Hotel du Vin & Bistro - Brighton

Sadly the staff were too focused on setting up for breakfast than getting our order right. There were only 3 sets of customers at dinner. One had their bill wrong; my drinks never arrived and the noise of the waiters setting up made the ambience poor. 4 people serving too. We won’t be returning

Although the manageress

Appalling service, mediocre food. I would strongly advise never eating here.

We had a lunch booking on the hottest day of the year. We arrived at the restaurant reception desk to be told "go outside and my colleagues will seat you". There were no staff in the courtyard but we found our table. After 10 minutes waiting I had to specifically ask a waitress for menus. After another 10 minutes I had to go inside to ask for service. Nothing happened. After waiting another five minutes I had to ask again - although the member of staff behind the desk said he couldn't do anything because he was "waiting for something". Eventually a waiter arrived to take our food order. Of course, I then had to ask for the wine list and drinks menu, but at least some water was delivered to the table. How can this experience best be characterised? The hotel was scruffy, the table was filthy, most of the chairs had no cushions, the staff were rude, amateurish and totally indifferent to our experience. And when we asked for the bill the waiter said "what did you have?". A bunch of first year hospitality students could have done better. It's hardly surprising that the restaurant was mostly empty - which emphasises the truly useless service. I have NEVER experienced anything this bad in the UK.

Excellent restaurant- not sure whether the open table booking was actually registered at the restaurant but they got us a table . Great food and service

Lovely setting, delicious food and wonderful service. ,

Faultless service makes all the difference ! 110% recommend

We celebrated my husband’s 60th birthday here over lunch with his parents. We were made most welcome and attentively served throughout our meal. There were not many in on the Wednesday before the Easter weekend but three other tables filled up during our time there. The decor is smart French and the napiery crisp white linen. Our food was nicely presented, although the delicious French Onion Soup maybe have had too much cheese on top, and full of flavour. My husband’s Dover Sole and my Dressed Crab were particularly good. We drank Verdicchio; perfect with fish. A very pleasant lunch in comfortable surroundings complemented by excellent service.

We visited for lunch whilst celebrating our anniversary. Beautiful hotel and bar area, the food portions are extremely large and the service was excellent. The only downside is that we waited quite long for our food to arrive.

Xmas Eve dinner. Seated 20 minutes later than when we booked. (21h00) Service inattentive and aloof. Turkey Ballatine fine but sauce was too rich and overpowering and vegetables hard and cold. Bouef Bourgignon good but swimming in sauce and overpowering. Meal quality and service did not live up to expevtations, surroundings or previous visits. Would not recommend for Xmas!

The food was great, particularly parfait and hake.

Charged extra drinks on us that we have not ordered, would expect service a bit better for the price that we have paid.

Good food let down by some absolutely terrible table service.
Sat down and didn’t get asked for a drink for 30 min. Drink turned up 45 min later. Second drink- ordered and turned up 45 min later after I moshed twice. I wouldn’t mind but the bar staff were too busy gossiping and sitting around. Food was good but ruined by the absolute terrible staff.
I felt for the waiters as they were rushing around everywhere.
This place is understaffed massively.
Read the reviews on trip advisor. It’s not only me that says this. Believe me it really is that bad.

A lovely, elegant setting for a romantic dinner for two. Service was attentive but not overbearing. Food was excellent and cooked to perfection( we chose the beef bourguignon) and nicely presented.
Highly recommended for an special occsssion.

Pre-concert meal with friends was let down by the aubergine and halloumi bake - charred halloumi and undercooked aubergine for two of us. Disappointing as all of us had experienced previously high standard at Hotel du Vin. Bill promised to be adjusted but then presented to me without adjustment. Must try harder.

I took my wife for a romantic meal in a historic hotel with fine food. The food is delicious and properly prepared. The ambience is nice to look at and the lighting subdued for our romantic date. It's worth a trip to the toilet to go downstars on the iron spiral staircase end look into the wine celler.

Very disappointing. My 500g steak was about 300g of fat and gristle and even then the meat was bland and tasteless. Very disappointing having eaten here before and enjoyed it. Over-priced and mediocre in the extreme. Won't be returning.

I had high expectations and we were looking forward to a special treat. We arrived early and the staff were very accommodating and we were quickly seated. The staff were nice but the service was not there. The tables weren't ready no butter or bread until we asked and then they were a long time coming. The octopus meat ball were delicious but the grilled prawns were past their best - soft and mushy in texture. We all ordered form the grill but the steaks were nothing special and the chips were cold and tasted like oven fries. We ordered sides but they came late that is after the mains were served. The haricot beans were not trimmed - just lazy in my book. I am not sure how they were cooked some were hared and some soft.
We opted for desserts a chocolate bombe impressive presentation and delicious and a pear and almond tart not what I expected not enough pear and I couldn't taste the almonds.
At the end of the day disappointment all round nothing in particular but more just not trying hard enough.

Great food and exceptional service fromthe staff. Nothing was too much trouble.

The restaurant refused to honor the reservation I made with Open Table. I will not use Open Table again because its service is not reliable.

Very disappointed the standard of this restaurant has declined.

We received a phone call just before we left for the venue to say that even though our booking was confirmed they were in fact fully booked!

Very nice ambience and good brasserie style food cooked well. A bit pricey overall for what it is

I love this hotel and location, so decided to meet my parents who live in Brighton at the restaurant for a lovely Sunday lunch so we headed down on London. On arrival the restaurant didn't have our booking even thought it was confirmed through Open Table, they told me this happens all the time . It took 15 minutes of back and forth to get this sorted and they squeezed us in, and it killed the experience the table was right by the kitchen door and we ended up having to keep moving to let people past, it was a shame. The food was good but after the problems the experience was marred.

Bering made to feel like this was my fault will prevent me returning again, they have lost a very loyal guest.

The food and the service were excellent. Wine a little pricey but was worth it.

Service was really good. Food was ok but felt a little disappointed as food was fairly bland. Expected more.

I had a confirmed booking from this app however the bistro refused to honour it and could only give me a booking for later on. It was our 19th wedding anniversary and I was looking forward to a romantic dinner without the kids. I was really disappointed as the bistro looked lovely. Luckily we were able to get a booking at The House nearby. Excellent food there.

Whenever we come to Brighton we stay or go for lunch here. Lovely escape from the hussle & bussle of Brighton. Close to everything, great friendly staff, great rooms and good food, a boutique standard for what good.

I had my entire family for Easter lunch and everyone enjoyed themselves. Waiters and bar staff were friendly and appeared to enjoy serving us. One of the best lunches in Brighton.

The premises themselves are lovely, the waiters professional and the food is properly cooked. That's the positives.

With the exception of the French onion soup which was pretty good all the the food including dishes were completely tasteless. We eat out a lot in Brighton at many different restaurants but it was our first time here. I saw the prices and thought wow, this must be good and in this price bracket it certainly should be. You can't charge this highly for food that has very little flavour.

We don't mind paying for good food, in fact we ordered a nice bottle of champagne (£66) in anticipation. This was poured at room temperature and when we mentioned it to the waitress she just made an apologetic gesture and did nothing about it. It felt like they we're iterated that we'd mentioned it to be honest.

Very disappointing.

The restaurant has all the qualities of a formal restaurant without the pretentious atmosphere and staff, we really enjoyed our visit and never felt pressured or intimidated by the staff or our surroundings.

We had 4 starters and 4 different main courses. All the dishes were accompanied by various sauces which had no bite/flavour to them. All were tasteless ,eg, my tartare sauce was like cream with no taste whatsoever.
My daughter who was treating us to the meal sent back her main course as it was not beef bourguignon as any one of us knew,

been to hotel du vin a quite a few times now,its generally good,we opted for the new chrismas menu apparently new on that night,all very good...although i think every thing about the place should be more simplified...especially the wine menu...also the staff who seemed really nice need a lot more knowledge and training!...shame this hotel could with a bit more effort be excellent,at the moment its a bit hit and miss.

An overall average experience, good food, good service. I expected a little more. I was a bit disappointed as the waitress advised us to order side orders when the portions of the meal were enough and we did not require any side orders.

Overall the meal was fairly good but one meal the steak was virtually cold and the pork was a litle dry.
Dissapointed only green veg was spinch. Having checked the web site that day was surprised to see the champagne was £7 more per bottle.

It is a four course lunch consisting of a fresh soup, French Market table, a main course, and desert or cheese. At £25- the value for money cannot be matched and considering the Sunday competition in Brighton is patchy, the standard of food and service that they strive to achieve is exceptional and certainly rivals anything I have had at South Lodge or Ockenden.

The soup is fresh and hot, the French Market table consists of creamy oysters, mixed charcuterie, salmon, pates and salads and you can have as much as you want but leave room for your main course and there are many to choose from! We all had super-rare beef that was plentiful, served with a mound of spuds and loads of veg. Perfectly cooked. Then the scummy desert and time to groan

They claimed they had not got the booking from Toptable, so we had to wait for an hour. Also we were told that this was the second time it had occurred this weekend.

Went there for a nice family diner, birthday celebration, after we had a very good experience a year ago. A very busy Saturday evening, but still the evening went very smoothly. The main elements of each course were excellent, especially the steaks that were to die for. There were however a few small attention to details missing, which caused it not to be a very good experience; rock hard butter with the bread, French fries which were clearly underdone and not enough time between the starter and the main course (only a few minutes, while we were clearly not in a hurry). We probably still will go back there, but it is probably wise to instruct the staff about the things that matter (to you).

Brilliant venue, excellent food, value for money and more staff than you can shake a stick at :-)

The venue itself is fabulous with a great area to sit and drinks with friends prior to eating. Unfortunately the food was at best so-so. Nothing particularly wrong with it but not so great on flavour and the wine (a Margaux for £56) wasn't very good at all. Hints of flavour but again to excite.

I highly recommend Sunday brunch... excellent value for money, unhurried but attentive service....

The French Market Table (second course after soup starter) was indeed lavish and as described - "An exciting choice of fresh seafood, crustacea, charcuterie, pâtés, rilletes and a selection of salads, vegetables and freshly baked artisan breads" - YUM!

Everything was beautifully cooked, filling and tasty - we didn't eat for the rest of the day!

We booked a table for six at the Hotel du Vin in Brighton for a celebration meal following our daughter's graduation from the University of Sussex. It was a ringing endorsement of our choice when we found the entire English Department in the courtyard having a drink as we came in! The ambience was lively, the food good and the service attentive and efficient.