Last week I was excited to be invited to review Jamie’s Italian in Brighton – the perfect excuse for a mid-week impromptu date night with my lovely lady. So after work we headed down to Jamie’s Italian, located on Black Lion Street for our date. Upon arrival at the restaurant we were greeted by the super friendly Maître d, who showed us to our table and discussed her personal recommendations for our first cocktail. We were seated in a lovely quiet booth to ourselves and served with our first cocktail of the night, a fresh Watermelon Martini.
We both perused the menu for quite some time. This was especially exciting for me as being vegetarian my choices are usually limited, however there was plenty of choice for me. We were struggling to decide so we asked our lovely waitress, Marketa for her personal recommendation. She had been working at the restaurant since it opened 5 years ago and was so passionate and knowledgeable about the food served. She explained she loves the food as it’s each dish is freshly prepared, they don’t serve any frozen or pre-made dishes at all. She eats regularly at the restaurant so that’s always a good sign too! After quite a lengthy discussion, I went for the Vegetarian Plank and Vanessa had the Asparagus and Mushy Pea Brushetta. The plank was ideal for me as I love trying lots of different favours, my favourite of the dish being the vegetables chargrilled in olive oil and garlic, they were utterly divine.
For main course I opted for the Honeycomb Cannelloni Trio. Each cannelloni was stuffed with either Aubergine & Sun-dried tomato, pumpkin or Spinach and Ricotta. I loved how each little pasta ‘shell’ had a different taste and the flavours went together so beautifully. Vanessa had the Steak with Rainbow Slaw. As a veggie I can’t really comment on this dish, but from the clean plate I know it was thoroughly enjoyed too.
When the dessert menu landed on our table, I really got excited. I felt I wanted to try everything (I have a real sweet tooth!) however after our starter, main course and about 4 cocktails by this point we decided to ‘be good’ and share an Epic Chocolate Brownie between us. Jamie’s Epic Chocolate brownie is drenched in the thickest chocolate sauce you can imagine, salted caramel ice cream and caramelised amaretti popcorn. It’s A-MAZING – that’s all I can say. If you go, you must try this.
We finished the night with one last cocktail, my favourite of all – a Mojito, made Jamie’s way topped with Prosecco and an Espresso Martini.
Overall, I was impressed with Jamie’s Italian, I think the ambience and setting was perfect and loved how every dish is prepared from fresh ethical food. This made up for the slight lack of finesse in the food; I think people who were expecting fine dining would be disappointed, but thats not to say the food wasn’t delicious – it’s just cooked with more of a home-cooked comfort food style. Highlights for me were the Watermelon Martini and the Epic Chocolate Brownie (oh and of course my company! ;))
Thank you to Jamie’s for having us for ‘date night’ – We will be back again soon!
