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Please note, Brighton Way has now closed. Time Out Food editors, MARCH 2020.
It sounds like a song on the playlist for a late 1960s road trip. The kind where you drive down to the coast after a weekend at Scarborough Fair (Simon & Garfunkel, 1966), via Penny Lane (Beatles, 1967). But Brighton Way – sometimes the London to Brighton Way – is actually the old name for the A23, the busy thoroughfare where this Streatham eaterie – sibling to the well-regarded Exhibition Rooms in Crystal Palace – sits. And, let’s face it, a restaurant called ‘The A23’ doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
It’s a great-looking space, with a gastropub-ey front area, a handsome bar to one side (complete with handcrafted wood and iron ‘love seats’ for two), and jenga-esque walls where mismatched woods appear to have been slotted in, piece by piece, for a bohemian effect. Even the loos are quite lovely.
The service, too, was brilliant on our visit, with young staff who were enthusiastic and efficient. It’s only when the food arrived that the wheels started to come off. Some of it was excellent – a 10oz rib-eye (all the steak, declared our waiter with confidence, ‘is great’), was indeed good quality, and expertly cooked, with a nicely charred outer and a perfectly pink middle. A ‘Daim bar’ cheesecake was joyfully calorific, its creamy top studded with shards of crunchy butter-almond toffee and milk chocolate. Yet other offerings, such as bone-dry, unchewable pork scratchings, or too-oily tempura soft-shell crab with an unpleasant burnt lime and chilli jelly, let the side down. But with a please-all offering that includes pub-style sharing platters, breakfasts and Sunday roasts, this place is bound to do well, as it’s still one of the most welcoming spots on this stretch of the A23.