Walrus Brighton – Restaurant Review

The Walrus, 10 Ship Street, Brighton

Last weekend we were invited to the soft launch at a new pub, The Walrus. The pub is opening soon on Ship Street, just up from the Hotel Du Vin. Set in the Lanes, just up from the sea the first thing I noticed was just how grand the building was. Being a relative newbie to Brighton I wasn’t familiar with the building. So I can’t really comment on how different it is. However I do know it was previously a nightclub so I could tell a lot of work had gone into the decor of the building. It definitely doesn’t look like a nightclub now.

Set over three floors, you enter into the main bar area. Downstairs there is another bar area which will also host live music. Once we arrived we were greeted and whisked off upstairs to the restaurant. My eyes were immediately drawn to the huge window at the far end with a lovely chandelier hanging down. I also noticed the huge collection of photographs, paintings and mirrors which are on all the walls. The space was actually quite large, although it seemed quite dark at first I think it was just because it was so sunny outside.

After being seated, we were presented with menus and a wine list and left to decided on what we were going to have. It took me quite a while to work out what I was going to have because there were so many things on the menu I wanted to try! In the end I went for the salmon starter, and Jess picked the quail scotch eggs. As soon as our starters arrived I immediately had food envy, the scotch eggs looked so good! That’s not to say my salmon wasn’t good – it was. Served with capers, cucumber, pink peppercorns, lemon and dill dressing it was really light and fresh. The only thing I would say is maybe order some sourdough bread to go with it.

For our mains I chose a slow cooked lamb kebab with a spring slaw on a flatbread. Jess absolutely loves seafood so he picked seared sea-trout, mussels and beetroot. The lamb kebab was essentially a posh kebab but do not let that put you off. This is not your typical kebab shop food. The lamb was soft and tender, and had been marinated in sumac and pomegranates.

Desserts are definitely my favourite part of a meal. It doesn’t matter where we go my eyes always go to the dessert section of a menu first. Even if we aren’t planning on having one I have to check them out. As soon as I saw there was a baked alaska on the menu I knew what I was having. Jess went for the dark and white chocolate brownie with raspberries, ice cream and popping candy. Both of them seemed very popular with almost every table going for the same! Neither of them disappointed. The baked alaska came with a mango and pomegranate salsa which went really well the meringue and ice cream.

Thank you to the lovely staff at The Walrus for inviting us along to the soft launch. We were given a 3 course meal for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.