‘It's one hell of a dish, demanding the plate be licked clean': TOM PARKER BOWLES reviews a new Brighton restaurant
On a bustling Brighton road that seems exclusively populated by Turkish barbers and pawn shops, Amari rather stands out. And not just for its bright-red frontage. The room, with its walls clad in tiles and tastefully framed prints, is small, pared-back and unassuming. The food, though, is anything but.
Amari is the third opening from local (and much acclaimed) restaurateurs Ali and Mo Razavi, and head chef Ian Swainson has some serious Michelin pedigree. But the cooking here has little interest in foams and tweezer-tweaked travail, rather an obsession with detail that lifts the everyday to the excellent. Serrano ham – so often a drab, sullen counterpart to its more glamorous Ibérico cousin – is of exceptional quality, soft and gently piggy. Sliced tissue-paper thin and anointed with a punchy olive oil, it's best stuffed into one of their chewy, freshly baked rolls. A fine bocadillo and, with a glass of cool Manzanilla sherry, a very civilised lunch.
But then you'd be missing intensely rich Cantabric anchovies, drenched in more of that golden olive oil. And croquettas, impeccably fried and gently oozing, filled with either cep mushrooms or pork. Go for both. Prawns in garlic butter are sublime, miles removed from the usual dull, flabby crustacean dirge, the flesh pert and sweet, the sauce enriched with a bisque sauce. Torched mackerel – skin crisp, fish gloriously fresh – sits on a neat pile of smoked cod's roe, surrounded by a coolly pellucid dressing of olive juice and sorrel. Tiny chunks of cucumber and lemon peel give texture and acidity, and the dish is bright and beautifully put together.
It's not just fish that impresses. Rib of beef is slow-cooked until transformed into a wobbling lozenge of pure bovine bliss. Coated with a sticky red wine reduction, the sauce is filled with whole peppercorns that provide tiny explosions of spice, while roasted cherry tomatoes add that all-important acidity. It's one hell of a dish, demanding the plate be licked clean. Even patatas bravas are deep-fried delights, the crisp, crunchy fried potatoes lavished with mayonnaise, chilli sauce and a lusty dusting of paprika. Laid-back, unpretentious and sensibly priced, Amari may not exactly be hidden – but it's an absolute Iberian gem.
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