The Set

The Verdict

If you have been to The Set before, you already know the drill: arrive by 6.45pm, surrender to the menu, and leave three hours later having eaten around 15 courses that had no business being as coherent as they were. The question on a return visit is whether the formula holds. Based on a 4.7 Google rating across 358 reviews and a Michelin Plate (2024), the answer is yes. This is one of the tightest operations in Brighton, and it earns its £££ price tag by doing something genuinely difficult: running a high-ambition tasting menu out of a seven-table room with a team of four.

Book this for a special occasion, a date, or any dinner where the experience itself is the point. Do not book it if you want flexibility, a la carte choice, or a short evening. If you are weighing it against etch. by Steven Edwards, the other ££££ option in Brighton, The Set is the more intimate and atmospheric choice; etch. offers more formal polish. For most special-occasion diners, The Set wins on personality.

The Space

By day, 50 Preston Road operates as Café Rust. By 7pm, the cake stands are cleared, a red neon sign goes up, and the room transforms into something closer to a supper club with serious cooking credentials. Exposed plaster walls, parquet flooring, bare-topped tables, and a pumping soundtrack give the space a low-key energy that is easy to mistake for casual until the food arrives. The address is on a stretch of Preston Road that does nothing to prime expectations, but once the hand-carved grey door closes behind you, the outside world genuinely recedes.

The atmosphere is leading described as late-night dinner party rather than formal restaurant. The sound level is part of the experience: this is not a quiet room, and it is not designed to be. For a date or a celebration, that energy works in its favour. For a business dinner where you need to talk through documents, look elsewhere — try Gingerman or Flint House for a quieter register.

The Food

Head chef Dan Kenny runs a menu built around what he calls big-flavoured, umami and fat-led food. That framing matters because it explains why the menu moves in unexpected directions: Japanese-inflected seafood dishes sit next to beef béarnaise, a tom yum broth appears as the savoury closer, and a pig's trotter croquette opens proceedings. The through-line is flavour intensity, not geographic consistency. Japan carries the heaviest influence — tempura, short sushi servings, dashi-based broths , but the kitchen is not running a fusion concept so much as a personal one.

Around 15 courses over roughly three hours is the standard format. Every table is served simultaneously, which means the pacing is set by the kitchen, not by you. That communal rhythm is part of what makes the room feel like a supper club. The wine list is short relative to the ambition of the cooking, and bottle prices climb steeply, which makes the wine pairing , featuring bottles not on the main list , the smarter option if you plan to drink well. For Brighton dining at this level, the value holds up; comparable tasting menus in London at equivalent ambition (see Restaurant Gordon Ramsay or similarly credentialled rooms) cost considerably more. Within the UK's broader tasting-menu tier, venues such as L'Enclume or Moor Hall operate at a different scale, but The Set is not positioning itself in that conversation , it is a sharper, smaller, more personal proposition.

The Late-Night Angle

Three hours at the table means you will finish well past 10pm on most evenings. The Set does not operate as a late-night drop-in , the 7pm communal start time is fixed , but as a destination for an evening that runs late by design, it delivers. The atmosphere after 9pm, when the kitchen's pace quickens through the dessert courses and the room's soundtrack fills in the gaps, is closer to a good private party than a conventional restaurant experience. If you are building a full Brighton evening, plan dinner here as the main event and skip a separate bar booking; the experience is absorbing enough to anchor the night. For bars worth adding before or after, consult our full Brighton and Hove bars guide.

Booking and Logistics

Booking difficulty is rated Hard. With only seven tables and a fixed communal sitting, availability is tight at all times. Book a minimum of three to four weeks out for a weekend table; weeknight slots may open with shorter notice but should not be assumed. There is no walk-in option in any practical sense , the format does not accommodate it. The 6.45pm arrival time for pre-dinner drinks and the 7pm start are firm; arriving late disrupts the communal pacing for the entire room, so treat the time as a hard commitment. Check the venue's current booking channels directly, as phone and online availability can vary. For a broader view of what Brighton's dining scene offers at different price points and formats, see our full Brighton and Hove restaurants guide.

If you are travelling to Brighton specifically for dinner at The Set, pair the trip with a hotel booking using our Brighton and Hove hotels guide. Preston Road is north of the central Lanes area; factor in travel time if you are staying near the seafront.

Pearl Picks Nearby

For other strong options in the city, Furna, Embers, and 64 Degrees each offer a different entry point into Brighton's more ambitious cooking. 64 Degrees in particular shares The Set's counter-dining DNA and is easier to book. Internationally, if the supper-club-meets-fine-dining format appeals, Frantzén in Stockholm and Maison Lameloise in Chagny represent what this format looks like at maximum scale. Closer to home, Hand and Flowers in Marlow and Gidleigh Park in Chagford offer different takes on high-ambition cooking outside London. For local wine and experience pairings, see our Brighton and Hove wineries guide and experiences guide.

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