Solera

Solera is an incredible tapas bar on Sydney Street in Brighton. My friend Sophie told me to go here, and I will never ever doubt any of her food choices ever again because it was incredible. In fact it was so good I didn't even take many photos cause I was too excited to be in there, eating. The tables are small wooden tables, and you still on square wooden stools. Each table already has plates for each seat, and your cutlery so you're ready to eat. The menu is a laminated paper, but everything on it makes your mouth water. 

The food is all Tapas. This is a style of eating from Spanish culture, the food is all served in smaller portions but you are able to eat more and therefore you taste more things. My friend Daniella and I ordered 5 dishes to share between the two of us, and a jug of Sangria. And I'm sad to admit but we went a little overboard with that whole jug of Sangria. But overall everything about this place was good, there was nothing I didn't like. I was just sad to leave, and annoyed that I didn't have any change to leave a tip. Now I just need to find a good tapas bar in London. Here's their website: http://www.solera-brighton.co.uk/

Havana

Walking through the Lanes in Brighton again we decided to stop for a drink in the sun. The nicest place we happened to walk past was Havana. The menu consisted of several different drinks, all somewhat original combining flavours that ordinary bars in London don't do. I chose a "Mango Colada" which happened to be similar to a Pina Colada with with mango and pineapple as well as a broader spectrum of alcohol.

Daniella got a pineapple Daiquiri that looked incredible in the glass they served it in. The drinks weren't cheap, but they were delicious and it took me quite a while to drink mine. The whole venue was decorated in a very beach-y expensive summer sort of style and it was a perfect way for us to sit outside and enjoy the last bit of sun for the day. 

I think if I lived in Brighton every sunny day you'd find me there trying to live like someone out of a film. 

Here's their website: http://www.havana.uk.com/

Food For Friends

Food for friends is a vegetarian restaurant in the Lanes in Brighton. Their menu has a lot of varied food, curries, gnocchi, tofu, cheese, and other things that you do not necessarily associate with being vegetarian. I didn't even notice it was a vegetarian restaurant until I walked in and it said so on the menu. They had a huge variety of drinks, nibbles, starters, mains and desserts. It was quite a formal place based on the way they displayed their food. 

The sauces are spread out evenly without a drop out of its place. The waiters are very polite, and the tap water jugs have cucumber in them to give the water some flavour. The ambiance is very warm, welcoming but also clean and well presented. The food comes quite quickly, and everything looks like a work of art. It being late for lunch, my friend Daniella and I eat rather quickly but still being able to notice all the flavours in the food. The rice given with my coconut curry is spiced perfectly to match the main dish. Whereas Daniella's gnocchi have a light sauce drizzled over them and just a slice of Parmesan cheese on each one. 

The bill comes with a cute little survey card, and I fill it out promtly, knowing that I'd love to come back and eat something else because there was so much I wanted to taste. 

Here's their website: http://www.foodforfriends.com/

Angel Food Bakery

Walking through cute tiny roads in the central area of Brighton we passed by Angel Food Bakery" which happened to have several really well decorated cupcakes in the window. I couldn't stop myself from going in. Everyone was so friendly, even if it took me ages to decide which flavour I wanted.  All the cupcakes looked incredible, but so did this huge Victoria sponge cake. It was so difficult to choose.

In the end I had a lemon meringue cupcake, which had lemon-y custard stuff in the middle too which was really good and unexpected. The shop is so cute and small but there's enough space on the bar for them to show off all their cakes. There are nice little bar stools for the customers to sit on while they eat their cake if they wish to eat in. 

Generally in the UK they charge you more if you want to eat in, and this place was no different so I took my cupcake to go, and I devoured it in the middle of the road before heading into an art shop near by.

Here's their website: http://www.angelfoodbakery.co.uk 

Brighton Beach and Pier

My friends and I wanted to go to Brighton during bank holiday weekend but staying in a hotel Sunday night turned out to be really expensive. So, we decided to make our bank holiday longer and stay in Brighton Monday night instead. We took the train to Brighton from London Bridge, and 20 minutes before our train was supposed to leave the announcement says that our train is cancelled. So we start freaking out, but thankfully during the time we were queuing at the information desk our train was no longer cancelled. So we were able to arrive in Brighton at 11am on Monday.

First thing we did was walk towards the beach. After all, living in a city makes you miss the seaside.  We sat at the beach for about an hour before the wind started making us shiver. I think the fact that there were people laying in their bikinis made me feel even more cold. We then started walking towards the Pier. We stopped at several cute little stands which were selling different beach memorabilia and we went into an adorable pottery shop. 

Once we arrived at the Pier we noticed how crowded this little beach town was. We walked on through to the end of the Pier stopping to look at people on jet skis under us. We decided to take advantage of the fair, and bought 30 tokens and rode on some rides. The scariest ride was "Crazy Mouse" because you were pretty much in a little car over the sea. 

After that I stopped for some traditional fish and chips, because I still hadn't had any since I moved back to the UK. It was incredible. We continued strolling along the beach front until about 3pm when we then headed to our hotel to check-in and leave our bags.