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Restaurant
Guide
Love me, du?
Minimalist treasure for Jo
Shardlow at Dadu restaurant on the seafront
 Part
restaurant, part cocktail bar and part modern art gallery,
Dadu is a restaurant for grown-ups. Inside it’s tremendously
chic and minimal, with blond wood tables, square plates
and strange sculptures round the walls. The icy cool was
only slightly marred by the fact they played Barry White
all evening – but that’s not such a bad thing!
Dadu is situated underneath the Granville Hotel on Kings
Road and its lower ground floor site gives it a secluded
atmosphere. A basement restaurant could easily seem claustrophobic,
but Dadu have avoided this by keeping the décor white
and simple.
The first port of call once you’re through the door
is the bar. Dadu have an extensive cocktail list, including
the fantastically named Son of a Peach. The cocktails are
lovingly prepared, with crushed ice and lemon peel curls,
but perhaps a little on the sweet side.
The wine list is also excellent, ranging from a bottle of
house white for £9.95 to a bottle of champagne for
£49.95.
The menu is as minimal the décor, with ten main courses
to choose from. The food is influenced by Asian cuisine,
in a style known as Pacific Rim - which always makes me
laugh for some reason. Everything on the menu sounded fantastic.
I began with Pacific tiger prawn salad at a reasonable £5.75.
There wasn’t very much of it, by my god it was tasty.
My glamorous assistant Fran had scallion pancake with a
generou portion of gravadlax (a strong tasting dry-cured
salmon) for £5.95.
For the main course Fran went for Da Hai crispy fried fish,
which arrived whole, with a look of surprise on its face.
The waitress obligingly had the head removed and Fran said
the fish was delicious.
I had coriander and mint marinated lamb. It was cooked to
perfection – wonderfully tender and delicately flavoured
and surrounded by the ubiquitous yet scrumptious roasted
vegetables.
By this point I was almost too full to breathe, but it seemed
rude not to have pudding. The blackcurrant water ice with
whiskey butterscotch sauce for £3.55 was completely
mouth-watering but looked almost too beautiful to eat.
The food was all skilfully presented in a style influenced
by nouvelle cuisine. And despite the myth of this, the portions
were ample and although Asian in flavour, had the generosity
of British cooking.
Essential Info
Food: a happy marriage of Asian and British cuisine.
Service: fast and friendly.
Drinks: if you can think of it, they can make it.
Opening hours: 12 noon – 11pm.
Dadu
124 Kings Road
Brighton
Tel: 01273 722525
copyright The Insight 2002
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