Starfish & Coffee — Restaurant in Great Britain

Very trendy, expensive & in my humble opinion overrated.

Wife and I came here on a Saturday morning. As you walk inside you're immediately greeted by posters pointing out that Starfish & Coffee has been voted best 'brunch' and 'best cafe' in Brighton multiple times. This indeed sets a very high bar considering the multitude of other fine offerings in town.

We had no reservation yet were seated quickly and with no issues. Ambiance was good, with Bright Eyes - my all time favourite band playing in the background. We were served promptly and ordered a cappuccino and a tea. At £3.70 this is one of the most expensive Cappuccinos I've ordered in Brighton.

It was also the cappuccino I've waited the longest to receive. There was an issue with their payment and receipt system so we ended up waiting around 20-25 minutes for our drinks. In fact, our food arrived before the drinks and we only received our coffee and tea after we had asked at the counter if they were coming. The cost of these drinks were not removed from the bill and the apologies were light.

As for the coffee itself. It was okay, but Marmalade in Kemptown does a better coffee for less, at least in my opinion. The presentation of the tea was quaint and pretty and my wife enjoyed it.

For our food I ordered the English, but Veggie and my wife ordered Mackerel Pate. She said that her food was flavourful, delicious and exactly what she wanted. She said she would have given the dish and her tea a 10/10.

I however, was very underwhelmed. I didn't think the portion was particularly large. Only 1 sausage, a tiny smattering of avocado on toast, 1 mushroom and 3 tomatoes on the vine. I know it's a cost of living crisis but you'd expect a bit more generosity when you're paying £15 for the privilege.

In line with another review my eggs were also more hard boiled than 'poached'. I understand these things happen but I take umbrage with the idea that I should raise this with the staff and kick up a fuss - something I don't feel particularly comfortable doing. The fact is, they weren't poached nor runny and this isn't the first time a reviewer has pointed it out.

Our food, coffee and tea consumed we went to the counter to pay, and to play the old 'what % tip would you like to give' game as the waitress looked over our every move. If you're going to insist on charging service (let's be honest how many people won't tip when someone is literally watching what you press) then just add 10 or 12.5% to the bill and skip this farce.

All up £45 for a 'good' yet very inconsistent brunch. Yes my wife was very happy (except when she thought too hard about how much it had actually cost) but for me this was not the best brunch in Brighton. If you love it here kudos to you but please do visit some of the other options in our...

This is our third bad experience at Starfish & Coffee, and it's such a shame! Only a short walk from our house and with normally lovely hosts and servers, we really wanted to like it here, hence giving it 3 tries before coming to the conclusion, that it's simply just not good. Here are the things we really didn't like, one of them is a serious issue, so I'll start with that. I told them I was a vegan, I specifically requested non-dairy milk in my coffee as it's been years since having any animal products, but the guy making coffee ignored that and put dairy in. In itself, that's not too bad as accidents happen, however I asked if it was, and even though it seemed like he clearly knew he had, he feigned ignorance and pretended to not be sure. It was not busy on this day. Less important but still annoying is constantly being shown to tables of 2 in an almost empty restaurant. We understand at busy times the need to keep tables free for larger parties (we've both worked in the restaurant and cafe business for years), we get it, but there were 4 free tables of 4 and we were crowbarred away from the windows, next to another couple, in an almost empty cafe. How simple would it be to just use common sense and communicate with your customers. It was our wedding anniversary and we didn't particularly want to sit on other people's laps in an empty cafe. Thirdly, learn how to cook a blooming vegan sausage/breakfast. Stop microwaving 80% of the meal.

Totally underwhelming, really disappointing, and a real shame. The owner seems lovely but this place has let us down 3 times in a row, and for the competitive high price, the outcome is...

High expectations from all the reviews but was a bit of a let down.

We had 2 of the vegan hash thinking it would be breakfasty but it's mainly oily roast new potatoes. Obvs we could have checked the ingredients first but we were fine with it - except for the insane amount of salt and garlic in it. Tasted like either the chef smokes too much or they dropped a whole salt shaker in. I struggled through half and my partner had to leave most of hers.

We wanted to mention it to someone but noone came back to check on us nor clear the plates.

We went upstairs to pay before leaving, I told the girl on the till (doodling on a note pad) and she shrugged, apologised with a strange smile and said she'd pass my opinion on to the kitchen and apply a discount to our bill.

I thanked her but when I checked my receipt outside, she'd knocked a whole £3 off the whole £41 bill.

So left with a bitter taste as well as the salty taste.

Shame when you arrive in a great mood excited for the meal ahead - then it's such a poor experience it bums you out for few hours after.

But everyone else rates it here so perhaps we just made poor menu choices and got the wrong member of staff to express our dissatisfaction to.

Also just fyi guys, the mini milk container you serve the oat milk in with tea really smells of dairy milk, so was a bit off-putting.

On a positive, the berry smoothie was actually...