Manju's - Restaurant Brighton — Restaurant in Great Britain

TL;DR: One of the best meals we've ever had and wish we were local as we would definitely be back regularly!!

The full run down...

We booked for a Friday night as we had come down to Brighton for a concert on the Thursday and were not leaving till Saturday. Right from the start the staff were friendly and welcoming. Upon reaching our table (near the bar which really made no difference at all to our enjoyment incidentally) there was a small personalised greeting on the table itself which was a lovely touch.

The menu is short but that's one of the restaurant's strong points I feel. I often find the restaurants offering every dish under the sun rarely bring the quality to go with the selection.

We chose 4 small plates and 2 curries (as per the suggested servings on the menu for 2 people) and found the quantity of food to be absolutely spot on. Each dish was brought to our table one at a time as they were cooked, and each one was explained in full by the attentive and obviously proud members of staff (who I believe were Manju's sons).

The flavours were incredible.

This is NOT your typical curry and beer night down the local Indian. Manju and her family have attempted to bring a taste of real Indian cuisine to our shores and quite frankly we couldn't get enough of it. We're both meat eaters but didn't miss it at all.

The desserts were also fantastic and to be honest I don't think either of us has smiled quite so much throughout a meal before.

At £84 for 2 people (6 courses + dessert + a beer each) I thought it was fairly reasonable, especially for the quality of the food. I've paid more and enjoyed it less that's for sure.

Add to this the fact that Manju is 86 years old and what's not to find amazing about this place?

I can say without a doubt that if or when we come back to Brighton in the future the first place we'll look to book a...

We were appalled by the subtle racism this place has towards Indians! Despite being empty at 7pm they reserved a seat at 7.15 and put us next to the bar. Not sure if people would reserve specific table but I had to ask them to change the table as it was right next to the tills. The owner frowned when we ordered starters first despite the fact we wanted to have main meals and we had to order everything from starters to dessert at the same instance. There was no flexibility to feel our way through dinner. The worst part was that the food was great but we both ended up having gastroenteritis the very same night. We are not going back to this place again!

Dr Indy

Reply to you Manju's I booked the table around 4pm which was no way close to 7pm! I booked it under my full name and as you could not understand it I had to cut short the name for obvious reasons. As for your comment on Gastroenteritis, I know what i'm talking about. We did everything for 2 days from Friday night and my partner has gone to his GP on Monday! I will write a note the local health officer to enquire about the storage, hygiene around the toilets and handles if not about the cooking facility. Gastroenteritis is caused by bacterial and viral infections through water and food or if the person serving or cooking the food has it. You should be ashamed of your behavior and outright denial of what you have done. Perhaps a little soul search will take you a long way. Even if you gave us free food we wouldn't come to Manju's!! I can understand you want to improve your business by projecting it as the best British Indian...

Had a recent meal here. The good : The food is generally tasty, the starters being the highlight by far. Nice homemade chutneys ! The staff are friendly and welcoming too. Drinks around average price for the area. Overall ambience of the place could be a little warmer. It is small and intimate, though.

The bad : Main courses extremely poor value for money - portions are very small indeed ( almost insultingly so ) and nowhere near reflective of the whopping £13 - £14 typical cost for an incredibly small portion of vegetables with an even more stingey portion of rice ( think 2 desert spoonfulls of rice and you won't be far off ! ). The breads were wafer thin and not of good quality at all. I think the costs of making my main course would have been no more than £1.50p to the establishment, so the mark up is considerable, even taking into account the location of the eatery ... Nice work if you can get it. I have to say that many restaurants in Brighton are really taking liberties with food portions I've noticedof late. I think some customers have become too accepting of this worrying trend, although I will just stop eating out before long. My advice here is to stick with a few extra...