Furna

Furna opened in November 2022 on New Road in the North Laine — the pretty arcaded parade directly opposite the Royal Pavilion and its gardens. It is chef Dave Mothersill's first solo venture after a decade of senior kitchen positions across London and the south coast. The restaurant has steadily climbed the Brighton rankings and is currently listed in the Michelin Guide as Selected.

The menu runs a nine-course tasting menu as the headline sequence, with a shorter five-course set lunch (£40) and an à la carte option available Tuesday through Saturday. The cooking is modern European with a clear seasonal ingredient focus — Mothersill has strong long-term relationships with South Coast growers, and the kitchen sources heritage tomatoes, wet-aged beef, and Rye Bay fish directly from producers rather than through wholesalers. Signature plates include a scallop tartare with brown-butter hollandaise, a lamb course with blackened aubergine, and a chocolate dessert that changes with each seasonal menu.

The dining room seats forty-four across a single ground-floor space. The interior is warm and modern — pale-wood floors, linen-upholstered banquettes, a long open kitchen running the length of one wall — and the acoustics work well even at full capacity. The wine list is short (about eighty references) but ambitiously curated: a strong natural-wine section, careful Burgundy coverage, and the sommelier's evening pacing is genuinely excellent.

Furna works well for larger parties — the room takes group bookings of up to twenty on the larger-table configuration, and the private dining room at the back of the restaurant holds twelve. Friday and Saturday dinner services are regularly fully booked ten days out; Thursday dinner and weekday lunch are the easier sittings.

Nine courses, a kitchen in its stride three years after opening, a room that holds twenty comfortably, and a central location directly opposite the Royal Pavilion — Furna is the Birthday pick in Brighton. The tasting-menu structure gives the evening natural momentum, the kitchen can pace a larger group without losing form, and the New Road location makes the post-dinner walk through the Lanes one of the prettiest urban night-walks in the south of England.