to be by local bakery Real Patisserie which funnily enough I'm not a fan of their bread in general. It just didn't hold together which is a shame. The top fragmented and the patty slopped to the side as I was trying to eat. I had hoped I just got a bad batch which I think was the case as it was better on my second visit. I still didn't love the texture though as again it fell apart a bit but at least was not dry.

Anyway, the meat turned up to the party and the patty was firm, juicy yet not gratuitously bloody, well seasoned and really flavoursome. Exactly as I like it. Maybe I'd scored by ordering the clean burger devoid of any trimmings to detract from the meat, but there was enough to enhance with just enough mayo and shredded salad to add crunch and clearly, the chef shares my love of pickles as there were plenty in there. I did try the chicken burger on my second visit which was a nice distraction from beef, but really I think the classic beef burgers are what C&Co are about.


Desserts were surprisingly really very good. Everyone, particularly local blogger Rosie Swaffer, has been banging on about the donuts with black cherry curd and a chocolate dip from the fabulous Cocoa Loco and quite right they were too. My three perfectly light donuts were a treat and not too sweet with the tart cherry curd.


But best chocolate dessert had to go to the, again, Cocoa Loco chocolate, orange and almond brownie. Possibly the best brownie in Brighton I say. Orange, chocolate and almond is a hard to beat combination, especially with the added textural crunch of honeycomb. Spot on.

The plus points with C&Co are, as I said before, the Sussex produce like the meat from Redlands Farm in Horam, Downsview ice cream, Blackdown Spirits, Plumpton and Bolney wines. There are plenty of homemade details, even down to the mayo - and I know burger joints that bang on about provenance, local local blah blah and break out the Hellmans. (You know who you are.) Prices are sensible, the staff are really sweet and even the loos are lovely. There is a gorgeous garden out the back that would be ideal for a sunny lunch or warm evening and a real rarity in Brighton.

I can't remember any Brighton restaurant opening that has attracted so much hype as MEATliquor. It's literally been the talk of the town for months so I was keen to head down for the launch party on Saturday.

MEATliquor has progressed through the trends with roots in the early UK street food scene as the Meatwagon van in 2009, to the pop-up #meateasy above a pub in New Cross before opening the first permanent MEATliquor in London along with MEATmarket and MEATmission. Brighton is the first venture outside of the capital and happy we are that they are here too, hopefully leading the example for other decent names to follow.



If you like your burgers served up with a side order of rock and roll in an environment (designed by the superb ilovedust) that is a mash up between a nightclub, slaughterhouse, psychedelic dreamscape and fairground whilst music pumps bleedingly in your ears, then you'd be all over this. It doesn't make for the most comfortable dining experience but it does make it the coolest. Not one for Sunday lunch with granny for sure.

I've yet to see the final menu but expect the big hits from their London restaurant as well as the addition of local seafood and fish specials for this Brighton venue. As this was the launch party, I only sampled a slider sized version of the meat burger, the Monkey Fingers, (super soft pieces of marinated chicken in a holy-crap house hot sauce) and a taste of the fish and seafood dishes including prawns with a tequila salsa. Everything I tried food-wise was additively good and the cocktails to wash it all down with were pretty decent too.

The burgers are the squidgy soft American diner variety, the ones that form a single mass, with juices that run down your arm and chin when you bite into them. Filthy, filthy goodness right there.


Despite the location on York Place, this is a cult destination dining spot and expect it to be supremely busy in the next few weeks then just really flipping busy from then on. Groups of 6 or more can book, saving you from the inevitable queues that will snake around the corner for a while.

Whilst no doctor would ever recommend a visit to MEATliquor, I certainly would and my leather boots will forever carry the souvenir grease stains from the launch party. Don't wear your best T-shirt and go with it, I'll be heading down for a Dead Hippy, a bowl of chilli fries and the biggest onion rings on the planet soon.

Opening the 25th September at 5pm.

MEATliquor Brighton
York Place

The New Club is achingly cool. Sat overlooking the Brighton seafront, with a lofty interior, wall graphics depicting classic New York apartments, exposed bricks and mid-century dining chairs. Food is served by the young, the bearded and the tattooed on enamelware dishes. It’s very fitting with the trend for Americana fast food and its Dirty Burger has the acclamation of being one of the UK’s top 5*.

But there is substance to back up the styling, as they try and make components of each dish from scratch. The locally sourced burger meat is minced on site as well as the making of the brioche buns. Although they (strangely) don’t want to be exclusively known for their burgers, despite taking up half of the daytime menu, the other choices are worth a punt. Also worth trying out are the breakfasts – I had the pancakes a few weeks back, although I’d normally opt for a less sweet wake-up call as my tolerance for a sugar hit doesn’t kick in til mid-afternoon. They also do a burger club from 5pm and offer small plate dining in the evenings. With a well stocked bar of craft beer and cocktails and a chugging machine serving Union coffees, this is a fail safe drop-in for any time of the day.


This time however I was stopping by for lunch so I chose the pulled pork open sandwich with slaw. Again, they make the pork with their own smoker. There are a few places in the city now offering in-house pulled pork but this beats them hands down. Far juicier and richer in flavour, I actually had to jab Mr Graphic Foodie’s hand away from my plate with my fork. (I made sure our marriage vows did not, in any circumstance, cover the sharing of pulled pork.) I loved the smoky juices soaking into the sturdy sourdough bread and the fresh, zingy red cabbage slaw. I have a habit of ordering the most outrageous looking drinks and my mint and lemon frappé rocked up like a character from Dr Seuss blended up in a glass, but was refreshing in the heat.



Although the house-cured pastrami and fish tacos sounded appealing Mr GF opted to try out the Dirty Burger with 35 day beef, hickory smoked onion, bacon relish, cheese, sliced pickle, house sauce, (yup still going) shredded cabbage & romaine in a brioche bun. Served pink, as it should be, the burger was juicylicious and had serious smoke. The brioche bun held well despite having a tough job to do with all the additions and I liked the fact that it still had spring. So many brioche buns just flatten to nothing and although they act as a vehicle from plate to mouth, give little to bite into. It was a very fine burger indeed but I agree with Mr GF that the only shame was that the pure flavour from the meat was masked by the other ingredients. Next time I would go “Clean” I think.



Baby Foodie joined us this time and the kids menu is limited to burgers, fried chicken and fish fingers. I would have liked some vegetables as an option and maybe the fish fingers made from scratch but kept the bambino quiet through the meal with his first taste of rectangular fish.

We bypassed the cheesecakes and cookie sandwiches on the dessert menu and went straight in for a pretty decent espresso.

Next time I would come back sans enfant for a lingering evening meal with a few of their small plates and a bourbon sour or two before hitting the pictures.

Prices are really sensible for the informal food, more-so for the work and quality gone into the dishes.

Yes, it’s all very on trend and very hipster, but thankfully it’s not all front - the food quality stands up to it and this place is a beacon in a highly concentrated area of tourist fodder restaurants. Which is a great thing for visitors and finally gives us locals a destination eat too. I’m sure the New Club will be around long enough to become a bit of an old club.

The New Club
133-134 Kings Road
Brighton BN1 2HH

I was invited to review The New Club.

*so say The Shortlist