Yes, after 11 years of pop-ups, The Set restaurant has finally landed a permanent 12-seat counter restaurant (and no, your phone’s not invited).
If you’ve been paying even the slightest attention to Brighton’s food scene over the past decade, you’ll already know The Set. Or at least you’ll have heard someone (probably lots of someones, including us) extol its very many Asian-influenced food virtues.
And now after popping up, disappearing and reappearing over the last decade, chefs Dan Kenny and Marcin Miasik (pictured centre and left above with the restaurant’s only front-of-house member Georgia, right) are making their long-held dream come true and finally putting down roots. On 27th May, The Set is opening its first permanent restaurant on Preston Road (where Kitgum Kitchen was) and it’s going big on small. So small it might even be Brighton’s smallest restaurant.
We’re talking a total of 12 seats. Two at the window and ten at a counter with a fully open kitchen and no menus or phones. It’s just you, the chefs and whatever’s coming out next.
That means you’ve got a front-row seat to all the kitchen happenings, with dishes celebrating technique and flavour, built around whatever’s in season locally and worth cooking right now. If you didn’t know already, you can guess by the name that The Set is all about Set menus. The full Set Menu is a whopping 12-15 courses (£99) or there’s a more wallet-friendly mid-week option (6-8 courses for £45) if you or your bank balance are not quite ready to commit to the full shebang.
But this isn’t a one-format, special-occasion-only situation. The week’s been structured so you can dip in at different levels. They’re bringing back their popular M.A.D (Midweek Affordable Dinner) menu on Wednesdays, plus you’ll find ramen lunches (incoming), too.
Sharing the space is Tony Tsang of Japanese concept Masu, bringing Japanese BBQ, sushi and omakase into the mix across the week. That means izakaya-style BBQ Mondays, sushi-led Sundays, and a dedicated omakase experience on Saturdays.
With the two restaurants sharing the space, there’s basically a different offering virtually every day.
The details go deep, too. Local artist and chef Alison Clare has created bespoke tableware using repurposed materials – bones, shells and ash – so even the plates have a story behind them. And if past Set projects are anything to go by, that level of thoughtfulness will run through every part of the experience. The approach may be laidback, but expect fine-dining touches everywhere else – from the flavour, execution and plating to service and the design of the space itself.
And beyond the counter, there’s a longer game in motion. On Tuesdays, the restaurant is free for charities to use during the day and the team are also working on Onigiri4all, a community project aiming to tackle food poverty in Brighton using simple, nourishing rice dishes. This isn’t open yet, but we’ll keep you posted.
“The dream is close to becoming a reality and I’ll do everything to make it the best restaurant
I can. Not just the food, service and space but a place run the right way for the people in it
and the community around it,” said Kenny.
Perhaps the biggest surprise here isn’t the concept, it’s that The Set hasn’t had a permanent home before. Between Café Coho, The Curry Leaf Café, Artist Residence and, most recently, Cafe Rust and Patio, Dan and Marcin have built one of the city’s most loyal followings without ever staying put.
But now they are. And with just 12 seats, you’ll need to move very quickly – they’re not even open yet and the earliest table you can get is 6th June.
Opens 27th May
thesetrestaurant.com
