Sips & Trips with Molly

I took my boyfriend to Brighton for his 30th birthday for the weekend and wanted to treat him to a dinner at a restaurant – ideally a tasting menu. One place that kept popping up was the Burnt Orange.

It was highly recommended and they had a tasting menu – I booked seating at the table but didn’t opt for the tasting menu. You can literally choose this on the night and wanted to give my boyfriend the option. I’ll go into a bit more detail below but all I have to say is – go!

Where is the Burnt Orange?

Burnt Orange is set at 59 Middle Street in Brighton – right in the centre and a quick walk from our hotel – Hilton. The Burnt Orange on their website says they have flavour packed dishes designed for grazing.

They use seasonal ingredients so the menu does change which always makes it fun to visit no matter when you go. The restaurant also has well-crafted drinks and there is different specials they offer.

The Food

Down to the good part, the food. Firstly, we were sat right in front of the kitchen so it was amazing to be able to watch the chefs work their magic. There was a head chef and it was fascinating to see how he runs his kitchen – it was so professional.

First up, drinks. They had margarita specials which I was very excited for. I recently went to Mexico and have been craving the cocktail ever since. I went for a strawberry margarita and it was the best margarita I have ever had – just so so so so good. If they have this special again – please just have this.

I gave my boyfriend the freedom to choose whatever he wanted, and he went for the taster menu. It cost £38 per person which I thought was very reasonable for the restaurant that it was, and you got the following:

• Wood-fired Flat Bread
• Roasted Celeriac Hummus
• Spiced Calamari Fritti
• Smoked Lamb Shoulder Cigars
• BBQ Chicken Thigh
• Flamed Sea Bream
• Smoked Miso Aubergine
• Skillet-Baked Potatoes

Right, I don’t even know where to begin. Everything that we had was just incredible, we ate things we didn’t usually, like sea bream and aubergine which were so tender and tasty.

It’s really hard to choose an absolute favourite because everything was just so yummy. I mean, the classic favourites of mine and my partner the calamari and flatbread we loved automatically. I will say, the flatbread was just enhanced with so much flavour which made us love it even more. It wasn’t greasy in the slightest, but the taste just oozed from the flatbread when you bit into it. The calamari with the alioli sauce was incredible as expected.

When it comes to a tasting menu, or going out for a special occasion – we like to try things we can’t make at home. For me, the lamb cigars were my favourite easily. I think I described them as a ‘posh sausage roll’. I can’t explain how well the texture and taste combined. It will blow your socks off. The combination with the padron yogurt just made it for us. I would come back just for this one.

We ended the meal with chocolate truffles – the restaurant kindly gave us some extra with happy birthday on my boyfriends plate. We love chocolate so it had to be truffles. They were so delicious and not too rich either – you could tell that love and quality ingredients went into this dish.

I cannot wait to come back and visit Burnt Orange again, there’s so much more to explore and eat there. They also do vouchers which make it a great present – we are going to get some for family so they can come and visit. I highly recommend you visit the Burnt Orange for your next visit to Brighton.