The Best Restaurants in Brighton and Hove

The best restaurants in Brighton right now are Maré by Rafael Cagali in Hove, the city's only Michelin star; terre à terre on East Street, voted Brighton's best restaurant at the 2026 BRAVO awards; and the four Michelin Bib Gourmands, Burnt Orange, The Flint House, Palmito and Cin Cin, which are where locals actually go for a good dinner without a second mortgage. Add Embers for fire cooking, Wild Flor for wine and etch. for a proper tasting menu, and you have a fortnight of very happy evenings. Everything below was checked in October 2026, but menus here change with the weather, so look before you book.

Maré by Rafael Cagali, Church Road, Hove

This is the big one. Maré, at 60 Church Road (BN3 2FP), won a Michelin star in the 2026 Great Britain and Ireland guide, the first star for Brighton and Hove in decades. Rafael Cagali, the chef behind Da Terra in London, cooks a seasonal menu built on Sussex and British produce, with his Brazilian and Italian heritage running through it. The Michelin inspectors point to Mediterranean, Mexican and Japanese touches, encourage sharing, and single out the baba au cachaça. It is open Wednesday dinner, lunch and dinner Thursday to Saturday, and Sunday lunch. It is not a cheap night, but it is a friendly one: chefs bring a lot of the dishes out themselves.

terre à terre, East Street

terre à terre has been cooking vegetarian and vegan food in the Lanes since 1993 and it still wins. Locals voted it Best Brighton and Hove Restaurant at the 2026 BRAVO awards, its second win in three years. It is at 71 East Street (BN1 1HQ), pours organic, natural and English wines, and opens every day, with lunch from Wednesday and all day Friday to Sunday, per its own site. Bring a meat eater who swears they hate vegetarian food. That is half the fun.

Burnt Orange, Middle Street

Burnt Orange, at 59 Middle Street (BN1 1AL), holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and came fourth in the 2026 BRAVO vote for best restaurant. The cooking is Mediterranean sharing plates over a wood fire, with Middle Eastern and North African influences; Michelin's inspectors liked the leek and spinach pastilla. Expect retro music, good cocktails, a terrace and a room that gets loud in the best way. Note that Michelin lists it as not taking credit cards, so check how you will pay before you order the second round.

The Flint House, Hanningtons Lane

The Flint House sits in a red-brick and flint building at 13 Hanningtons Lane (BN1 1GS), on the patch of the Lanes that used to be Hannington's department store. It is another Bib Gourmand: global small plates from an open kitchen, plenty of wine by the glass and a first-floor cocktail bar with a terrace. It opens daily from noon to 10pm, which makes it the easy answer when someone says "anywhere, I don't mind" on a Monday.

Palmito, Western Road

Palmito, at 16 Western Road (BN3 1AE) on the Brighton and Hove border, is a small neighbourhood room with a Bib Gourmand and a menu of spice-led small plates borrowing from Asia and South America. Michelin mentions scallops with ancho chilli butter and Keralan fried chicken. It does dinner Tuesday to Saturday and lunch on Friday and Saturday, and it takes bookings by phone (01273 777588), so this is one for the planners.

Cin Cin, Western Road, Hove

Cin Cin has held a Bib Gourmand since 2018, and the Hove restaurant at 60 Western Road (BN3 1JD) is where it lives now. Sit at the horseshoe counter by the open kitchen, order the handmade pasta and work through the all-Italian wine list. It opens for dinner from Tuesday, adds lunch Thursday to Saturday, and closes Sunday and Monday. Groups of seven or more get a five-course chef's menu.

Embers, Meeting House Lane

Embers, at 42 Meeting House Lane (BN1 1HB), cooks almost everything over a wood fire in a kitchen you can see from your seat. It came third in the 2026 BRAVO vote for best restaurant and won Best Sunday Roast for the second year running, and it is in the Michelin Guide. Small plates in the evenings, a feast menu of six plates at £35 a head for two, and a Sunday roast served from 12.30pm to 7pm. It opens from 5pm on weekday evenings (closed Tuesday) and from 9am at weekends.

Wild Flor, Church Road, Hove

Wild Flor, at 42 Church Road (BN3 2FN), is run by a group of old friends and feels like it: a relaxed bistro with seasonal modern British cooking and a wine list that gets as much love as the food. It is in the Michelin Guide and opens for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday. Go hungry and let the staff steer you on the bottle.

etch. by Steven Edwards, Church Road, Hove

If you want a proper tasting menu night, etch. at 214 to 216 Church Road (BN3 2DJ) is the one, and it is in the Michelin Guide. Dinner runs Tuesday to Saturday with lunch Thursday to Saturday, and there is a cocktail bar, Ink, attached, so you can start early and finish late without changing postcode.

Also worth your evening

The Little Fish Market in Hove (more on it in our seafood guide), Kindling on East Street, which won Best Lunch at the 2026 BRAVOs, and Stem on Church Road, added to the Michelin Guide in 2026. Hove has quietly become the place to eat in this city, and we say that as people who live on the Brighton side.