The town of my birth, Brighton, has we are regularly told, a greater choice of eating places than anywhere else in the country - outside of London. Having travelled both on pleasure and business widely in England and Scotland I think that I would agree with that statement. We have trawled for ... Read review
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Advantages: Superb food. Excellent value for money. Truly unique setting. Perfect service. Disadvantages: All smoking tables. Could make you sea sick! If you are disabled, check tide table first.
...had anywhere.
Brighton has its' fair share of Chinese restaurants, good, bad and positively indifferent. I am not going to tell you that we have tried them all, but of the ones we have experienced, the Pagoda in Brighton Marina's West Quay is by far and away the best and, as it turns out, far from being the most expensive too.
I say "in" Brighton Marina because that exactly tells you where it is! Not "at" ... ...of getting to the Marina. Brighton Bus (e.g Number 7) runs a 24 hour service there now, the bus stop is even closer than the car park.
If it is lunch that you are going for (highly recommended due to the views of the boats pottering in and out of the Marina) then you could travel from Brighton Pier to the Marina on the historic Volks Electric railway. Bearing in mind that this restaurant is a converted Dutch Barge there is a certain ... more
The town of my birth, Brighton, has we are regularly told, a greater choice of eating places than anywhere else in the country - outside of London. Having travelled both on pleasure and business widely in England and Scotland I think that I would agree with that statement. We have trawled for hours around Chester looking for a suitable place to eat, likewise in Preston, Hull (came up lucky there on a Chinese!), Carlisle and most recently Portsmouth.
Yes, choice is a great thing, but in a very cosmopolitan town such as this sometimes such a great choice can lead to awkward indecision when you are contemplating an intimate meal for two, or needing to entertain a party from another part of the country. All of us Brightonians I am sure have one or two favourites depending on mood and pocket, but sometimes it pays to take the plunge on something a little out of the ordinary.
Fortunately my wife and I both share something of a passion for Chinese food and tend to seek out restaurants of an Oriental origin. We have eaten Chinese food all over the country and indeed in her homeland of Poland, where bizarrely chopsticks do not make an appearance even in Krakow or Warsaw.
Our benchmark Chinese restaurant remains the one (whose name escapes me) next to Win Yip - the Chinese supermarket - on the A23 in Croydon. That place was packed with Chinese eating, not cheap either, but the food was sensatiional - the best meal we have had anywhere.
Brighton has its' fair share of Chinese restaurants, good, bad and positively indifferent. I am not going to tell you that we have tried them all, but of the ones we have experienced, the Pagoda in Brighton Marina's West Quay is by far and away the best and, as it turns out, far from being the most expensive too.
I say "in" Brighton Marina because that exactly tells you where it is! Not "at" the Marina where there is now a huge choice of eating places and watering holes, but actually floating in it.
This establishment is very easy to find from the big multi-storey car park as you drive onto the Marina complex. From the car park there is a bridge crossing the road next to McDonalds, follow the path down from here until you can see the water and you cannot fail to find the Pagoda tied up alongside the Marina wall on the land side.
If you are not arriving by car there are several alternative ways of getting to the Marina. Brighton Bus (e.g Number 7) runs a 24 hour service there now, the bus stop is even closer than the car park.
If it is lunch that you are going for (highly recommended due to the views of the boats pottering in and out of the Marina) then you could travel from Brighton Pier to the Marina on the historic Volks Electric railway. Bearing in mind that this restaurant is a converted Dutch Barge there is a certain appeal in travelling along there from the centre of town on the 122 year old narrow gauge railway.
The Pagoda takes its name from the shape of the roof on the barge, a "Pogoda" roof - like a Chinese junk. At 105 settings, this is not a very large restaurant by local standards, there are two decks, the lower one containing a fine art gallery and 45 seats - which we have yet to visit! although the art gallery was opened in 2002, the restaurant has been open since 1997, quite a mature establishment then in our modern times!
Before describing the Pagoda any further, I would at this point sound two warnings - it is best to get the downside out of the way first!
1) If you are disabled or have walking difficulties the access ramp to the Pagoda can be very steep at low tide. It does have a good non slip surface, but once down to the Restaurant there are three wooden steps up to the door. At high tide the access ramp may be almost level, this part of the Marina is tidal, if necessary you can find tide tables for the Marina here on the net.
2) We had always been lucky on previous occasions, but on our last visit, a Saturday lunchtime, we suffered from inhalation of cigarette smoke from a party at the next table. For some reason Chinese restaurants seem to have been very slow to ban smoking. I am not a particular anti-smoker but I do object smoking where people are eating.
That is the end of the bad stuff, it is all good from here on!
The "outside house" menu is presented at the top of the aforementioned walkway. Prior to our first visit we had looked at this menu at least half a dozen times, on each occasion commenting that it looked a wonderfully original place to eat but at "those" prices strictly for special occasions only. We waited probably six months for such an occasion, my 42nd birthday.
It was an unusually cold, wet and positively stormy Monday night in September, not an evening when you would venture out of doors unless for a very good reason. Was eating afloat a good idea under such circumstances we wondered?
Once we stepped aboard our fears were allayed, although there was quite a lot of movement on board the old barge, the tide was coming in rapidly so there were loud creaks coming from the mooring poles as the boat rose in the water. It would be difficult to imagine anyone actually feeling sea sick, but I would compare it to being on a cross channel ferry in a fairly strong "blow".
Apart from the noise and motion of the sea, the first thing that really strikes you is the unique decor. Chinese, certainly, but unlike any of the dozens of other Oriental restaurants visited. For my taste it avoids being over done and yet is certainly out of the ordinary. The bar takes up a very small corner adjacent to the entrance whilst the rest of the deck is laid out in conventional style with high backed Chinese style chairs and spacious tables. The chair backs are covered in tailor made covers a small touch, but unusual nonetheless. The beaten copper ceiling not so far above your head is also unusual and attractive too.
Unlike other restaurants in this town they have not attempted to pack in as many seats as possible and the atmosphere is all the better for it.
Pagoda is not short of staff, even in Chinese restaurants we have seen one harassed waiter/ess running around attempting to serve a couple of dozen tables. Here the service is friendly, polite yet unobtrusive.
Once seated, all tables have a good view of the sea on the south side, you are presented with a comprehensive but unexceptional, by Chinese standards, menu. It would not be appropriate to list the full menu here, there is far too much of it, if you are sufficiently curious to find out there is a full menu available on their website.
A choice of cutlery is offered, for those of you who do not fancy using chop sticks - it is dead easy with some practice - you are not made to feel inferior by having to ask for a knife and fork!
You start with a choice of 23 "Appetisers", including the obligatory Aromatic Crispy Duck in a veriety of sizes. This may be followed by any one of a veriety of 10 soups. To make choosing easier the main courses are split into Poultry, Meat, Hot Pot Dishes, Vegetarian Dishes, Seafood plus naturally rice and noodles - a choice in all of 63 dishes - before you start on the Specialities, a further 16 mouthwatering temptations!
For those amongst you who have either insufficient time to assimilate this huge veriety of dishes, or possibly this is a toe in the water as far as Chinese dining is concerned - there are 4 set menues for parties of varying size from 2 upwards.
The set menu pricing ranges from £18 per head (3 courses) to £28 for a 3 course seafood meal. From our experiences here on several occasions you do not need to spend anywhere near this amount to enjoy a superb meal here.
In fact one Saturday lunchtime we paid £6.95 each for a lunchtime special and were absolutely delighted with it!
Back to my big night and our first visit. We arrived early, allowing plenty of time to fully "digest" (sorry!) the menu. Usually we would on a first visit order a set menu to get a taste of what's on offer, being more adventurous on a potential return visit if the food is up to scratch the first time. Here however we were in a fussy mood and none of the set menus on offer had eactly the combination of dishes we were looking for.
We chose Imperial Mixed Hot Hors D'oeuvres (£4.00 each), followed by Quarter of duck (£8.00) our waitress very wisely advised us against a half duck, followed by mixed sea food in Supreme source (£8.50), beef with ginger and spring onions (£6.50), sliced mango with king prawns in birds nest (£8.50). Accompanying this we also ordered house special fried rice (£4.30) at which point the waitress advised us that we had ordered more than enough food for the two of us.
And so we had!
It was not the quantity of food that started to arrive at the table, generous as it was, but the sheer quality of the ingredients, fresh and superbly cooked. I could have walked out happily after the Hors D'oeuvres and duck courses but there was more and better to come.
The Hors D'oeuvres consisted of: mini spring rolls, satay (a wonderful spicy peanut sauce) chicken skewers, spare ribs covered in a sticky sweet and sour sauce (a real high light) and the usual serving of sea weed (shredded fried green cabbage). They were undoubtedly the best starter I have enjoyed anywhere.
The duck course by comparison was more ordinary. Cooked until crisp and then shredded at the table, it is served with shredded spring onion and cucumber slices which you then wrap with the duck in fine steamed pancakes which are served in a special bamboo steamer dish. The sweet plumb sauce that accompanies the duck, onion and cucumber is superb. We have enjoyed duck served this way in several other places, amongst which a previous favourite Gan Bay in Hove.
Our hearts sank when the main dishes arrived. The main dishes are served onto two food warmers (kept hot by tea light candles), a nice touch, already placed on the table. There was enough food for four people here!
A particular highlight of the meal for me was the mango and king prawn in birds nest. The beautifully presented birds nest, a basket created from fried noodles, which are then quite literally shaped into a birds nest. The king prawns were huge, obviously absolutely fresh and superbly accompanied by delicious soft cooked mango slices.
All of the dishes served were imaginatively presented and of the very best quality ingredients. The house fried special rice at a mere £4.30 is worthy of mention on its own. Rarely has rice been any more delectable, they had added just about everything to this one, tiny prawns, bacon, chicken and peas but the result was superb.
The seafood in supreme source would be my wife's ultimate reccomendation as a house speciality. We both love sea food and this dish had some strange creatures I had never set eyes on before. It was however delicious, the Supreme source is indescribable, suffice to say that it is rich and spicy and yet complements rather than swamps the delicate flavours of some of the sea creatures.
The beef with ginger and spring onions - I'm a meat eater and after all it was my birthday - really did turn out to be a dish too many! As with all of the others it was superb, but certainly along with the duck one that we would leave out, were we to repeat this particular experience.
There was definitely no room for a sweet on this occasion, although as with most other Chinese restaurants the sweets are simple choices of ice cream or lychees. We rounded our meal off with very good coffee and mints.
Without alcoholic drinks, we stuck to water, the bill came to exactly £60. For the quality, let alone the quantity of food that we enjoyed this could only be regarded as good value for money.
The service charge is included in the bill too, although generally against my principals (I prefer to tip waiters with cash and pay the bill with a credit card) in this case where you do not have a "dedicated" waiter it somehow feels more appropriate.
Brighton Pagoda gains our wholehearted support and recommendation, we have eaten there several times since, the food and service are never less than excellent and there really is no need to pay more than £15 per head to enjoy a first class meal!
Brighton Pagoda West Quay Brighton Marina Brighton Tel: 01273 819053
Opening times 12.00 to 14.00 and 18.00 to 22.30 every day.
Pagoda also offers a "cook to your own suggestion" service i.e. if there's a dish you particularly fancy and they do not list it on the menu, they will do their very best to prepare it for you!
