20 Brighton & Hove Independent Friday, August 16 2013 www.brightonandhoveindependent.co.uk
The Richard Morris
A FAMILY-RUN Italian restaurant offering bespoke meals has emerged as the top-rated place to eat in Brighton and Hove. Mediterraneo Delicatessen is the city’s No1-ranked restaurant, according to TripAdvisor, the travel website - beating off competition from more than 700 other venues. Offering an authentic slice of Sicily in Clyde Road, Brighton, Mediterraneo acts as a deli by day and a restaurant by night. And, as a result, has secured a veritable army of well-informed regulars. Its owners provide a bespoke,
top 10
pre-booked restaurant service on Friday and Saturday evenings, with the menu tailored to the individual customer prior to arrival – with as many as eight dishes being suggested via email beforehand. And, possibly because those who do know about it don’t want to have to scramble for seat availability, Mediterraneo has remained one of Brighton’s bestkept secrets. One place where people have sung its praises though is online at TripAdvisor (www.tripadvisor. co.uk). Each review is broken down into different categories.
Restaurants, for example, focus on food, service, value and atmosphere. A mark of excellent, very good, average, poor and terrible is added – with the venue given an overall mark out of five and ranked in local order. Mediterraneo, for example, received 134 reviews – of which 120 (90%) rated them “excellent”, with nine “very good”. Its overall mark was five out of five - and a host of customers left glowing comments. But how is it that a small, family-run business has managed to top a chart that includes many bigger, well-known names and chains? It doesn’t take much more than five minutes talking to owner
Giorgio Verardi to appreciate how he and his wife, Sonia, have managed it. Coming from a long line of talented chefs, Giorgio’s passion for food is infectious and he has determinedly made the Mediterraneo experience as close to true Sicilian dining as possible. And that means making a night out just that – a night, and not a quick bite to eat. “We don’t rush people at all,” he says, taking a break from his busy schedule to talk food with Brighton & Hove Independent. “A lot of people have said we should have two sittings like other restaurants, but that is not what we are about.
People spend three or four hours here. It is an experience rather than just a meal. “It is not fine dining and definitely not a posh restaurant. There are some excellent restaurants like that in Brighton and I would not compare us to them. To say we are small would be an understatement. We have room only for about 12 people. My front room is probably bigger than our restaurant, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.” Giorgio and Sonia are the only staff, with Sonia head chef and Giorgio doing pretty much everything else. After a 12-hour shift running the deli side of their
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The top five restaurants in Brighton: 1 Mediterraneo Delicatessen 2A Clyde Road, BN1 4NP 01273 674350 www.mediterraneodeli.co.uk Type of food: Italian Reviews: 134 Score:
Recent review: “When we arrived, we were greeted like long-lost friends and nothing was too much trouble throughout the whole evening. The restaurant is small and intimate yet beautifully decorated. The food was outstanding, my husband says the fish dish he had was the best he had ever tasted.”
2 Burger Brothers 97 North Road, BN1 1YE 01273 706980 Type of food: Hamburgers, British, healthy, fast food Reviews: 74 Score:
Recent review: “Burger Brothers is just around the corner from where I live and I don’t know why it took me so long to try them. Tasty, locally-sourced meat for their burgers; tasty combination of flavours for the adventurous, basics for the purists; amazing chips and excellent, friendly service.”
3 Iydea 17 Kensington Gardens, BN1 4AL 01273 667992 www.iydea.co.uk Type of food:Vegetarian Reviews: 239 Score:
The top five restaurants in Hove: 1 Archipelagos 121 Western Road, BN3 1DB 01273 779474 www.archipelagosbrighton.co.uk Type of food: Greek Reviews: 112 Score:
Recent review: “The story here is that we have lived quite literally around the corner from this gem for eight years. So after numerous “We really must go’s...”, we actually did. We chose to do Sunday afternoo,n instead of a traditional roast - and wow! What a dinner it was!”
2 The Little Fish Market 10 Upper Market Street, BN3 1AS Recent review: “I didn’t want to write this review, because some 01273 722213 things should remain secret. The www.thelittlefishmarket.co.uk Little Fish Market is one. I want to keep it all to myself, but then I’d be Type of food: Seafood shooting myself in the foot. It’s a Reviews: 45 great restaurant.” Score:
3 Makara 28 Church Road, BN3 2FN 01273 748072
Type of food:Turkish Reviews: 49 Score: