The Place

Right out in the heart of Hove, the Ancient Mariner is the furthest outpost of the InnBrighton (nee Zel) empire. We’d heard good things about the large local boozer food there so we got our walking shoes on.

The Meal

Gordon Ramsey recommends small menus of things that you’re good at. The Ancient Mariner are clearly on the same page, as there’s not much choice here but enough that there’s plenty of temptation. We start with the soup of the day (£4.25), a winter-warming root vegetable number than has just a little kick. There’s also a fish dish of the day, and a pasta variant. From there in there’s pretty much the choice of burgers or bangers’n’mash. The burgers look great – thick, juicy, coming with homemade potato wedges – but we dive into the many sausage options. With six meat and three veggie options and a range of five mash variants it’s not quite the Shakespeare’s Head but it’s pretty good. Both the lamb and mint, and the beef and chilli were meaty and large, a generous three bangers each arriving on as much mash as you’d need. With the lamb we choose garlic mash and red wine and onion gravy, while the beef was bulked out with cabbage and bacon mash and excellent rich meat gravy. So, flavours then? Difficult to say. We ordered our favourite elements without bothering to think if they complimented each other or masked them. Take a bit of time, or ask for advice behind the bar, but it all went down very well.

The Verdict

At £7.75 for the bangers’n’mash there’s a lot of very good food here for the money. The only disappointment is that if you want a side and gravy you have to stump up an extra £1.25, which seems slightly pricy for some gravy. Apart from that, highly recommended.

Were We Sussed?

The kitchen ran out of cream for the soft and crisp brownie (£4.50) and made lots of effort to atone but this was genuine good service as we were the epitome of discretion.

The Ancient Mariner

Rutland Road

(01273) 748595

Food served 12-10