etch. by Steven Edwards

etch. (the full stop is part of the name) is Steven Edwards' flagship, and it has been the default serious fine-dining room in Brighton and Hove since it opened in 2016. Edwards won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2013 and spent three years building the kitchen team and the menu before launching; the restaurant occupies a former bank on Church Road in Hove, fitted out with an open kitchen at the far end and a long linear dining room that seats forty-two.

The cooking is technique-driven modern British, built around tasting menus that use only two main ingredients per course — a deliberate formal constraint that forces precision. The kitchen takes no liberties with spice, which makes the palate-pacing work through five or seven courses unusually clean. Signatures include Edwards' marmite brioche (on the menu since opening), his take on 'dippy egg' (soft-yolked, beef dripping-braised, with a smoked-haddock velouté), and a closing chocolate course built around a single-origin bean he personally sources.

The wine list is tightly edited — about a hundred references with proper Burgundy and Rhône coverage and an excellent English sparkling section (Nyetimber, Hattingley, Gusbourne). The pairing option runs to five or seven glasses and is the intended way through the tasting menu; the non-alcoholic pairing is one of the better thought-through options on the south coast.

Service is formal without being tight — this is a room that has been running seamlessly for ten years, and it shows. The open kitchen gives the evening structure; the Michelin Plate designation (the Guide's 'recommended without a star or Bib' rating) has been consistent for five years, and the betting is that the 2027 Guide is where etch. finally gets its star.

Ten years of tightly-run service, a chef who has been cooking at this level longer than any other in the city, and a tasting menu that will structure a three-hour evening — etch. is the Close-a-Deal room in Hove. The private-dining room at the back of the restaurant holds fourteen and is the best board-dinner option south of London.