Al Nakhl

Had a lovely server who chatted to us all evening and advised us on what food we might like. Didn’t catch her name but she was super helpful and made the experience even nicer.
We got the collection of starters between two of us (the fattoush is so good, would for sure recommend), and were very pleased with the price and quality. My only reservation is that the main dishes were a bit small and plain for the price. If I went again I would probably just get more starters to try and forego a main.

I’m going to agree bang-​on with the first reviewer.
I had a «rich tomato sauce with lamb and okra cooked in it». It was nice. Fine. A little on the greasy side. The rice was pretty fabulous. It’s an OK– if expensiveish– place for a lunch if you’re working on a client site, but it fits in with Brighton’s trend of uninspiring and somewhat blah lunch places.
Which isn’t the worst thing. I’d just like to have something nice besides a sandwich every now and then. This is nice, in the «yes, auntie, your Sunday roast was quite nice» sense.
On the upside, the waitrons were attentive and pleasant.

Wandering slightly purposelessly round Brighton at the weekend, we decided on the spur of the moment to go into Al Nakhl. It’s a large Iranian/​Lebanese/​Persian restaurant cum shisha bar; the restaurant is on the ground floor and upstairs there is an indoor section as well as a large outdoor terrace for the shisha. The waitress that greeted us at the door was very friendly and sweet when I asked if she minded if I just had a look around. Upstairs there were a few guys, quite a few of whom I think were staff, hanging around the bar. We decided to get a melon flavour hubbly-​bubbly and sit out with a Turkish coffee and a Persian tea. It’s worth noting that, although the website claims «on the upper floor we have an outside smoking terrace where you can enjoy Shisha (Hubbly Bubbly) with a traditional Persian tea, Turkish tea, Turkish coffee, a soft drink or perhaps something stronger!!» if you do want a tea or coffee with your shisha you have to go downstairs and order and pay for it separately, because the upstairs bar doesn’t do it. The nice waitress did however bring it up to us. The roof terrace was not terribly atmospheric; it is very basically kitted out with wooden benches covered in burn marks and the hum of an air conditioning unit or something mingling with the cries of the seagulls. They could make a bit more effort to make the outside look nice, a plant or two perhaps, some coloured tiles… admittedly not much they can do about the grey skies and gulls though. The shisha cost £8, the tea and coffee came to £3.50. All in all it was OK, but given that there are similar establishments on the Western Road closer to where I live, I don’t think I would deliberately make the trip out to Al Nakhl.