La Florentina

We are in our early 3o's and have been visiting this wonderful little Portuguese establishment for the past 8 years...at one point almost once a week. We have never had a bad meal, and the food is always cooked fresh to order and the produce is always of the best quality.

The Moules and steaks are exceptional and the Palma ham and Melon are a firm favourite.

It is what it is and does not pretend to be anything else. The decor is not modern and not flash but we think that the warmth of the hosts and quality of the food is far more important. So with this in mind La Florentina is top of our Brighton list for eating out, great food, huge portions, value for money and great hospitality.

We love it and come here for every special occasion as we know that the quality is always the same....EXCEPTIONAL!!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, February 14, 2010

My wife and I came down to Brighton for the weekend as part of her birthday treat and as we are not from the area we decided to use this website to find a good restaurant.

Unfortunately La Florentina in no way comes close to its alleged high score. Walking in you are immediately struck by its tacky 70’s décor, diner style seats and tired carpet. We were on the verge of asking for our coats when we finally got served as the owner hadn’t even come over to let us order drinks despite serving two other tables.

The “complimentary bread and olives” (which we were later charged for) must have come from the cheap section of the supermarket as the olives were pretty tasteless. Where was the olive oil and Balsamic vinegar dip? Where was the lovely hand made or shop bought selection of quality bread?

The menu was unimaginative and bland, for goodness sake it had Prawn Cocktail on it!

The chicken, cheese and ham we ordered was a piece of chicken with some cheap ham slapped on top and tasteless cheese. No attempt at bringing this menu kicking and screaming from the early 70’s. No locally sourced good quality food here, no lovely quality smoked ham and perhaps a nice blue cheese.

In the end I had to promise my wife that I would take her out for lunch the next day so as not to spoil her birthday and thankfully we came across Havana in Duke Street the next day where not only was the service and food top notch but it was cheaper!

If you are new to Brighton and want to eat out, we highly recommend that you don’t try La Florentina.
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Hedley Phillips
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, January 04, 2010

My husband and I regularly go to La Florentina and the food is absolutely fantastic. Whenever we go we don't have to tell Joseph what we would like to eat as he knows exactly what our order is going to be! The only restaurant I have been to in Brighton & Hove that cooks fresh squid (tentacles included) and it is superb. The atmosphere is very relaxed and Joseph is very friendly.
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Maria Ward
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Thursday, December 24, 2009

Visited for lunch on a very cold Tuesday 15th December after Christmas shopping. Received a very warm welcome from the owner, and as the previous reviewer stated, this is a small taverna type place and very cosy. We had the light lunch special, in our case two pastas with salad for about £6.00 each. My husband had the cannelloni with chips instead of salad, and I plumped for the tagliatelle carbarnara. Apparently, the cannelloni is made with pancake (home-made) instead of pasta, and came with a minced meat & spinach filling, topped with a cheese sauce. Both dishes were generous portions, very tasty, and tasted home-made. We washed these down with a very nice Portuguese house red reasonably priced at £11.20. If we had known how big a dish we'd receive for this "light" lunch, we wouldn't have bothered with the bread and olives beforehand. Looking at the a la carte menu, it is not a cheap place to eat, but then again it's not extortionate prices. Also, the owner informed us that all the ingredients used in the dishes were purchased fresh, not frozen, and that all the meat and fish were sourced locally wherever possible. Noticed that there were a few piri-piri dishes available, pictures of Portugal around so, perhaps we have a Portuguese and Italian mix.

Overall, we were impressed and will make sure we visit again. If you want to avoid chains &/or the usual tourist traps it's worth visiting somewhere that has been going for over 25 years with many happy regular returners.
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Anne Bond
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, December 16, 2009

I visited this restaurant on the 21st of Nov 2009 with three friends. The reason we chose this restaurant was because of a good review we saw. We were not disappointed. If you like your chain restaurants with their chrome furniture and fresh-faced non-Italian staff, this place is probably not for you.

La Fiorentina seems to have been created in the image of a small Italian taverna and the shopfront is so small it's quite easy to miss. There are only a handful of tables, but that makes it very cosy.

The food was great and the portions ample. Italians were eating there which is a good sign. Service was not rocket-fast, so if you're going to the theatre afterwards, leave plenty of time.
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Penny
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Sunday, November 22, 2009

My husband Bob and I go to see Joseph and Madelaine at least once a month, the food, the service is always first class. You are always greeted with a cheery smile from Joseph and it almost feels like going home, it's a fantastic restaurant, with genuinely good well cooked and well sourced food. It has almost become a joke because we never really even need to look at the menu any more, we are just guided by our favourites, which for starters have to be the mussels and the sardines although the melon and palma ham is delicious.

For main don't always take it for granted that the fish on the menu is the only fish on offer, it Joseph and Madelaine have something special in he will be sure to tell you about it, however the steaks as previous reviews have described are phenominal, the pepperd steak or the cafe de paris sauce are well "simply the best"!

Dessert has old favourites on the menu like peach melba, banana split real good old hearty deserts that make you smile.

So we'll keep going back again and again and if you choose to ignore the reviews including mine then you are seriously missing out on one of Brighton's hidden gems. For a family meal or a romantic dinner for two La Florentina is a first choice every time and at the end of the day the atmosphere of any restaurant is only determined by the company you are with.
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Fiona Edwards
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, September 23, 2009

i have lived in brighton for 25 yrs from london via the midlands

joseph & madelaine are very much portuguese as opposed to italian which i am very fond of.if you want italian i would suggest you go to meerkat.com!!

i am 69 yrs and i know a little/lot about food. shropshire london brighton and country

my chum jack and myself will eat here at least once a month

moules superb!! peppered fillet must be the best in brighton my brother lives in marlow bucks dont you know-never had a better fillet pepprd. dover sole as good as bardsleys

the portuguese wine and brandy will surprise you

being pleasantly mature we normally go at lunchtime when it is a little less busy
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peter till
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 9
Thursday, May 07, 2009