I had the opportunity to dine at The Regency, 131 Kings Road, Brighton, in the summer of 2019, which was once the seaside home of Harriet Mellon. She once had the moniker of being the richest woman in Europe and dined on king prawns whilst soaking up the coastal air. The venue was converted into a multi-tiered restaurant in the 1930s, and with its tall ceilings, wide panelled plum-gilded windows, and blonde wood furniture, all with a seafront view, it seems like the place to be. It was heaving when we arrived, just in the nick of time, as when a table of seven left, the seven of us could take over their sauce-sodden table – just the way I like it. Seafood is the main command here; molluscs, fish, lobster, or crab are grilled or fried, and then there’s chicken available too for those who have missed the point of the outing.
There are things like scampi and chicken nuggets £3.65 with proper chip-shop style chips if you have little people in tow.
Moules provençale £11.95 is a sleeves-rolled-up, hands-on job; pick the one you want, then prise and pick the briny hit of ocean from its shell. It’s a pondering process that eating mussels can bring, or at least for me anyway.
Grilled king prawns £13.95 come with their jackets on and their heads, which demand a customary twist and suck before you get to the sweet flesh. More chip-shop chips feature, to fill a hole more than anything else.
The kid in me loves onion rings £2.25 and they needed to be good. So far, after the first bite, they were all about the batter and onion that only existed in the shadows. Don’t come here thinking they’re going to be worth ordering.
Grilled fish medley £14.95 came with a half-arsed salad of rocket and lettuce – I mean, where’s the dressing? The teeny new potatoes get a dusting of chopped parsley and one of those foil-wrapped blocks of butter that served no purpose, as the spuds were cold before we could even attempt to melt it in. Of the fish, there is grilled salmon and swordfish; catch me in a pugnacious mood and I’d say they were overcooked to the point of drying. I was in a pugnacious mood. Then there were the sardines, I didn’t ask for scales on my fish, but I got them. Lovely.
Of all the things, I was looking forward to the most was The Regency seafood spaghetti £10.95. What came with it were more mussels, clams, squid rings, and in fairness, aside from some shriveled prawns, it was all cooked well. What troubled me was the main base of the dish: an insipid sauce that limped into the bowl and pasta that was on the verge of dissolving from too much time in boiling water. No amount of seasoning could disguise the disappointment. Oh well.
Verdict
When did I go? June 2019.
The damage: Expect to pay around £20 per head with a soft drink
The good: The view mainly.
The bad: Being a fish restaurant by the seafront, they really needed to be good at cooking fish. Sadly, they were not. It’s like a butcher who’s rubbish at dismantling a carcass or an air stewardess who’s scared of flying – you just know something’s gone wrong. The seafood was often overcooked, underwhelming, or just left me plain confused, leaving me wondering if the kitchen had mistaken the ocean for a sauna. At least the bill wasn’t fearsome – small mercy when the fish can’t quite swim on the plate.
Rating: 2/5
Would I go again? It’s on the blacklist
Address: 131 King’s Rd, Brighton, BN1 2HH
Web: https://theregencyrestaurant.co.uk
Leave a Reply