The 14 Best Places to Drink in Brighton

The revolving oak door that greets you once belonged to a hotel, and it still carries itself accordingly. Inside, the old mock-Tudor pub has been opened up into a roomy gastropub with Chesterfield armchairs up front and a dining room that knows its place behind. The wine list leans into Sussex sparkling, with Ridgeview among them and over twenty pours by the glass, plus a compact cocktail menu for anyone not in a wine mood.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide
2. Michelin Guide Selected Restaurant

1. Difford's Guide 4.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Two giant underlit crystals flank the entrance, which tells you everything about the ambition level before you've ordered a drink. This hotel bar inside MyHotel Brighton leans hard into the theatrical: a ten-metre copper bar counter, eye-shaped aquariums set into the walls, plasma screens cycling local art, and a terrazzo floor in a shade of blue that has no business being that confident. A lot of rooms try this hard and lose; this one has the bones to carry it.

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 4 stars · Difford's Guide

A nondescript door beside El Mexicano leads up an unpromising staircase to this small first-floor bar in the North Lanes. The bare floors and magnolia walls are easy enough to forgive, but the vinyl banquettes and oddly shaped mirrors are working hard against the room. What saves it is a large bowed window with a view straight over Royal Pavilion Park, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the decor budget.

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

Polished dark wood, potted palms, and magnolia walls give this colonial-themed cocktail bar a warm, unhurried feel. Browns Bar sits a couple of doors down from the original Browns restaurant on Duke Street, part of a long-running UK chain with Brighton roots. It's the kind of place where nobody is trying to impress anyone, which is either a relief or a disappointment depending on your Thursday.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

A bowed Georgian window looks straight out over the Brighton seafront, which is a fine place to put a hotel bar. Drake's sits on the ground floor of the boutique hotel, a knocked-through room of olive-grey leather tub chairs and low tables arranged around a black marble bar. It's neat to the point of feeling slightly staged, but the premium spirits are well chosen and the quiet is genuine on a stretch of coast that rarely offers any.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

Antique chamber pots hang from the ceiling, which tells you most of what you need to know about this pub's decorating philosophy. An old-school institution tucked into the Lanes, the Cricketers dressed itself in Chesterfield banquettes, burgundy flock wallpaper, and scarlet velvet drapes long before "Victorian" became an aesthetic choice. Graham Greene set a scene here in Brighton Rock, so the literary pilgrims share the room with everyone else who just wanted a pint.

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

A serious beer pub on an unglamorous stretch of the one-way system heading toward Brighton Station, neighbors including several sex shops. The Evening Star has been around forever and the cellar once housed a microbrewery that grew into Dark Star Brewing Company, whose beers still pour here. Come for the cask ales, not the surroundings.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide

1. Difford's Guide 3 stars · Difford's Guide

Reclaimed church pews and maroon walls set the mood in this Victorian corner pub, which spends its days as a quiet local serving food and coffee before steadily shifting gears toward a DJ-led night. The mix of office workers, pre-clubbers, gay and straight regulars somehow coalesces into a single collective energy that lands the moment you walk in. Mismatched furniture, candles, the faint suggestion of gastro-pub ambition, and a party by midnight.

1. Difford's Guide 3.5 stars · Difford's Guide