Brasserie Pascal

Good menu and wine list. Service excellent and you can enjoy your meal without being pressured to finish !

Pascal is a lovely little bistro/​café/​bar just into Hove, and a great location to sit with a glass of quality wine and while the evening away. The food is expensive and great quality, but so is everything else here. It’s part of the La Fourchette, and so the expectations are summarily high. There’s nothing wrong with this kind of quality and prices, I’d say it was perfect for Hove, but it isn’t good enough to be more than expensive and for special occasions only.
The food is French and excellent: often more seafood-​y than other French classics around town, which is better for the more open, bistro-​y feeling of the place. The real draw here for me is the wine list: the bistro feel continues onto the expansive and qualitative wine list. Yes it’s pricey, but there’s little better than a lovely glass of wine in nice surroundings. Comparable to In Vino Veritas in town, Pascal is a nice play to sit with some vino, although it is a bit of a snip. Still, if that appeals to you, like me, once in a while, here’s another place to go for tasty bistro nibbles and great wine.

Another string to La Fourchette’s bow, could it be that Pascals has finally grown out of its teething problems? It certainly isn’t that the food or surroundings were bad, quite the contrary. It had more to do with poor service — sometimes long waits and seemingly aloof and supercilious waiters. Yet the last time I came we had a much more enjoyable and relaxed encounter altogether, a curteous attitude and efficiency in the kitchen.
The food is worth a mention though. Firm favourites for me include the Oysters, Snails, and Monkfish Ragout with a side of Gratin Dauphinois. As you’d imagine, the wine list represents the best of France (push the boat out with a classic Chateauneuf du Pape perhaps) but the new world is equally represented. For the price though, there’s still room for improvement.