The Salt Room Brighton is one of the best Brighton seafood restaurant’s, right on the waterfront…
We have wanted to visit The Salt Room since its doors opened in February 2015; headed by the team behind Brighton’s award-winning The Coal Shed restaurant – this was a sure sign of quality! A Brighton seafood restaurant, it is a must for any fish lover coming to the city.
Located in the Hilton hotel, opposite the West pier on the seafront, The Salt Room is a modern British seafood and grill restaurant, focusing on delivering the finest sustainably sourced seafood and grilled meat cooked over charcoal. The Brighton seafood restaurant is contemporary and stylish and there is also a gorgeous terrace where on a sunny day you can dine alfresco overlooking the sea.
Their tagline is simple: Great food. Great Service. Great views. And if you want the cliff notes version of this review then this would be it! But if you want to hear all the glorious details about our first long-awaited visit to The Salt Room, then read on…
Upon arrival we were greeted by a warm and friendly front of house, the bar looked inviting and the cocktail list too good to resist, so we opted for a pre-dinner visit to the bar.
We sampled a Sweet Side (a sweeter take on the classic whiskey-based Manhattan) and a Gin Bouquet. The charismatic mixologist advised we’d made good choices – the innovative cocktail list was his design and when he told us that the Gin Bouquet had seen him jet off to New York City to win Best New Cocktail we knew we were in safe hands! If you enjoy a cocktail, I highly recommend The Salt Room bar – even if you don’t stay for dinner, the bar alone is reason to visit. But if you can, you should really stay for dinner.
Choosing from the menu was no easy task due to the wonderful selection of dishes. The steak was very tempting having been very impressed by previous trips to The Coal Shed, but The Salt Room prides itself on its seafood offerings so we decided this was the best option, which narrowed things down slightly. After some deliberation, we started with ‘Salt cod fritters with smoked cod’s roe’, ‘Mackerel and octopus soup’ (which was a Special) and ‘Hand dived scallop ceviche with red onion, avocado puree, yuzu and served with a giant crispy king prawn’.
The fritters were crispy and melt-in-your-mouth and the smoky cod roe was the perfect accompaniment (and a first try for both of us). The mackerel and octopus soup was silky and luxurious in texture and bursting with flavour. The scallop dish was a wonderful and unique concoction of lively and fresh flavours that awakened every taste bud and left them tingling in anticipation for our main course!
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Our indecisiveness over which dish to choose for mains turned out to be a blessing – we went for The Surf Board so we could try a little of everything…it’s described as ‘A Daily selection of Hot Fruits of the Sea’ and it is an impressive and awe-inspiring dish that causes diners to gasp in surprise and glee when it’s placed on the table (and some serious food envy from fellow diners!). The dish towers high like a Hawaiian wave and has lashings of cowabunga (please excuse the Surf puns, I couldn’t resist).
Our selection included coal roasted oysters (a revelation!), giant Sussex prawns, scallops, squid, langoustines, clams, mussels, giant crab claws and razor clams, all drizzled in garlic and herb olive oil, served with their signature charcoal mayonnaise, a wholemeal bread roll and the glorious Salt Room Fries… phew! A true feast, fit for (a very hungry) king.
We licked our lips and got stuck in to the fairly messy task of dismantling this sumptuous seafood selection. The getting messy part made it all the more fun for us but if you’re a little squeamish about seafood served in its shell, this might not be the dish for you.
By the time we were finished we were fit to burst but we had heard tales of the signature pudding: the “Taste of the Pier” and I’m not quite sure how we managed it, but we polished that off too!
Another sharing platter, this time full of a colourful and nostalgic assortment of Brighton-themed sweet treats including sugared doughnuts, candy floss, chocolate pebbles, creamy Sussex fudge, mint choc chip 99’s, handmade raspberry marshmallows and chocolate honeycomb brittle. The very clever presentation gives an air of sophistication and elegance to the dish while also singing to your inner child!
To top it off, we had great service all evening and washed down our feast with a lovely bottle of fizz from the extensive wine list – needless to say, we left full to the brim, utterly satisfied and already planning our next visit! There is nothing we could find to fault in this Brighton seafood restaurant The Salt Room…
The Salt Room Brighton
106 King’s Rd
Brighton
BN1 2FA
