Piccolo is an example of that rare restaurant anomaly that manages to team a central Brighton location with decent food and prices that make you question whether you’ve read the menu properly. Sat right in the middle of Brighton’s tourist throng, just minutes from the sea and seconds from the Lanes – an area that seems to inspire in most eateries a sense of entitlement to charge double figures for most starters – what Piccolo lacks in interior pizazz, it makes up for in value and service.
Which isn’t to say it’s drab; it’s not. There’s lots of colour on the walls, and there’s always a buzz of people milling about outside lending it that busy bustle you expect from an Italian restaurant.
Piccolo market themselves as a family restaurant and that they are; I walked in with two young, hungry children (one adult, two under 6s: a combination that rarely ends in nothing but indigestion and tears), a point that was immediately picked up on by the attentive staff who promptly came to my rescue with paper, colouring pens, drinks and garlic bread to tide them over. When the inevitable drink spill occurred, it was dealt with quickly and without fuss; when the littlest one got restless, she was distracted and made to laugh, taking her seat once more and tucking into her spaghetti Bolognese. Bravo Piccolo: you are a restaurant that caters for real family meals, not those quiet, tidy and seamless family meals of parents’ wild imaginations.
And so the food. Five juicy king prawns in butter, garlic and white wine for £5.50; a huge Hawaiian pizza with a delicious tomato and oregano sauce for £6.00, and a spag bol with a rich, well-seasoned meat ragu that both kids not only finished, but asked for more of for £6.00 – what’s not to love?
Regardless of the more than reasonable cost, everything tasted good. You don’t go to Piccolo for a Michelin-starred experience, you go to get fed and watered well; something they do with aplomb.
The House of Piccolo, Brighton.
56 Ship St, Brighton and Hove, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1AF
01273 203701