64 Degrees, Brighton

Geoff had the day off so we headed to Brighton last Monday. He’s very good at picking out good places to eat and this time he certainly came up trumps! 64 Degrees is in ‘the lanes’ of Brighton where there are many, many places to eat. They were awarded a Bib Gourmand by Michelin 2014 & 2015 and won Best Restaurant at the Brighton & Hove Food Awards. They were voted 16th in the National Restaurant top 100 list 2016.

64 Degrees serve small dishes of which you choose around five between two people, smaller than a main dish, a little larger than a starter.

There are four dishes in each section, fish, vegetables and meat and this I believe they change quite frequently.

We had booked online before we left the house for 2pm and arrived 20 minutes early. We peeked inside and there was a table for two by the door and one up at the open kitchen. I suggested we ask if it was ok if we came in now and lucky I did because we got to sit up on the high stools watching the chefs do their amazing work!

We had a bottle of tap water, a glass of Argentinian Cabernet franc and a bottle of Wild Heaven IPA from Arundle Brewery for Geoff.

First up we were served with homemade soda bread with smoked butter. Both were very nice, the bread fresh, the butter soft, smooth and creamy.

Our first dish, which was my choice and supposed to be just for me was scallops, cinnamon, kale. The kale was very crispy and a little hard to eat but I soon realised if I scooped up some of the sauce – squid ink & onion – it would stick to it and make life a lot less messy.
Geoff will never ever try scallops! It’s infuriating because he’s tried squid and I keep telling him scallops are not fishy at all, rather like meat. I eventually got him to try one and yep, he liked them! Pity really as I then had to share my dish with him, I should have kept my mouth shut.

Geoff had chosen the cod but as I’d shared my scallops with him he had to share the cod with me. The cod was nice and thick with crumbs on top and toasted almonds. Slices of I know not what were at the bottom – I’ll take a guess and say radish or white carrot? It was very nice and Geoff preferred this whereas  I much preferred the scallops.

Dish number three was parsnip, sriracha, sesame which was recommended to us by a customer who was just leaving as we were about to order. She wasn’t wrong in saying that this dish was amazing and not just to look at! Sesame seed coated slices of thick parsnips with crispy parsnip skins (like crisps) and the most delicious spicy red pepper sauce which had a bit of a kick to it. This was in fact sriracha which I’d never heard of before but weirdly saw it again on the menu of Southsea Coffee Co., not 24 hours later! Must be the new ‘in thing’. If you haven’t heard of it either it’s a sauce made from fermented chilli, garlic, sugar and yoghurt. Again the crispy parsnips were hard to eat but the sauce helped stick it all together.

Oh my, three dishes down and it was hard to say which was our favourite so far. Scallops first, parsnips second and cod third for me.

The pace was good, we weren’t rushed nor was it too slow. Everything is cooked from fresh and the chefs are very friendly and will answer any questions, they also pass you the dishes if you’re sitting up by them and explain what it is.

The partridge dish was our favourite though. We watched as the chef squeezed out little blobs of sauce onto the plate, carefully placing halved sprouts and pancetta before delicately balancing the partridge breast on top with Brussels sprout leaves as garnish. Wow! We know it was all fresh as we had watched another chef peel the sprouts and dice the bacon in front of us only minutes earlier.

The beef dish was lovely too. Oh gosh, it all was really. The beef was tender and had a very tasty sticky sauce with duckah, and a pickled carrot which we saw being burnt with a blow torch.

After our last dish we were were served with a nice sorbet of pineapple, lemon & celery which was lovely, in fact we got to have two as they’d brought out too many.

We were quite full and should and could have stopped there but of course we’re greedy b******s (well I am anyway) and just had to have a dessert, we did share it though! This was the only slight disappointment. STP stood for sticky toffee pudding and although it was in a Bourbon sauce I didn’t realise until I read it afterwards and the vanilla ice cream was ok but not wow.

It was, sadly just an average STP. I should have gone for the rum bear jelly with sherbet which the couple next to us had, less than half the price and something a bit different. Next time I will!

We ordered two espresso’s each and some petit fours. These were handmade on the premises as is everything I was assured. A chocolate truffle each, a couple of jelly type cubes and another fudgy type thing – sorry I can’t remember what they were but you get the gist – all of which were very nice.

It wasn’t a cheap meal but you get what you pay for and it was most definitely worth it, sitting up at the kitchen made it extra special. As I said before the staff were friendly and there were plenty of them. The little restaurant covers around 20 people and we counted at least five chefs and two waitresses.

Top tips – book beforehand and make sure you get to sit up at the open kitchen for a more enjoyable experience.

Ambience 8
Value 8
Service 8
Quality 9
Return? YES!
Overall 9/10

Living life, loving 64 Degrees

A x