The Lion & Lobster Reviews Summary

Ambience & Decor

Pros:

• "It is a warm, fun, wonky pub with great ambience, decor, music and a fabulous roof deck for smokers or nons to enjoy year round."
• "Stunningly atmospheric pub which manages to be both a living piece of history and a bang up to date venue for drinks."
• "Wonderful pub over three floors, widely considered one of the best pubs in Brighton for its charm."
• "This Tardis like pub has room after room and rambles over several floors including at least 2 outside terraces and a restaurant area."
• "Cool pub! Don’t be disheartened if you need to consult a series of ancient maps and commission an expeditionary force to find the upstairs beer garden, it’s worth it."
• "Great pub, full of character, lots of nooks and crannies, and a cleverly designed outdoor area upstairs at the back."
• "Quirky pub with plenty of nooks and crannies, spread over three floors and with a rooftop outside space."

Cons:

• "The beautiful roof terrace is so shabby and unloved with broken chairs and creaking tables."
• "Quirky pub currently mid renovation outside (June 2022) so it kinda looks closed."
• "The pub itself is fairly dark and musty."
• "Small dark dingy not very clean no soap in gents toilet too many tables too close I would consider the place a fire hazard not clear what way to go in the event of fire."
• "Made the mistake of sitting in the back room, which is a bit dingy and smells of the gents."
• "The whole building & furnishings did feel as though they needed a thoroughly deep cleaning after years of beer & god only knows what else being sprayed across the walls."
• "The large table was not attached to the legs so kept tipping quite alarmingly for the sake of a few screws!"

Food Quality

Pros:

• "Food is good and varied and served until late."
• "The food is excellent and well presented."
• "Food is delicious and they do offer vegan and vegetarian options too so everyone is happy."
• "Fresh and tasty food. Nice Sunday roast."
• "The food was very tasty as was the service."
• "The food is well priced and really excellent with a great specials board for something different each day."
• "The food is amazing, such a great friendly pub."

Cons:

• "The food is absolutely horrendous."
• "Oh my goodness, the food was quite appalling."
• "Steer clear of the food here, we had to return most of our food because it was so under/over cooked."
• "The food was flavourless and dry."
• "Don't believe the hype about the food, it's pretty mediocre these days."
• "The food that did arrive was just ok, the potatoes tasted like they'd been reheated."
• "The food was bland and tasteless."

Service

Pros:

• "Very friendly staff and good value."
• "Bar staff were lovely and accommodating."
• "The staff were very friendly and helpful (they helped me carry drinks from the bar up to the roof)."
• "We had a party of 15, all our meals came out at once, all options were catered for, the food was delicious, and the friendly staff couldn't have been any more helpful - 5 star!!"
• "Staff is great in this place."
• "Bar staff are always spot on, service is excellent."
• "Great service."

Cons:

• "Very disappointing."
• "The service was also terribly slow and overall a disappointing experience."
• "Very poor service."
• "From the very beginning we found the service lacking."
• "The waiting staff was a little disappointing."
• "We've enjoyed several really nice meals here, however they have a serious problem with customer service."
• "Shocking how this chef won’t get fired/check what kind of plates they give out."

Value for Money

Pros:

• "Best pub in Brighton in my humble opinion."
• "Prices are about average as well, so won't break the bank drinking here."
• "I thought the prices were reasonable."
• "Food and drink prices appear to be comparable to those in the UK."
• "Lovely place, lots of history and not overly expensive."

Cons:

• "Certainly this old reputation is still reflected in the price-definitely the most expensive roast in the city."
• "The reason for two stars is the extremely small portion size for the price when eating in the upstairs restaurant."
• "Average Food for a quite high price."
• "At £18.50, this was simultaneously the most expensive Sunday Roast I've ever had and also the worst."
• "Used to have the best nachos in Brighton - unfortunately not anymore. They've almost doubled the price (from £7 to £11) and made them half of the size."