The Goulty At The Mercure Brighton

Same food (from same supplier) as Wetherspoons but more than twice the price. Not a menu for an evening meal more suitable for lunch.

We had a special offer so we thought we give this place a try. Unfortunately the food was just ok but over priced with a limited selection, the service wasn't great the decor was not inspiring. We wouldn't go back again.

We dined there on a one night hotel break (the hotel was fine, by the way) and since our stay included a two course meal in the Brasserie, we obviously took advantage. We were placed next to a radiator, with the ambient temperature in the...restaurant already around 24 degrees, at a guess! We edged our table away from the wall. The starters were fair enough and portions were good. However, we both opted for the ranch burger for our main and to say it was disappointing is an understatement. Firstly, we had to ask for the onion rings it was supposed to come with which is a bit shoddy but then, the burger itself left a lot to be desired. It had been totally over cooked and, as any decent chef knows, when you over cook compressed, minced beef, it begins to take on the texture of rubber. Burger is no light bite' I grant you but this one was Heavy with a capital H. Disappointing to say the least.

We ate at the Brasserie in the hotel for convenience on our first night, I had a burger and my partner had fish and chips however the dressing and presentation was superb,

We sat down and ordered drinks in the bar at 8.30pm, we ordered our food 5-10 minutes later; 2 burgers with ‘chunky chips’. Over half an hour after placing our order, the male bar staff member came over and explained that they could only do...one beef burger. I didn’t see this as much of a problem, I asked if they could just swap the beef for a chicken breast and that would be fine, his English didn’t seem great and a very efficient female staff member came over to help. After repeating my suggestion, she said she would let the kitchen know. Another half an hour later, cutlery and napkins were brought to our table and a further 10 minutes later, the female staff member came over. She was very apologetic, explaining that the kitchen hadn’t understood the order and I would be getting a half roast chicken instead of the chicken breast. Over hungry and tired after a long day and travelling I just said ‘fine’, we then asked if they could make up a tray as we’d prefer to eat in our room as we had waited so long. The female staff member had offered not to charge us for the chicken, as it wasn’t what was ordered, although we were planning to use the taste card offer anyway- we were beyond the point of bargaining! Credit to the female member of staff who really did seem to be trying her best, but the whole experience was a joke. So at 10pm, after almost an hour and a half of waiting, we found our food to be a real disappointment. The one burger was ok, but nothing special. The ‘half chicken’ was a very small specimen, hardly any meat on it and strangely looked/tasted like it had been roasted and deep fried all at once. The side salad was limp and only cheered up by the carved tomato ‘flower’ plonked on top. The chips on both plates were cold and in no way were of the ‘chunky’ variety described on the menu. They were fries, similar size to what you may get in KFC! In summary, I wouldn’t have been impressed by the food if it had arrived in a timely fashion and I was even less impressed after having waited so long for it! On a side note; The following day we found a couple of food serving pubs, one in each of the side streets either side of the hotel (The Bedford The Lion Lobster), with hindsight, I rather wish we had ventured out in the rain to eat in one of these!