Review: Embers, Brighton

Embers is a cooked-on-wood restaurant in the Brighton Lanes. Most fun is sitting up at the counter, so you can watch the chefs do their thing with the flickering orange flames, the coals and ashes. Sizzling fat etc. The menu is small plate style and they’re really doing their utmost to bring you maximum char and full-on flavour with every dish. Boom. Although it’s interesting how often the gas-fired blowtorch comes out to finish off the effect!

Aubergine from the embers first, cooked like a nasu dengaku but without the sticky glaze. Nice charring, squidgy aubergine, and a big whack of powerfully good carrot kimchi on top. This was followed by a nicely pink lamb leg chop, topped with a wild garlic salsa verde and slippery bits of slow roast red pepper. Nice glossy gravy, although it felt a tad out of place on the smoky char-grilled meat. Next up, grilled calves liver, cooked to perfection, with a peppy chimichurri and a powerfully umami-salty crumb all over. Vroom. The grilled skate wing was a bit on the small side; a couple of forkfuls each once the meat was scraped off the bone. Big on flavour though, with a heavy char, and a peppercorn sauce that tasted way deeper and funkier than expected. Hits of caper too.

Final dish was “bonfire potatoes”, and maybe it’s a bit of a signature cos it was certainly dish of the day. Crispy, crunchy, flavour-packed jacket potato skins with a lush mashed potato loaded back into them, on top of burnt brisket ends muddled up with a sticky-sweet-hot sauce. Some crispy scraps on top for added crunch. Mmmm.

They suggested four dishes each, which is barking mad as we were comfortably full after five-between-two (then again, the size varies quite a bit). We had rock-solid cocktails and a decent glass of wine. But I will say that by the end of five dishes we were flavour overloaded and in need of a rest! It’s quite full on, and that’s from a couple who love big flavours. You’d spend maybe £40 each on food, and that’s probably spot on. I think I could be lured back, maybe…?