THE PLACE

Gutted that our favourite Chinese restaurant – Oriental Village, with its cooked to order, all you can eat gluttony – has closed down, we set off into The Lanes to satisfy our egg fried rice-based cravings. Only something special was going to ease our upset so we pooled all our money together and hit Gars, Brighton’s poshest Chinese restaurant. The place is certainly beautiful with sumptuous leather walls and gentle lighting. Looks like we could have a new favourite.

THE MEAL

Okay, so it’s not cheap. A bowl of hot and sour soup weighs in at £4.50, which isn’t outrageous but with a lack of meat and prawns isn’t as luxurious as we’d hoped. Opting for some garlic greens to go with the mains we discover that they are only available as a main for £7. We go for it anyway and are underwelmed by a lack of flavour. No worries as we’ve got a couple of main dishes, and the pork Szechwan has plenty of poke. On the plus side it’s not the usual gloop that cheap takeaways go for, but after a whole dish the chilies are starting to get too feisty. The lamb stew jumps off the menu due to the promise of aniseed flavours but when it arrives we find only chili and spring onion. We’re convinced that we’ve been brought the wrong dish but the waiter reckons otherwise. More positively the Singapore noodles come loaded with prawns, chicken and – yep – more chili. Fried rice is decent at £3.

THE VERDICT

It’s a hot meal all round with chili in all our dishes, and there’s very little on the menu to suggest that’s the case. We had high expectations and some were met but we have to say the meal wasn’t twice as good as a regular priced Chinese restaurant. Still, it’s a romantic setting and if you love heavy spices it could get steamy in there.

WERE WE SUSSED

The waiter was borderline shirty when we asked if the lamb was the wrong dish, so we’re guessing they didn’t think it was a food review.

Gars
19 Prince Albert Street
(01273) 321321
Open: Noon- 11pm Daily