Review: The Prince George, Brighton

The Prince George (formerly known as The George) is a vegetarian pub in Brighton. It appears to have recently changed ownership, however I can’t really give an opinion on the change, since I had never visited when it was called The George.

I visited The Prince George with my parents and husband on a Sunday lunchtime in August 2010. The interior is very much like any other pub, with lots of wood, and stools to sit on. When we arrived (at around 12.30pm) I was slightly concerned by the fact that the pub was almost completely empty, with only one group of guests, who were sat outside in the courtyard. However, by the time we were ready to order, the place had filled up considerably.

Myself and my mum opted for the Sunday Roast, which was a Butternut squash, sweet potato and cashew nut roast with 2 yorkshire puddings, cabbage, cauliflower, carrot and onion gravy. The men ordered burgers, one choosing the Falafel Burger with tzatziki and the other choosing the Bean Burger with onion marmalade and sour cream. When selecting cutlery from the tray before our meals arrived, I noticed most of it wasn’t very clean (had dried on bits of food on it in addition to lots of water marks) which was a little off-putting. It seems a bit sloppy to transfer cutlery from the dishwasher to the tray without checking for cleanliness. The toilet facilities weren’t great either. I was told that the men’s toilets were daubed with a lot of grafitti, whilst in the ladies toilets, the lock on the one of the two cubicles was broken.

The food didn’t take too long to arrive. The presentation was good, and everything looked very appetising. I really enjoyed the roast and ate everything, and everyone else seemed to enjoy their meals. The yorkshire puddings were very light and crispy, and the roast was tasty. The chips that came with the burgers were also very nice. We were too full for dessert, so we might go back and try that another time! The bill for 2 main courses plus 2 drinks came to £20.75.

Notice to vegans - vegan options were not indicated on the menu. I understand from reading The Prince George Facebook Page, that many vegans have been disappointed by recent changes brought about by the new owners. There is also a rumour on this page that the pub is considering adding meat dishes to the menu - something that the owners neither admit nor deny. It would be good if the group admins could actually respond to peoples questions and concerns!

I was very happy with the food I had at The Prince George, but there is room for improvement with regards to the cutlery and toilets, and it would be good for vegans if they could provide more dairy-free options, and indicate vegan choices on the menu. I would be interested in visiting again, since there were a number of dishes on the menu that I’d be interested in trying, and I would like to try a dessert there!

UPDATE JANUARY 2011:

I received an email from the management of The Prince George to say that many things have changed in the few months since I wrote my review. This is what I was told:

“The toilets are fully functioning, clean, and free from graffitti. All cuttlery is always polished so there should never be any dirt on them at all, this is something they did not do before, why? I do not know, but this problem has been irradicated.

I have also employed watiresses to lay tables, serve food and clear tables, this had imrpoved the service immensley and ensures that all of our customers receive a constistenlty high level of customer service, and no longer have to get there on cuttlery and sauces themselves, which seemed a bit basic compared with the quality of the food we are now serving.

As far as the facebook group is concerned, this page needs to be disabled as it is not current, and was created by people that worked here a long time ago, I cannot update it as I am not an admin, but the new and impoved facebook page will be launched in 2 weeks and I will send you a link so you can see the improvements.

We are definitely not changing to serve meat, we have been a pub that serves vegetarian food for over 19 years now, the food is incredibly good, and excellent value for money, one of my main tasks in the next few months is trying to let everyone know how passionate we are about our vegetarian food here and proud of our history and place as the only veggie pub in Susssex. I couldn’t tell you where that rumour came from but there is no truth to it at all”