We were invited down to Artist Residence in Regency Square for dinner to check out their new food offering at the newest neighbourhood hangout in town, the Artist Residence Clubhouse.
First things first, don’t panic, award-winning restaurant The Set hasn’t gone anywhere. Dan Kenny and the team will still be popping up in the kitchen Monday to Wednesday evenings each week, bringing their 14 (yes, 14!) course tasting menu to the 10-cover space.
For the rest of the week, chef Mark Smith heads up the Clubhouse kitchen serving up tasty breakfast and lunch every day, with their dinner menu running from Thursday to Saturday.
The menu itself is right up our street as it’s perfect for sharing. We love being able to try a bit of everything, rather than committing to one dish and then suffering food envy… who’s with us?
We kicked things off with a refreshing Gin Cup cocktail and Apple no-jito, made up of apple juice, mint, lime and ginger ale, a mocktail that makes you feel a little bit extra.
Now for the nibbles… the menu is made up of a reasonably priced split menu, so you can choose from bites from £3.50, smaller plates from £6.50, bigger plates from £10.00 and sides, all priced at £4.00.
In our book, you can’t eat out without a portion of bread, so first up we tucked into some fresh bread from Flint Owl Bakery served with seaweed butter, and plenty of it. It’s not vegan, but veggie readers, you’re good to go. We also had some Padron peppers – still waiting for that elusive fiery one – because who doesn’t order them when they’re on the menu?
Onto the smaller plates and between the two of us we went for the beautifully fresh burrata served with pickled carrot, peach and dukkah. So tasty and also lush to look at. We also tucked into their delicious flatbread (yes, more bread, so sue us), delicately flavoured with confit garlic, courgette, lemon and ricotta. Perfect for sharing it’s almost like a mini pizza and the combination of flavours was perfect.
We went straight onto the bigger plates next. Yep, there was no stopping us at this point. Currently you can choose from steak with chimichurri, whole plaice or roasted cauliflower. The whole plaice was cooked very simply with seaweed butter and in all honesty, it didn’t need anything more. It was super fresh and melted in the mouth.
The cauliflower with capers, raisins, almonds and rapeseed oil was perfectly cooked – no soggy veggies here – and tasted as good as it looked. Despite its mammoth proportions we still managed to eat the lot, as well as hoovering up sides of perfectly cooked crispy potatoes and tenderstem broccoli with a chilli and garlic kick. Yum.
We didn’t leave room for dessert, sadly, but all is not lost as it just means we’ll have to go back there again. What a shame! The good news is they’re still open for cocktails, so it will remain one of our top spots for a quieter drink with friends.
As you’d expect from Artist Residence, the interiors are gorgeous with artwork a-plenty, including some quirky neons and pieces by street artist Pure Evil. They wanted to create a friendly, welcoming clubhouse vibe that works for any time of day and they’ve nailed it.
As well as standard table seating – a nice laptop-working set-up – they’ve created cosy nooks with banquette seating, sofas and comfy armchairs, perfect for whiling away the hours with a book over coffee or one of their tasty cocktails. And there’s a quirky little terrace, too – we reckon it’s a lovely spot for a sunny Sunday brunch.
We were really impressed with the level of cleanliness and social distancing, too. So much so, we didn’t once discuss the fact we were in the middle of a pandemic, because we had such a relaxing and tasty evening. Pretty impressive! We’ll be back to try the brekkie soon!
Artist Residence Clubhouse, 33 Regency Square, Brighton BN1 2GG
artistresidence.co.uk/brighton
Recent Comments