There’s a particular kind of restaurant you almost don’t want to write about because part of the charm is that it still feels like a bit of a find. CK Bistro, on Queens Road just down from Brighton station, is one of those places.
Thousands of people walk past it every week, but it’s surprisingly easy to overlook. From the outside, it’s fairly unassuming – yes, there’s bright signage in the windows, but the interiors are simple and you won’t find queues snaking down the street demanding your attention. But step inside and you’ll find a comforting spot for Hong Kong-style café culture.
CK Bistro is styled around a cha chaan teng – the fast-paced, everyday café-diners found across Hong Kong serving a huge range of affordable comfort food like baked rice dishes, noodle soups, buns and strong milk tea. It’s not trying to be trendy. There are no moody small plates, no performative queues, and definitely no ‘elevated’ toasties for £16. Instead, there’s bright green walls, simple seating, laminated menus and people who very obviously came here for the food rather than to take pictures of themselves eating it.
The first thing we noticed was how mixed the crowd was. Groups of students, families, solo diners tucking into giant bowls of noodle soup. And plenty of Asian customers – always a reassuring sign when you’re trying somewhere rooted in a specific food culture. We got the sense that this is somewhere people actually return to rather than somewhere they come to film one TikTok and then disappear forever.
It’s also spotlessly clean. Not in a sterile chain-restaurant way, but in that understated cared-for way that makes you instantly relax rather than start surreptiously polishing your cutlery. The room itself is simple and brightly lit – it’s more practical diner than cosy date-night spot – but that’s all part of the appeal and makes it feel authentic.
It took us a while to get through the menu – it’s extensive and eclectic, full of Hong Kong comfort food: soup noodles, crispy buns, all-day breakfasts where meat and noodles are the stars, baked rice dishes, curry fish balls, silky milk teas and those iconic pineapple buns that, despite the name, contain absolutely no pineapple whatsoever. The name comes from the crackled sugary top, which apparently resembles pineapple skin – something the restaurant happily explained when we asked.
We started with the crispy veg gyoza, which arrived swiftly and perfectly crisp – golden not greasy. Then came the beef bun: soft, slightly sweet bread wrapped around rich savoury filling that felt somewhere between a snack and a full comfort meal.
But the standout side was that Hong Kong-style pineapple bun with butter. If you’ve never had one before, imagine a warm sweet bun with a crumbly sugary top, split open and stuffed with a decadently thick wedge of cold butter that slowly melts into the bread. Sweet, salty, soft, rich – delicious.
We also opted for the ginger and spring onion thick egg noodles. These looked deceptively simple but absolutely delivered – silky noodles, loads of fresh ginger and an onion-rich broth-like sauce that somehow made us keep going long after we were full.
On the restaurant’s recommendation, we went for one of their signatured baked rice dishes – the cheese baked curry beef brisket with rice – and happily, we weren’t disappointed. It arrived bubbling hot with a genuinely excellent cheese pull on first scoop. This wasn’t a dish we were familiar with, but the mix of tender brisket, mildly spiced curry and soft rice under a generous layer of gooey cheese was a hit. It was unapologetically comforting, especially on one of those days when sunshine turns into chilly rain, and the portion was huge.
Our only mistake was ordering dishes that sat in slightly similar flavour territory. Next time we’ll branch out more because there’s loads on the menu we still want to try: more noodles (there are several pages of these) and the Hong Kong-style peanut butter French toast, which sounds deliciously excessive.
We were tired so we ordered coffee, specifically the iced cream coffee latte special. Technically, this is a Macau-style hand-whisked coffee, according to the restaurant, where the coffee itself is whipped into a thick caramel-coloured cream before being layered over milk. In practice, that translated into one of the best iced coffees we’ve had in Brighton for ages. Silky and strong with a thick creamy top, and somehow both refreshing and indulgent.
We should point out that vegetarian and vegan options are rather more limited than at other Brighton cafés, though there are still a few choices to be had and the ones we tried were genuinely good.
What CK Bistro does really well is creating the feeling that this is somewhere built around the food rather than the experience economy around food. People aren’t lingering over natural wine for four hours here, they’re stopping in for noodle soups, baked rice dishes, buttery buns and strong iced coffees before heading back into the Queens Road melee outside.
CK Bistro is cheerful, comforting and, in a world that increasingly delivers style over substance, refreshingly straightforward. Somewhat ironically, this makes it one of the coolest places we’ve eaten recently.
The BOTI Lowdown
Best for: comforting carb-heavy dinners, solo lunches, low-key catch-ups, a slice of Hong Kong café culture
Eat this: baked rice specials, definitely order that pineapple bun
Drink this: iced cream coffee latte
BOTI pro tip: come hungry, order outside your comfort zone, and save room for that peanut butter French toast we’re already plotting a return trip for