With so Many Wonderful Dishes to Choose from, this is no Place for the Indecisive.

It had been a while since I had eaten at Aloka and I was looking forward to seeing how they were doing. As I walked into the bustling Tuesday lunch rush, it appeared they were doing really rather well indeed.  Aloka has a light and airy dining area with lots of light woods and colourful bottles on the walls but the thing that caught my eye was the hot and cold buffet situated in the middle of restaurant. On one side were the hot dishes and a vast array of salads, pâtés and dips on the other.  All dishes were so colourful and beautifully presented it was a shame they had to be destroyed by hungry customers like myself.

Before I descended upon the buffet like a one man plague of locusts, I decided to start with a bowl of the Smoky Mushroom Soup with a Brazil Nut Ramasen.  It was deliciously rich and was so creamy I would never have guessed it was vegan. Next I moved onto the buffet and piled my plate with goodies, starting with the Black Rice Cakes with Asian Cashew Cream.  They were beautifully flavoured with garlic & ginger and the cashew cream was smooth and perfectly balanced to match the rice. Next was the Broccoli & Chickpea Herb Burgers. It’s very easy for broccoli to become overcooked in dishes like these but this was fresh, clean and perfectly seasoned with a little kick of chilli at the end.  The salads were a visual treat too.  They were fresh, exciting and bursting with colour. Each dish had a complete flavour and didn’t rely on any of the other salads to finish it but when eaten together, they complimented each other perfectly – not an easy feat to accomplish. My favourite was the lightly curried creamy raw parsnip & vine fruit salad; a brilliant updated interpretation of Coronation Salad.

Chef Brydie Rowan O’Connor has created a wonderful lunch menu, with her love of food and attention to detail clearly presented in every dish. She told me all the produce used is organic or bio dynamic and this is evident especially in the salads where she has allowed the flavour of the vegetables to speak for themselves.

Aloka isn’t a budget restaurant but you certainly get value for money and for food this good, it’s perfectly priced. Avoid this at your tastebuds peril. You have been warned!

14 East Street
Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1HP