Market Tapas & Wine — Restaurant in England

Date: 11/01/25 Cost: £160 inc wine

Nearly three centuries ago, presumably disturbed by the tickle of early first light dancing over his eyelids, a man called David had a bit of a strange thought: sure, the sun’s risen again, just as it has done every other day throughout my lifetime, my parents’ lifetimes, their parents’ and so on and so forth, but there’s no real reason for me to believe it’ll do so again tomorrow. (I reckon Dave had a hell of a summer hangover and was hoping beyond hope that if he pulled his pillow tight enough over his face the sun would just go away and never come back.) Certain thoughts that just pop suddenly into your head unbidden you should just drop. They're not feelings or beliefs, and you don’t have a huge amount of control over them - it’s what you do with them. So what did David do? He pursued his wacky theory all the way through to writing a seminal thesis concerning the problem of induction - making predictions about the future based on the past. David thought there wasn’t enough justification for any confidence in the uniformity of nature. David Hume, for all his esteem and recognition as one of the most important thinkers in human history, was, respectfully, an idiot.

For as the sun rose (predictable) - beautifully (less so) - on this wonderfully clear blue January day, even as Mich and I made ambitious plans to take our laptops to a coffeeshop, I knew how our day would turn out: a stroll along the beach to “see the sea” (our excuse for arriving in the vicinity of the West Tap); a couple of beers there (no tables at Flour Pot) despite promises to “not do dry Jan but not got mental with the drinking either”, watching the esoteric hobbyists play with their toys in the shadow of the dying i360 instead of working; a wander back somewhere for drinks and the crossword and some frantic googling on my part for a place to eat. David clearly never made it down to Brighton seafront on a bright and balmy Saturday afternoon, because when the sun shines down there what on earth else is to be done? No uniformity of nature my arse.

So it was that we found ourselves cosied up in a corner at Market on Western Road that evening, admiring the verdancy of their wall tiles and playing with the settings on the table lamp, already a few drinks in - but not so many we didn’t fancy another cocktail and some olives. Would we like to try something the barman’s been working on for three days straight, a twist on the New York sour? That’s not really anything like what I originally asked for, but sure, big fan of the approach. It was good, and I enjoyed it, but not quite what I was after, and as with homemade hummus I wasn’t entirely sure the end result was worth the effort.

And that summed up the food in a lot of ways too, epitomised by the patatas bravas: hulking great roasted whole new potatoes with a yoghurty drizzle, as opposed to crispy fried cubes in a spiced but familiar tomato sauce. The verdejo and saffron that the beef shin was prepared with complimented and elevated it but the albondigas were maybe a little overthought, as if conceived by Pep Guardiola on the eve of a big European game. The Basque cheesecake was beautifully done, light and airy, but if you’re in the mood for a crumbly crust you’ll be disappointed (what have the chefs got against New York classics?).

These were flavours to savour rather than dishes to devour, and clearly a lot of thought and effort had gone into each of them. Some worked really well, some didn’t - the waiter even removed one from our bill as it hadn’t been prepared to his liking, another indication of the experimental and undeveloped nature of the cooking. It’s a fantastic place to go and try lots of different things - it is tapas, after all - and you’ll love it if you like to engage your mind as well as your tastebuds and then have a detailed discussion on everything afterwards. It had more than enough to make me want to go back - the setting and the service playing their part too - but not so much it’ll be leapfrogging other untested...

Perhaps we caught them on an 'off' night but this place thinks it's a lot better than it is. The house red wine starts at a pricey £28 but it proved to be a decent Tempranillo. Initially I ordered the fish and my partner ordered the steak. This was met by a gasp of shock from the waiter who said it was a "whole" fish and the steak was "for two". Personally I regularly eat a "whole fish" and my partner has no problems eating a 400g steak "for two" but feeling suitably chastised for appearing greedy we opted instead for the tapas. The Pan Con Tomate was pleasant enough but came as a single slice. The Gambas Pil Pil should really be described on the menu as Gamba Pil Pil as it comes as a single large prawn sliced down the middle and at £9 is a stretch. The menu said Ensalada but if I had read the tiny english underneath I'd have realised it was fermented. It came as stringed carrot and some other indeterminable stringed vegetable that had been soaked in vinegar. It really was horrible. We had two types of croquettes one dish of cod and one of ham. Fortunately they didn't come together as from the bland taste it would be impossible to tell which was which. Interestingly there were just 3 to a dish to share between two people. The meatballs were probably the best dish of the evening and were actually quite flavoursome. The Patatas Fritas were by far the most generous dish, unsurprisingly. Brighton has one or two very good authentic Spanish Tapas Restaurants but unfortunately this isn't...

We were searching for a good gastropub in Brighton, I found good feedbacks on Market on the internet and we booked a table for two

Atmosphere & service : 5 stars,nothing to say. Food : not more than two for the thing we Had. This comment wants to be an impulse to do much better. We ordered cheese croquetas as an appetizer, we had to add (a good amount) of salt & Pepper so that it tasted very good, but at the beginning was quite light. The Pastrami tapas was excellent. For the main courses, I chose the burger, my friend the fish of the Day. Noone asked me how I would like the beef to be cooked (saignant/à point? maybe you don't ask that for burgers in UK?), it was for my taste a bit too medium then. But the main problem for the courses was how salty it was, fries and salads. Way too Much. The sides of my friend's course were not perfectly cooked, some burnt potatoes.

Good coffee, beer, and good glass of english sparkling wine.

I found the bill, 70pounds way too salty for the quality I had but these are a couple of small things to fix, since the frame & service are both very good. I know, I could have told them, etc, but at the appetizer level, I didn't want to be seen as an arrogant frog. It happens that things are not perfect, but tonight, at the end three dishes out of four, were not Balanced, and that decided me to write this comment. Pay more attention to the food, the rest...