Chilli Pickle

The Chilli Pickle has gone from strength to strength since it moved into capacious premises on a pedestrianised square in the regenerated North Laine quarter. Its full-length glass walls create the impression of dining alfresco whatever the weather, offering ringside seats for Brighton's ever-colourful street life. The interior works a contemporary rustic look with chunky wooden tables, blond-wood floors, and vivid splashes of blue and yellow to jazz up the almost Scandinavian minimalism of the place. The menu gives sub-continental clichés and curry house standards a swerve, dealing in smartly reworked thalis, dosai and Indian street-food-inspired dishes at lunchtime - fried coconut and coriander balls coated in potato and served with smoked red pepper, for example, ahead of Rajasthani mutton shoulder curry. At dinner, the kitchen cranks things up a gear, making good use of a brace of tandoors to produce the likes of a whole sea bream coated in green peppercorn chutney served with lemon rice and coconut chutney, or you could go all-out with a platter involving tandoor-roasted chicken, quail, clove-smoked venison, and spiced lamb chop.