Lodestar Cafe - Brighton and Hove

My family and I dined at Lodestar twice during the Christmas 2018 holiday, and it was a fantastic experience. The restaurant is located right on the waterfront, offering a beautiful view. The coffee was excellent, and although the lunch menu was limited, the dishes we ordered were very enjoyable. The service was quick, and both the salmon and cod fishcakes were delicious. The chips were also fantastic. The only small complaint was that my daughter felt her cheese panini could have been more melted. Overall, it was a great dining experience.

The restaurant has a built-in customer base, but that doesn't mean the management can afford to be complacent. With competition around, they should step up their game. While the tea was good, the Smartie cookie was just average. Some improvement and effort could really make a difference for them.

We stopped at this restaurant on a chilly Sunday morning for a hot drink. I ordered a latte and my wife had tea. Although the latte was decent, we were disappointed to find a dead insect floating in the tea. It seems that proper hygiene is lacking at this establishment. We will not be returning.

Well, what can I say. Visited here on a relatively quiet Sunday morning for coffee and breakfast. The coffee was ok but as for the breakfast- it never arrived! There were 2 orders in front of ours and as it was a nice sunny day it was quite pleasant sat outside people watching. We had drank our coffee by the time the other 2 orders were brought out so we knew ours would be out soon. However, 30 minutes later we were still waiting and by this time I noticed other orders had been served. I asked where our order was and was told ‘I will look into it’ . 10 minutes later we were told unfortunately our order hadn’t gone through to the kitchen so would we like another coffee while they made our breakfast. This was obviously taken up on. The server who brought our coffees out said that he was told to ‘bring them over quickly ‘ which was the only thing that did arrive ‘quickly’. After further orders were brought out and we still hadn’t received ours, we asked for our money back as we had been waiting over an hour. We even had to tell the person behind the counter how much of a refund we should get as it seemed basic maths was beyond them. The service was extremely poor and I would advise against stopping here unless you have a whole day to waste chasing an order that will probably never arrive. How difficult was it to ensure our order was the next out after it was found our order hadn’t made it to the kitchen. To be honest I still don’t think the order made it past the till!

We stopped here for a stop and drink to enjoy the scenery and beautiful day. There is seating inside and outside (comfy chairs). Relaxing atmosphere, good value and friendly.