06 Jul 2017
This week sees the much-anticipated new Summer Menu at Brighton's highly acclaimed The Restaurant at Drakes. Situated within the elegant Drakes Hotel, which is equally revered for the high standards, stylish design and exemplary customer service, the setting retrains the features of this grand regency townhouse but the interiors have a cool, airy contemporary feel.
Over the pass few years local restauranteurs have been stepping up their game to compete with some very renowned chefs opening new restaurants in “the city by the sea”. Brighton is now considered one of the top food and drink destinations in the UK.*
as it encouraged Brighton chefs to be creative, interesting and offer the very finest quality to stay in the game.
This was no challenge for Chef Andy Vitez, who heads up the small but extremely competent and talented team in the kitchen at Drakes. Having had 5 years' experience as Sous Chef at here before his well-deserved promote last year, the offering at Drakes continues to provide some of the finest dining along the whole of the south coast, not just in the city.
Local Sussex produce regularly features in Andy's dishes and for this menu he has chosen to collaborate with the Trenchmore Farm and created a fabulous dish using their phenomenal Sussex Wagyu Beef. (Sussex Wagyu Beef Fillet cep puree, stuffed white cabbage with beef dripping potato galette)
Trenchmore's suckler herd are slow grown and grass fed, spending the summer grazing the fields around the farm and the winter in their award-winning Roundhouse Barn. The beef animals are fed on silage and hay, sprouted barley grass and mixed grains grown hydroponically on the farm - healthier for the cattle and ensures consistently delicious, great flavoured, well marbled, beef throughout the year. As a real treat, their cattle are treated to an annual feast of apple pomace from apple pressing from their Silly Moo Cider* and sweet nutty brewer's grains, which are high in protein, from local breweries. They are dry aged for around 28 days and butchered to order.
Menus at Drakes comprise of a 3 or 4 course Table D'hote option or their 5 course Chef's Taster menu. Other featured dishes include options for pescatarians (Szechuan poached lobster tail, lobster cannelloni and lobster bisque) and vegetarians (Courgette and rosemary risotto with homemade ricotta and sun-dried tomato stuffed courgette flower).
The restaurant serves lunch and dinner daily and is open to the public as well as catering for hotel guests. For that extra special touch, The Private Dining Room is available for parties of up to 12 people and includes the services of a dedicated waiter.
Drakes offers a selection of Stay and Dine Packages which make great overnight getaways when looking for that some place special.
Menus are £45 for 3 courses, £56 for 4 courses, £60 for 5 course Taster menu,
£20 for 2 course Lunch. Stay and Dine, including full breakfast from £185 for 2 people.
*Conde Nast Traveller voted Brighton the Top Food and Drink Destination in the UK 2014
For more information and images:
Drakes Hotel and
The Restaurant at Drakes
carla.termaat@drakesofbrighton
Trenchmore Farm
Rachel Knowles
