Review: Pascere, Brighton

There’s something about Christmas that brings out the worst in dining out. The phrase “Christmas menu” usually has me turning a swift 180 on my heel and heading elsewhere. And oh my, the work Christmas party! This year’s was a classic. Floppity “roast” veg. Slices of turkey so thin and processed that I swear – I swear – it was the same stuff they use in Tescos basics turkey sandwiches. And the vegetarians got a mushroom risotto with two mushrooms in. Because how Christmassy is mushroom risotto, eh?

And this perhaps explains why I was deeply underwhelmed by Pascere, which most food writers and bloggers have raved about in recent months. Because I was lucky enough to have their Christmas tasting menu.

The place is a nicely chilled out modern dining room, good design aesthetic, dark and cosy with golden touches, turquoise and gold menus. Staff are friendly and service was good.

Tiny crab tarts, filled with white meat and topped with a bisque-y hollandaise for flavour, were a jolly promising start. Haggis bonbons too.

The first starter was a dish of properly bitter raddichio with a drop of artichoke puree. The puree was nowhere near useful enough in cutting through the really singular bitterness of this red raddichio. Next was a neat little package of sous vide haddock, translucent and toothsome, with a neat cylinder of roast salsify and an unctuous smokey mousse. All great. But with a blob of celeriac remoulade on the side that had all the subtlety of industrial coleslaw. Jarring.

The rabbit I liked, very nicely sous-vided so that it was still deeply pink and as toothsome as the fish before. Paired well with a lobster foam and wrapped in… a delicate green pasta? I’m gonna be honest, I’m not sure! Nice dish. And the mushroom orzo in risotto style with little cubes of blue cheese was a really nice dish too. Two hits!

Sous vide trout was, like the haddock, a neat package of fish. Quite literally. Both fish still held the exact shape and edges of the vacuum bag they’d been cooked in. That just seems… clumsy. But hey, as long as it tastes good. It actually just tasted okay. The beetroot accompaniment was too earthy and rooty for the soft amber fish. And the fish was “roasted in burnt butter”? Maybe it briefly met a hot pan, but far too briefly to show.

I’ve got to have a pick at the main goose dish too. I really had to saw away at the roast goose, and that’s not a good sign. Just as with a normal Christmas dinner, the extra bits – the little sausage and the cube of stuffing – were much better than the main meat. So I suppose they’re just sticking with tradition…?

First dessert of pine curd topped with tart cranberries and pine granita was good, a lovely seasonal dish that I’d have preferred a double portion of, as the main dessert was a bit of a muddle of pistachio, passionfruit and chocolate. Not bad at all just a blur of flavours.

I’d want better for £75 a head before drinks. Incidentally, I liked their wine list – not super long but a good selection; we paired our meal with six good wines. There were enough good ideas and solid ambitious cooking here for me to want to give Pascere the benefit of the doubt, and maybe come back at a normal time of the year. Perhaps all restaurants with high aspirations should just ditch “Christmas menus” as too likely to compromise their high standards (and good name) with hastily devised menus straight-jacketed by a theme?

Hmm… and then again, check out how beautifully The Clove Club delivered seasonal delights to us last year!