Restaurant review #56 – Last Summer, we spent some days in and around Brighton, in the southeast of England (UK). Brighton is a vibrant but also quite touristic place. Brighton is known to be a hub for vegans, with several vegan and vegan friendly restaurants. That is also the main reason why we choose to go there this Summer!
I already posted some reviews of the restaurants we went to in Brighton, but there are still some more to come!

One of the places we went to was the pop up restaurant of the Gourmet Girls (from Titbits catering), which is held every Friday evening. It is located at an organic store ‘Fanny’s of Hanover’, which is a 15 minute walk from the train station of Brighton. I just noticed on their website that the last pop up restaurant will be on December 18, 2015, so be quick if you still want to check it out! You do need to make an advance booking.

Fanny’s of Hanover, organic store where the pop up restaurant is every Friday

The menu of the pop up restaurant of the Gourmet Girls is always built around a special theme (eg Japanese, Indonesian, American, …) so you cannot choose anything from a menu. When we were there in July, the theme was ‘Fish n Chips’.
The pop up restaurant doesn’t serve any alcohol, but you can bring your own (corkage of 50p), but we just had some sparkling water. Bring your own (beer or wine) is something that we are really not used to in Belgian restaurants (have never seen it in Belgium!), but I think it is a great idea!
This was the menu (prices are in pounds):

Menu, Gourmet Girls pop up restaurant, July 2015, Brighton

There’s a small terrace at the back, and first we sat there. But as it started to get chilly, we moved inside.

†terrace at the back of Fanny’s of Hanover, Brighton

These were the crumbed garlic mushrooms (£5,5).

Crumbed garlic mushrooms, £5,5

The vegan cod’ n chips (11£) was tofu wrapped in nori seaweed, fried in beer batter, with chips, tartare sauce, minted mushy peas, tomato ketchup and pickled onion.

vegan ‘Cod’ n Chips, £11

And this was dessert, Eaton Mess, which apparently is a typical English dessert (veganised of course!).

Eaton Mess, £5,5

Service was very friendly and we didn’t have to wait long in between courses. The terrace outside was relaxed and enjoyable. It’s a pity we couldn’t stay outside longer (as we found it was getting too chilly), because inside the small tables were stacked closey together, next to the counter of the organic shop. It felt rather cramped and not an enjoyable atmosphere for dining out. It also felt rather uncomfortable going to the bathroom, as that was just at the back of the shop, not much shielded from other patrons sitting on the terrace.
The food was good, although we were a little underwhelmed by the main dish. We realise that ‘fish n chips’ isn’t exactly a culinary exciting dish, but the salad on the side could have been a bit more than just chunks of raw vegetables (to make it more of a ‘gourmet’ experience). Starter and dessert were very nice!
This 3-course menu was £22 pound (roughly 33€) which we thought was rather steep (considering that in the UK you also need to tip for service).
All in all: food was OK although we would have hoped for a bit more ‘gourmet’, and the restaurant setting inside was a bit of a downer for us.

The Gourmet Girls Pop up restaurant, every Friday evening
(stops at the end of December 2015)
located at the store: Fanny’s of Hanover, location
135a Islingword Road
Hanover. BN2 9SH
Brighton, UK
07789 963710

website: http://www.titbitscatering.co.uk/

See our lists of restaurants where vegans are welcome in the menu section of The Bruges vegan! List restaurants in Bruges and outside  Bruges.