two hove restaurants in the uk top 100

Two of our favourite (there are a few!) food masters in Brighton & Hove had an exciting Monday evening this week, after winning themselves a place in the Estrella National Restaurant Awards. Duncan Ray’s The Little Fish Market came in at number 90 and Steven Edwards’ etch. bagged themselves a spot at number 66, as the top 100 were announced at an awards ceremony at the Hurlingham Club in London.

Sliding straight into Restaurant Magazine’s Top 100 at number 66, Steven Edwards has already received local accolades for his food and wine offering brought to Hove when he opened two years ago in 2017. Known for his mouth-wateringly delicious Marmite brioche with seaweed butter and crispy seaweed (which is served on an inedible pebble, FYI – as pictured below), Steven became a lovable face on the telly when he won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2013. Steve told BOTI; “We are thrilled to be included in this year’s NRA top 100. Not only is it a testament to the hard work put in from the team, but also highlighting and putting Brighton & Hove on the foodie map along with The Little Fish Market. I want to thank our guests for their continued support and our suppliers for their amazing produce. To finish 66th is a massive achievement for our team and to sit alongside two of my favourite restaurants, Dinner by Heston and Le Manoir makes it even more special.” [Are you blubbing yet?]

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If you haven’t been to etch., (which is just around the corner from Gingerman Group’s Ginger Pig), you can expect a pretty special dining experience at the 36-cover space. Their menu changes monthly and they offer five, seven and nine courses over lunch (£55, £65 and £75 retrospectively) and seven or nine courses for dinner. The good news is they offer a full vegetarian tasting menu, too, and we’re pretty sure you’ll fall in love with the presentation of every single dish.

Back in the Top 100 for the third year, The Little Fish Market is an intimate 20-cover restaurant opposite The Old Market in Hove. Run by a unique local duo, Duncan Ray (previously at The Fat Duck) creates all his incredible dishes in a very small kitchen downstairs (pictured below), while Rob Smith runs the front of house show and he is, quite honestly, the happiest front-of-house person in the city. They offer an incredible five-course tasting menu (£69pp with extras!) made up of wow-factor dishes with fish and seafood ingredients (the clue’s in the name). They change the dishes with the seasons and we have to give a shout out to their incredible egg… oh, the egg. It looks like the most perfectly cooked soft boiled egg, but inside you’ll find egg yolk with Jerusalem artichoke, smoked haddock, crème fraîche and passion fruit. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever tasted!

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Speaking to Duncan Ray yesterday, he told BOTI: “Being in the Top 100 means so much to us, to have the restaurant recognised on a national level and putting the Brighton & Hove food scene on the map. This is our third year in the Top 100 and for us to still be there is a mega achievement for a tiny restaurant like The Little Fish Market.”

Well done to our local legends, keeping Hove on the map for high-quality food in Sussex. We’d recommend booking yourselves a table sooner rather than later, as we’ve got a feeling it could get even harder to get one at these already locally loved food destinations in the city. Head over to etch. and The Little Fish Market to book a table online.

Photo credits: @Rosco (feature image), etch. Instagram (marmite brioche),  XDB Photography (Duncan Ray)