Food For Friends

Be prepared for a long wait till the food arrives. I waited 50 minutes. And when it finally comes, the portions are small and not satisfying.

Updated from previous review on 2017-01-15

Be aware this restaurant adds a optional service charge to your bill without giving you the option, it appears on your bill as.. Opt Svc CH: We were never given the option, or made aware of it, so added a tip to the bill, in effect paying for service twice. Very underhand and dishonest.

Excellent vegan food but not enough vegan choice.

Food : 5/5 Excellent !
Very tasty, nice presentation. The waitress is very kind. Fast service.

Starter and main we're both very good, but I wasn't as keen on the vegan cheesecake dessert. It was nice but not as nice as I was hoping. Every dish was well presented and service was good.

Lovely food and good value for fine dining. It would be really great if they had a bit more choice for vegans though!

Love this place ,the vegan food they have is amazing but they need more Vegan options. Also they need to provide a vegan pudding. Have seen people walk out because not enough Vegan options .
Updated from previous review on Tuesday November 17, 2015

Updated from previous review on Wednesday November 18, 2015

Bit expensive but the whole experience made it worth the money. Impossible not to tip the super friendly and chatty waitresses!!!

Manages to deliver efficient service, good quality food, great atmosphere, excellent drinks, yet remain unpretentious. Staff are attentive but not overbearing.

Recommend the sharing platter!

Great vegetarian and vegan food in this beautiful modern restaurant. Excellent service, fantastic vegan desserts. Try the afternoon tea service!

We've tried a couple of times to drop in to F4F but they have always been booked-up. We were lucky today though and had a table at 4pm for a late Sunday dinner.
The food and service were excellent and the portion sizes filling - especially the stuffed aubergine Sunday "roast"; which one of us described as "the most tasty veggie food I've had in a long time".
We will certainly be back.
Three of us had two courses, a couple of drinks and a coffee for about £75.

Both the mushrooms and goat cheese roast, and the open ravioli were very good. Also got to try a nice Chardonnay from Sussex which I haven't had before.

Lovely food but very tiny portions. £42 for 2 mains, bread and a drink. We're now round the corner at the chip shop filling ourselves up!

amazing food and drinks. was visiting for the Vegfest and although it was busy the food out fast and service was great.

Firstly we were offered water with the food. They should make you aware that it's not table water and it' at a price. The food was delicious and the portion size was adequate for us but if you're expecting a plate full then you'll surely be disappointed. We were shown to a table next to where the coats are hung. As the restaurant became busier more coats were hung and then a couple of inconsiderates gave no thought to their coats hanging inches from our food. Having eaten the main and with some of the starter left that we were going to pick at over drinks and a coat sleeve in the water was enough to see us off. I complained to the manager but she was only interested in knocking off the cost of the water. During that conversation she kept deflecting the conversation telling me how great the seating and the food was. She must have thought she was talking to a pleb. No respect for customers....what a shame as the food is ok

I was here as part of a big group and we had a vegan platter. Food was excellent, really good and varied vegan choices but quantity was disappointing. Even with deserts it wasn't really enough. Go here but order plenty

If you're wanting to splash out on a fancy meal, I'd go for Terre a Terre rather than Food for Friends - it was nice, but not as special or impressive. The sharing plate for starters is good, and the curried dishes are nicely spiced. I had been really looking forward to the arancini for dessert, but they weren't as good as I'd expected. Nice, but not mind-blowing.

Our second visit to this establishment and we were a little disappointed. The prices have gone up and the menu has shrunk. First visit a few months ago was amazing I fact we visited twice. This time around just the one. Food again though is wonderful.

We had Sunday dinner at Food For Friends. We had to wait a short while for a table, as it was so busy! My other half and I shared the Mezze (the Vegan option version) to start, he had the stuffed marinated aubergine, and I had the coconut curry, for the main, which was delicious. I couldn't finish my main (I got my other half to, as I hate seeing food wasted!!), so we skipped dessert.

Had a light lunch here, a Mezze platter, shared with my partner. Bread and accompanying sundried tomato dip was super moreish, I did slightly wish there was more of it, but then I'm a bread fiend. The Mezze was gorgeous, a lovely balance of flavours, one of the salads had a dressing that was a bit on the sweet side for me, but again, that's probably just a personal preference. We certainly demolished the whole thing, the spring rolls stick out in my mind as especially tasty. Service was good too, very courteous, and we had some beautiful chocolate truffles for dessert, which is usually exactly what I want! Yay!

I came here for dinner one night whilst visiting Brighton and thoroughly enjoyed the set menu. I had the sweet tofu pockets for a starter, was blown away by the delicious crispy tofu warm salad with mango and cashews for the main, and finally coconut arancini for dessert. It was definitely on the pricey end of my budget, but extremely high quality. Highly recommended!

A delight for a weary traveller, food for friends was welcoming, warm and friendly. The food was among the best presented and full of flavour I have come across on my nearly 50 years of being a vegetarian. It's only a shame I live so far away. I will definitely return when I am back in Brighton.

Had an awesome experience here last Friday night.
Service was great, friendly and so accommodating to my 'asking a million question'. Food is clearly labelled, vegan, gluten free, nuts etc.
We ate a curry dish with rice. Was absolutely delicious and tasty!
Presentation was top notch if you like your food a bit more fancy.
Will definitely return on my next trip to Brighton.

The prices seem fair. It's not advertising itself as a cheap cafe. The prices feel aligned with what you get.

we went on a satuday night and service was a little hectic - 15 min wait for our (booked) table. But service was friendly. A fair choice of vegan -we had soup and a tofu pocket for starters and some sort of stuffed aubergine and mango with sheep cheese warm salad for main. The set menu (£19.95 was quite a good deal as they are on the pricey side). Only one vegan pudding option on the set menu - aranchi with mango 3 ways, the sorbet was nice, but was less sure about the slightly like a donut, but with rice pudding inside, aranchi.

Pretentious. Food is good. Made me wait for table as did not possess "reservation". Many tables were empty, despite place being full of masculine women serving and eating. (What ever happened to femininity?)

Portions are spartan. Had full cloves of garlic in food - I avoid garlic and the way it makes people smell. Prices a little high. Not sure if I'd recommend unless you just need some variety like I did when I decided to come here.

This was one of the first fully vegetarian restaurants I ever went to (many years back) and it set the bar very high. I've since eaten here many times and have never been disappointed. Even my otherwise fussy omnivore friends loved it. Great for either a smart dinner or a casual lunch, friendly staff and a great atmosphere. Not the cheapest place to go to, but they always have a reasonably priced set menu.

Now has the abience of a smart restaurant rather than the more informal approach of most vegetarian cafes. The food has some interesting and well balance flavours. If you are looking for up-market dining which happens to be vegetarian, this is the place to go. I would rate the cooking as a slightly ahead of Terre a Terre, which is also excellent. A good place to take non-vegetarian friends.

The prices are a bit than most vegetarian restaurants, but didn't seem unreasonable for the quality. Some portions were variable - I have a salad based meal which was generous portion, but a friend had gnocchi which arrived as an artistically arranged, but rather empty looking plate.

Overall, this is a great place and highlight of a visit to Brighton. Good for special occasions.
Updated from previous review on Saturday September 21, 2013

Updated from previous review on Saturday September 21, 2013

Such delicious food, particularly the coconut desert which is heavenly! Beautiful venue. Have eaten here for lunch and dinner and both menus are great

Highly expensive, small portions A wine bar selling veggie fine food ie small portions, Putting a candle on the table is not a replacement for value for money. Chips there are lovely. Pleasant service throughout.

We were impressed with this restaurant. There were sufficient vegan options to make a choice, and a bit more upmarket than the vege cafes and Indian restaurants in Brighton that we have been frequenting. Food and atmosphere was great. Mains were about 12 to 13 pounds.

In terms of location it is almost perfect. You get a real sense of the life of one of Brightons most popular areas and with that in mind it is possible just to sit and people watch. Although there are some more intimate parts of the restaurant too if the person your with is more interesting.

The food is normally seasonal and therefore the menu changes 4-5 times a year. The food is of a good quality but although the place is 100% vegetarian it does not supply a stunning selection of vegan options and really they prefer to rely on the vegan option (VO) route. However there are vegan choices or (VO) on all the parts of the menu.

The staff are always very friendly, knowledgeable and the overall service is some of the best I have encountered at any vegetarian restaurant.

This is a popular place for young couples in the evenings and also attracts a large number of omnivores so pre-booking is essential most nights. However during the daytimes on most days there is usually a table available even though it is still busy.

Overall if you are looking for somewhere for nice evening out in Brighton and you don't want to spend an absolute fortune this is one of your best bets.

In the early days this was a self serve & brimming with students. Now refined cuisine and although the menu is not extensive it does not disappoint - & accessible to meat eaters as well as plant lovers. I would rate it as better than terre-a-terre, which is the better known veg. restaurant just down the road. This is less pretentious and the food is more balanced.

This is a nice location, with good food, but I don't like the atmosphere all that much. The waiting staff seems to have a bit of a superior attitude, and the place doesn't have a great feel to it. But it can't be denied that the food I had was good, and you get a nice view of the cosy street outside.

The ginger beer glass was garnished with a strip of fresh ginger - nice. I also enjoyed the lentil-peanut soup; tofu pockets stuffed with rice, served with seaweed and enoki mushrooms, soy sauce, pickled ginger; and a side of garlic sautéed kale. All absolutely delicious. Nicely presented also.

Places like FFF act like they think the only people that order vegan dishes are vegans, as if making vegan food means no-one else can eat it when actually their cheesy, buttery-for-the-sake-of-it or eggy stuff excludes vegans and the infrequency of their menu changes means we only bother to eat there once a year or so as otherwise we run out of options. It just seems a bit silly to me, as if this business just doesn't want my money.
Anywhere that puts together an Xmas menu with a non-vegan Xmas pudding is just not thinking!
Shame, as the food is quite nice. I had a gorgeous vegan chocolate tart with hazelnutty base last time I went.

Have been to FFF a few times now & food is great & quite diverse. Staff are great & well informed. Would recommend & gives me hope that places like this are actually thinking 'out of the box' as far as vegetarianism.

Whenever I go to Food for Friends I am disappointed that there aren't more vegan options yet I would still say it's the best restaurant in Brighton. The food is great, imaginative & well presented. Also excellent service.

I consider this restaurant as a gourmet restaurant because of the fantastic food they serve and the way they present it. As a vegan, I really appreciate this kind of restaurant.

I have eaten at FFF lots over the years and had both good and bad experiences. They took a while to catch on to the idea that vegan is a (pure) form of vegetarianism, rather than just some weirdness. So planning a trip to Brighton in December I checked out FFFs Xmas menu, only to find it has merely ONE vegan 'option' for each course, whereas dairy-eaters get THREE. So I emailed them my comments, making comparisons to Terre at Terre, which is the other main Brighton veggie restaurant and where I've also eaten a lot. There were good and bad comments in the mail and I expected a sensible response to my points. Instead I received a totally defensive, quite unpleasant email from the co-owner, Ramin Mostowfi, accusing me of trying to create bad vibes between the two restaurants and ignoring my points about vegan options altogether. I don't know what their problem is but I'm not going to be eating there again. Shame because I really liked their choc torte.

Have been eating at Food for Friends for a number of years. The menu has vegan options but it doesn't change that often so are limited to the same few choices. The food is always good and portion size is reasonable, however it is a little pricey. We have always particularly enjoyed the desserts here and recommend the afternoon tea offer where you get a choice of teas and a cake for 4.95; there is always vegan scones as a choice which are wonderful!! Can get busy at weekends so advise to book. Service can vary between friendly and helpful to disappointing as there have been two occasions where we were forgotten. This meant we were kept waiting a long time before our food arrived with no offer of compensation and barely an apology. Despite this, Food for Friends is a very good vegetarian restaurant and worth a visit.

i love this place i regularly take a drive every couple of weeks for the tahini dips, and desserts. they recently changed their menu and vegan choice is limited. bring back the butternut squash filo and its my favourite veggie eatery. lovely staff and nice atomosphere all the time just like brighton. good quality food honestly priced.

We went here for lunch recently, about the fifth time we've been here, and though it was pleasant enough, especially the vegetables in chick pea batter, it wasn't that special compared with what I've had in other Brighton restaurants. The menu choiceS for vegans were limited and there was very little on the dessert menu for me. I really am not inclined to be impressed with a few scoops of vegan ice cream or a vegetable crumble (both of which can be made very easily at home). I was also, after ordering drinks, taken aback when after the waitress asked if we wanted water as well (thinking she meant a jug of water for free) she then brought us expensive bottled water. They are clearly trying to make money out of selling water along with the other drinks you buy. Overall, I'd go there again if other places were busy but beware the water trick.

I love FFF. I've been coming here for years, even though I live in London. It's well worth the visit. All my non-vegan family love it here too (including my 90 year old grandfather who still thinks I can eat chicken - despite my 20 years of veganism!!! Bless - he even said if he could eat his dinner there everyday he could give up meat! Now that is praise indeed!)

The staff are lovely and although they can get super busy, they still serve you with a smile. Sometimes they are a little slow; would suggest to the management that they get a few more people on at peak times.

The menu is a little small, and it would be nice to see it grow. The quality is great and would definately recommend it to others. Enjoy!!!

Hi I love FFF and go there quite a lot - all the food is gorgeous. I went this week and we had the bread basket and the dips with pitta bread to start, I had the Blue Cheese/Mushroom Risotto Cakes for main and my husband had the Sweet Potato Curry and for dessert we shared the AMAZING Molton Chocolate Pudding. All completely fabulous and a few nice cocktails to wash it all down with!! But PLEASE can we have a new menu. They have added a couple of new things but some of the things on there have been there for AGES! AND they used to have a 'specials' - well there was no specials on this week to choose from! Although I am having a whinge - it truly is a fabulous restaurant and my favourite in Brighton. Actually its my favourite restaurant full stop. And don't bother with Terre a Terre, the food is poncy, overpriced and the waiters are up their own backside. I tried to go for lunch, they were unspeakably rude when I asked for the menu so I voted with my feet and flounced out!!!

I enjoyed a veggie breakfast here with veggie sausages on mashed potato with great wedges on the side.

Nice ambience here and the prices are ok too.

I went in very excoited after reading such good reviews, it seemed like a lovely posh place, but one look at the interesting menue i soon realised i could afford the food, so for me to expensive i couldnt try the food, booo!! i hope in the future il be able to try them!!

I have always had great service here and there is always something for a hungry vegan to scoff down! It does get rather crouded and it can be rather noisy. Good selection of vegan food and would always recomend it to anyone (vegan or not) as a great place to eat!

With so many positive reviews here, we went there with a very high expectation. The food is delicious, looked good as well and the service is rather good. There is a live Jazz band on Tuesday night and the atmosphere is good. But with the price we paid, we would prefer to go to some other equally good or better restaurant.

Went to Brighton for the weekend and booked FFF a couple of weeks before hand - good job we did as it was very busy on Sat night and they were turning people who hadn't booked away. The staff were very friendly and knowledgable about the menu. I won't go into what we ordered as the menu will no doubt change but I can say that the food, from nibbles to dessert was excellent. My non veggie girlfriend was very impressed, which must be good! The food was presented very well and was tasty and filling. I usually steer clear of completely veggie restaurants as they can be too earthy - you know the sort, mung bean and alfalfa salads and the like. FFF has a varied and appetising menu with a good selection of wines on offer. I was happy with the bill too. Highly recommended.

Will always have a special place in my heart for FFF. Love it, love it, love it. Can get a little busy during peak times but the place is great.

As a veggie, I still enjoy all the trimmings of a Sunday lunch without the meat. However, many restaurants seem to have decided that we would prefer lasagne, stroganoff, curry or something similar. So, it was with great delight that I sat down in FFF to a fully loaded Sunday Roast. The meal consisted of a mushroom strudel, roast potatoes, parsnip, broccoli, carrot and swede mash and yorkshire pudding all covered in a lovely port wine gravy. It was great. The rest of the menu looked pretty good too, so I'll be back there soon to sample it.

I love this place, although the menu needs to change on a more fequent basis - Great choice of vegan food. Can get really busy - so it must be doing something right!

This is the first time i have been there since the refit and must agree with others that the hippy, community feel has now gone. However all is not lost as it has moved into the real restaurant arena where food, service and quality are the main focus. I am a vegan and i have read that there is lack of vegan choices. In my experience vegans will always a limited selection but this place did offer a few which is fine by me.

The food we ordered (4 vegans) was good quality and plenty of it to fill you up. For starters we had gerlic breads, tofu wraps. Our mains were a mixture of squash and cocconut curry plus pan fried rice and veg dish.

The deserts we had were a crumble and a chocolate cheesecake, plus for me a Vegan irish coffee (a first). We had plenty to drink with some beers, vodkas and wine and the bill came to just over £100 which was reasonable for a night out on great vegan food and good service.

Well worth a visit for something a little bit better than cafe style food. I will be going back.

Visited on a Wednesday lunchtime and were surprised/pleased to find the place busy.

The first courses were excellent, the portobello and pinenut pate especially so.

For the second course we ordered the middle eastern platter for two, which was disappointing after such an excellent first course. The stuffed pepper and aubergine curry were bland. Whole thing needed more seasoning.

Overall the service was excellent and menu choices were a cut above the norm. Would definitely recommend a visit.

I do like this place, especially since the refit. It now feels like I am actually going out for dinner to a proper restaurant and the service and food more than matches this.
Sunday lunch was great - a vegan wellington with puy lentils and red cabbage was so good I re-created it at home and it is now one of my staple dishes for friends.
Good value for money, mains being around 8 to 12 pounds and wiht helpful staff and plenty of choice for vegans, this is really a must when in Brighton.

All the people I've spoken to who love this place are big cheese eaters. I went one Saturday with an open mind. They had no vegan options, and I was offered museli. I said I'd make do with tea, and the same person I'd just asked about vegan options then put cows' milk in my tea! Maybe they have clueless Saturday staff, but I won't be going back.