THE PLACE: There are plenty of great Thai places in Brighton – Sukhothai, with their two course £5 lunches, as well as The Pond and The King & I – so what makes us rock up at Circus Circus with our stealth notepad? Well, we wanted to head over the London Road/Preston Park area and there isn’t loads of options after lunch and before the hours that a takeaway seems like a good idea. A lovely day, we think we’ll sit outside – until we realise that we’re were essentially sitting in the middle of a roundabout. Luckily inside is pleasant, if a little functional.

THE MEAL: We’re not sure why Thai food is always so cheap, but Circus Circus keep up the value for money that comes with the eastern cuisine. In fact for weekday lunches (noon until 3pm) all main courses are £3.95 if you just want vegetables, or an extra quid for meat, with seafood two pounds more. But is the food any good? Things start pretty well with the tiger prawn tempura (£4.50), four fleshy fingers of seafood, not drowning in batter. It’s a shame to drown them in dipping sauce so we shovel them down neat. The Pad Si Oew (£6.50) is as close to Chinese as Thai, but with a thicker, creamier sauce. It stands on the quality of its veg – fresh and crunchy baby sweetcorn, mange tout, broccoli, and cauliflower. The green curry with chicken (£6.50) has a slow building kick that leaves our tongue tingling nicely with plenty of sauce, soft chicken and crisp fresh vegetables.

THE VERDICT: It all came to just over £20 with drinks, and you can’t really argue with that. You might not walk past other good Thai places to get to it, but Circus Circus is one of the best eateries in the area, and they do take away too.

WERE WE SUSSED: We had all the food come out together so, although we weren’t subtle with our camera, it was too late to change anything. So, definitely not.

Circus Circus
Preston Rd
(01273) 620026
Mon-Fri noon-3pm, 6pm-9pm; Sat-Sun 1pm-4pm, 6pm-9pm