Review: Terre À Terre, Brighton

Terre à Terre is a popular, upmarket vegetarian restaurant in central Brighton. Ben and I visited this restaurant on a weekday lunchtime in August, having booked ahead via the internet. From the outside, it looks relatively small, but this is deceptive, since the restaurant is much wider at the rear of the building. When entering, on the right-hand wall you will see various take-home items available to purchase, including a Terre à Terre recipe book, pickles, jams and truffles. When we arrived at 2pm, the restaurant was relatively busy, but not full. Looking around, we noticed that the ‘Terre à Tapas’ (a selection of items from the menu for two to share) was a popular choice among other diners.

We decided not to have a starter, but there were a few options available (including soup) ranging in price from £6 to £9. From the main course options I chose the ‘Rosti Revisited’, described as crispy fried potato, onion and garlic rosti topped with buttered spinach, sautéed and finished with cream, garlic, parsley and nutmeg, topped with a soft poached egg and melted cheese. Ben chose the ‘Hellofa Halloumi Rosti’, described as crispy fried potato, onion and garlic rosti topped with lemony yemeni grilled halloumi, vodka tickled tomato and stewed shallots. All the main courses on the à la carte menu ranged from £13.20 to £13.95. The service was very good and the meals didn’t take very long to arrive. The food was nicely presented, perfectly cooked, and tasted delicious. I would have been tempted to have a dessert, but I couldn’t find anything on the dessert menu that appealed to me. Nearly all of the desserts contained alcohol, and as a non-drinker who doesn’t like the taste of alcohol, there was very little choice. Maybe I should have asked to order something from the children’s menu! Ben ordered some ‘Boozy Rum Truffles’ (£6.95 for 135 g box) to takeaway. Apparently they tasted very good.

Overall, our experience was fairly positive. The prices were quite high, but the food is a little different and quirky and the ambiance is nice. We would consider visiting again sometime, but it’s not the kind of place we would visit on a regular basis. A tip for those considering visiting - if you pick up a ‘Brighton Visitor’ brochure from the tourist information centre (or anywhere displaying tourist leaflets - we found ours in a branch of Bagelman) you might find a discount voucher for Terre à Terre. In the August 2010 edition there was a voucher for 15% off the à la carte food menu (valid anytime except Saturday) for up to 6 guests.