Alfresco

This place is perfect, I went there on recommendation and took my partner there for his birthday. We were seated right by the window over looking the sea. We had a lovely bottle of Gavi di Gavi, reasonably priced for Gavi. The service was fantastic, the food even better and the loaction even better than that. We felt completely spoilt and when they found out it was my partners birthday they gave him a Limoncello on the house.
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Cherry
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Thursday, February 03, 2011

What a nightmare! Not sure where to start with this one. We arrived and were shown quickly to a table...good start. Menus came quickly, along with a small plate of complimentary olives and bread sticks...nice touch. Looked through the menu and was disappointed that there wasn't really much variety in the menu choices. It certainly wasn't very inspiring. Decided to go for the special of homemade ravioli and my friend went for spaghetti with king prawns. Bad choice! The ravioli certainly was undercooked. I've eaten pasta before and know what 'al dente' is, this certainly was not. Chewy with an awful detergent taste more like. My friend's king prawn spaghetti was laughable. The prawns were no bigger than a 5 year old's pinkie. More midget prawns than king prawns, wallowing in a watery sauce at the bottom of the dish. The wine was no better. £18.50 for the worst bottle of Merlot I have ever tasted. The wine really needed to breathe and if the people that own the restaurant had tasted it surely they would have known this. We didn't stick around for dessert. Mind you leaving the place was almost as bad as the food. We had to wait about 15mins for the bill to eventually arrive. We asked twice. If it had been another 10 minutes my friend was going to walk out without paying. I certainly wouldn't recommend this place to anyone except Gordon Ramsay so he could go in and sort it out! Great location and a great space with a lot of potential but a very disappointing meal.
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Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Friday, January 28, 2011

I visited alfresco bar and restaurant last night with my boss and a important customer, I would highly recommend the excellent food and great service, a must if anyone visits Brighton either during the day or in the evening, well worth the slight walk away from the main square.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, December 14, 2010

I cannot fault the service my husband and I experienced whilst dealing with the event managament team in the lead upto and during our wedding reception. The family run Alfresco was accomodating, even in my bridezilla state, and allowed us to fulfil the dreams I had of my wedding day. Great food and a great location. I will def make the effort to visit more often. Thankyou so much.
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MsK
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, November 04, 2010

A beautifully positioned Italian eatery along Brighton/Hove promenade. It has been newly refurbished and been finished to a high quality. The ambiance is superb, the views unparralleled; I cannot wait for the winter waves to come rolling in, as the views will be magnificent.

Some of the other reviews talk of poor service; this is the case all over Brighton during the peak summer months. Take time to engage with the staff and they will happily discuss any topic with you and aid in the enjoyment of your meal.

The food is always good, and if you ask for the specials, you will be pleasantly suprised at how frequently they change and how inspired some of the recipes can be (my god I sound like a promotions manager (I am not)).

Give the place a try and I am sure you will enjoy it.
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Hero - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Monday, October 04, 2010

I have just returned home from eating at Alfresco. Having read the menu online before going to the restaurant I was really excited about the meal. I was excited about taking my partner out for a romantic meal and was prepared to spend a bit of money on a lovely meal. On arrival the staff appeared helpful and the ambience was lovely. I couldnt fault the decor or the location. We decided to skip starters and go straight for mains. We picked 2 of the most expensive things on the menu, the Scallops and the Steak. When the food first arrived I was suprised at the quantity, however when I started eating i was disappointed with the quality. I wouldnt say the food was bad as such, just the presentation wasnt great, and it lacked that something special. My partner very much enjoyed his steak, however i was a bit disappointed by the lack of imagination in the vegtables. both dishes had big chunks of very al dente broccoli - not what i would expect from a 'posh' meal. After the food was cleared we had to wait about 20 minutes to even see a dessert menu - which seemed strange as there were about 10 members of staff who appeared to not be doing much. For 2 course and 2 rounds of drinks we paid £78. I dont mind paying a lot for food, i eat out on a regular occasion at lots of different standard restaurants, however i felt the food wasnt worth the money I paid. Fantastic location, lovely decor, alright food, and average service. Not somewhere i would recommend, but im glad ive tried it.
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Nancy
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Friday, August 13, 2010

I ate at Alfresco last summer and was very impressed with the food and service. However, I went again last night and was very dissapointed. We had goats cheese for starter which was nice but the portion was far too big for a starter. This was followed by black tiger prawn linguine (£14.95), again a huge portion but the prawns were overcooked and mushy and there was very little sauce and really was very poor. There were three of us, we had 1 bottle of wine, two of us had starters and each had a main meal, the bill came to £105 - very over priced for what we had. The only advantage Alfresco holds is it's unique setting, with fantastic views of the Brighton coast, so I would recommend it for a pre or post dinner drink!
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Alex
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Friday, July 16, 2010

Sorrry but we had really bad grumpy service, and the food was OK but very pricey, - it cost us £80 per couple for a starter, main and a couple of glasses of wine! Possibly we had been overcharged but we stupidly didnt take the bill home with us as we should have checked. Perhaps it was a bad night, views were good!
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rachel spence
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, May 05, 2010

As a regular visitor to Alfresco I can honestly say that my family find the food to be excellent, the service professional and friendly, coupled with views to die for - what more could anyone want?

I have two young children, four and one, and they enjoy the service and friendliness at Alfresco.

My advice would be experience this restaurant for yourself...
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Tony
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Sunday, May 02, 2010

It is outragously rude people that run this place. The most non-childfriendly place i have ever entered.

The staff snatched my 2 year old sons fork from his hand when he was being so quiet and well behaved eating his dinner with it. They gave him a plastic drinks decoration and a tea spoon to eat his dinner with. They didn't talk to us about what they were doing at all. They showed us a tea spoon they had one side of the table and when i turned around another waiter was snatching my sons fork out of his hand. My little boy was in total shock as he was just happily sitting there tucking into his pasta with it completely content and happy.

My husband and i were in total shock too as we had no idea what was going on and why our little boy had just had his fork snatched from him. So my husband got up to get him another one to eat with. With that a very rude, what i can only think was the manager, came over with a disgusted look on his face and said the noise he was making was not nice for other people. My little boy had made maybe 3 chinks on his bowl with his fork. He was sitting extremely quietly in his highchair eating. We could not believe what we were hearing. We were so angry that they felt they had the right to treat our little boy so badly that we left without paying saying they should not welcome children to there restaurant if they felt that way about them.

This is the rudest restuarant i have ever been too in all my adult life and we eat out a lot. Since our little boy was born 2 years ago we have taken him into many a restuarant every weekend and he has never been treated in such a rude unwelcoming way. We were appalled by the service we received here and outraged at the way they treated out little boy. Do not go here unless you wanted to be treated a disgusting way by the staff and owners. Our little boy was treated like a piece of dirt. Not at all child freindly, the worst restuarant we have ever entered. Horrendous!!
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Hannah Fisher
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, April 05, 2010