Love's Fish Restaurant

I went inside and it was really busy and it was Wednesday night half an hour after it opened, the decor was brilliant, the host Alan was extremley entertaining, although it was busy I was seated quickly and got my order taken quickly by friendly staff, the food was ready quickly and was utterly delicious. The food is pricy, but it is extremely good value and thus I left a good tip. A must visit restaurant for a visit to Brighton.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, October 31, 2008

I've visited Love's 4 or 5 times over the past year, but I believe the quality is starting to deteriorate.

My most recent visit was about a week ago. My dining companion and I were seated in a table by the door, even though the restaurant was almost completely empty, so that the few customers who came or went during the course of our meal were obliged to scrape past our elbows.

For a starter we had scallops in a saffron sauce. As always, the scallops were very nicely cooked; but the overly rich sauce overwhelmed their flavour. Scallops and tiger prawns have been on the 'specials' menu every time I've been to Love's, but usually the scallops are done with lardons and citrus, which is much nicer.

For the mains we had organic salmon and grey mullet, with sides of buttered mangetout and chips. The salmon was fine; nothing special and slightly overdone (the mangetout was also overdone, rendering it floppy and crunchless). The grey mullet (which I think replaced red mullet on the menu a while ago, for some reason) had a slightly stringy texture and murky flavour. I don't know if this was the chef's fault, or a general characteristic of grey mullet.

I live near Love's, and walk past it almost every evening. It is usually almost totally empty. Love's menu hasn't changed substantially since I first visited - with the weather getting colder, why not add a fish pie or stew?
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MikeJ
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Friday, October 17, 2008

We decided to go after the "revamp". It was a sunday evening and it was quiet. We ordered garlic king prawns and garlic bread for starters and fish'n'chips for mains. After waiting for more than 20 minutes the prawns arrived. A portion consisted of 3 prawns with very poor garnish. They were so overcooked they had shrank to the size of a 50p coin. The garlic bread never arrived. We were shocked that such horrible food had travelled as far as our plates, ignored by the chef and by the waitress.

Then, another good 20 minutes after we ate the starters, the mains arrived. The fish batter was dark brown and over crispy, a sign that it had been deep fried in very old, over-used oil. So were the chips, which were of all different sizes. To me, it looked as if we got the ones at the bottom of the bag. The mushy peas were clearly out of a tin.

Now, we go to a lot of restaurants, including cheap and cheerful italian ones in the centre, where you can have lunch for a fiver, and they are good, most of the time. But to pay more than 80 pounds for this horrible, piss-taking meal was just ridiculous. The staff clearly didn't give a damn, neither did the kitchen stuff. When we asked what happened to our garlic bread, they told us that we never ordered it. Yet, when we got the bill, we had been charged for it. I refused to pay for it, and i din't leave a tip. They were lucky that i paid for the meal, if you can call it that. So far, the worst meal i have had since i moved to Sussex 12 years ago. Had he been in my place, Gordon Ramsay would have used the F word many, many times and he would have thought this was a joke. I couldn't believe that any one would have the guts to give that food to a paying customer, even the worst chippy in Brighton. I have worked in catering in the past and i can tell you that something is seriously wrong in this place, so if want to go to a nice fish restaurant, go to English's, and pray that Gordon comes back and stops this people ripping us off.
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Peter Jones
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, October 13, 2008

A group of us dined on Saturday night and unfortunately the food was not up to the previously high standard. The fish was not fresh at all, some had the fish and chips, the battered fish itself was tasty but the chips were frozen chips and not cooked through properly. Unfortunately it seems standards are slipping again since Ramsay's visit, which is a real shame.

Alan was not in that night but can't help thinking perhaps standards would have been higher if he had been.
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Meena
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Well, eventually we managed to vist whilst visiting friends in Burgess Hill (we are from Calne Wilts) Sunday 25 Aug 08, booked a table for 4 via the internet booking system (works very well). The place was clean and bright, we were warmly welcomed by a friendly waitress, very red hair. At 7.30 just over half full, Alan was there with his outstanding personality. The service was ok.... forgot the tartar, and peas and required prompting that my beer was sat on the bar (they were busy). The food was excellent, the price was reasonable, you are on the coast after all.

As we were there 2 well known actors from eastenders etc came in with the kids and sat behind us which made us feel it was a good decision to go, our friend Alison was so excited, she nearly saw The Pirates of Penzance!!! We will be back.

Good luck to Alan and his team, keep up the great work.
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Tim and Lisa Steer
Sunday, August 31, 2008

My wife and I dined on saturday...the service was second rate but the food, although over priced, was good.
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kris finch
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Monday, June 16, 2008

Great food, great atomsphere, the owner was very funny and friendly (sorry i forgot his name...lol) Everything was great, the price was just a little high but everything was lovely... Quality (of Food): A. Staff: A+. Atmosphere (design/decor/cleanliness): A+. Price: C+
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Tim
Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The food and service in this restaurant is really very good, almost faultless. Prices are quite high but you can pay a little less in some other establishments on this street and end up with a very mediocre meal in comparison. I think Ramsay's visit seems to have done the trick.

The only thing that marred our last visit was the presence of this very annoying mockney twit who pranced around the place gibbering loudly a mobile phone and generally filling the room with his obnoxious presence. I was just about to ask the management to have him thrown out when my partner politely pointed out that this berk WAS the management! Gordon, next time you go to Loves's , 'av a f*cking word will you?
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Des Gruntled
Sunday, June 08, 2008

11.50 for a fish and chips you must be joking
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bob
Thursday, June 05, 2008

My wife and I went to Love's following the Gordon Ramsay makeover and had a pleasant evening. The food was good without being remarkable and the staff were attentive and friendly.

I suspect the lobster lasagne was microwaved because it arrived nuked but the Nickerbockerglory was fantastic.

I probably wouldn't go back.
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Josh Dhaliwal
Wednesday, May 21, 2008