east beach café, littlehampton
while we were in brighton we took the opportunity to visit littlehampton and its east beach café. the building is iconic and has won numerous awards – the design is based on a piece of driftwood and has a rusted steel exterior. i love it and was pleased to find them serving food worthy of such a building.
we kept things simple, sharing a portion of beer-battered fish and chips and a couple of starters – potted crab and toast plus salt & pepper squid with chilli. all dishes were excellent and if you are in the area it is well worth a trip, particularly given how well the building works, both in visual and practical terms - the café doors open onto the promenade which means that you don’t feel separate from the beach and everyone who is walking about enjoying the sun and sea.
if, like us, you inadvertently end up on the west beach (clue, the east beach is the really busy one) there is a much smaller sister café which will hopefully serve you similarly good food.
and if you’re heading east out of brighton make sure you call in at bexhill and visit the art décor de la warr pavilion. there is a restaurant in the building but i can only comment on the quality of their wine and chips, both of which were very nice as we sat on one of the building’s balconies looking out over the sea.