Sometimes when your googling a city to find out the best places to eat you'll get the same places popping up time and time again. "Award winning" you will hear or "best in the city" but it's when even friends start telling you about somewhere that you start thinking that this place could be particularly special. That is what happened with The Chilli Pickle in Brighton, we kept hearing such amazing things that we knew we had to give them a visit.
Saturday night in Brighton and the city was booming. It's was Black Friday weekend and everywhere was full of locals and tourists looking for a place to eat after a hard day of shopping and sightseeing at this favorite British seaside resort. We were glad we had booked The Chilli Pickle prior to heading over as it was packed. I highly recommend you do the same if you are planning to come and eat there over the weekend!
The Chilli Pickle's interior is full of brash and loud blocks of colors evoking that famous Bollywood glamour but it just manages to stay on the right side of crisp and modern and thus straying away from potentially being too garish. The wooden table tops and seating areas, large enough for groups give off a very social, relaxed atmosphere that you would expect to find at an Indian street food market and these influences are definitely mirrored in the choices available on the enticing menu.
Not that all the options are strictly Indian, their northern neighbors of Nepal get a look in too with these Nepalese vegetarian momos. Very much a fusion of both Indian and Chinese influences, these steamed dumplings, which you would associate more with dim sum restaurants were beautifully soft and pack full ginger and soy infused soy beans and cabbage. The true star of the show however was the green chili, roasted tomato and sesame chutney served alongside them which was truly delightful and totally complimented the more fragrant flavors of the dumpling filling. 
Continuing with the vegetarian street food theme we also decided to order the pani puri. This is a dish that truly sparkles when you add all the components of the dish together to create one delicious mouthful. So, take your little crispy puri shell filled with the little nuggets of chickpea salad and spoon in the accompanying tamarind pepper sauce followed by some of the vibrant herb chutney. Top this ff with a smidge of chili sauce and pop into your mouth and prepare for a flavor explosion. It's refreshing and spicy at the same time but most importantly it is tasty delicious.
I didn't think it could get much better than the starters but then along came Karim's mutton curry. I don't know who Karim is but they are a genius! This is the first time I'd tried mutton and as I tucked into the tender meat that fell off the bones on which it been sat braising on I imagined it was what heaven tasted like. The masala sauce is hot though so do be warned however it comes served with a huge naan bread and a little tub of beetroot dip to help cool you down if you need it. I can see why this is The Chilli Pickle's signature dish; I'd want to shout about it as well if it was my creation! 
Yup that's right, a perfect three course meal. There is not a single thing about the meal that I can fault. The Chilli Pickle certainly lives up to all the hype which is easy to see in the quality of the food and the amount of people leaving with massive smiles on their faces. Do yourself a favor the next time you are in Brighton and book yourself a table at this fabulous venue; you will be in a right pickle if you don't!
Go on; head on over to The Chilli Pickle's website and make that reservation and spend all your time waiting for that day looking at the menu (also online) and drooling over all that amazing food!
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