Grand Central

I went here last night with a group of old friends. I really like the vibe in this place. The décor is really elegant and classy — the music was GOOD! Playing some nice old mo town and some stevie wonder. SPOT ON!
It was the perfect place to go when you don’t really want to go crazy on a Saturday night.
Best of all… UPSTAIRS! The upstairs is a bar that offers service but also they do little shows, cabaret etc. We went up stairs because thats where most of the Gin was kept! ! !! We tried lots of different types of Gin — they have a lot to offer. They obviously take pride in this and will recommend lots for you to try!
I was in my element! Although, they are quite pricey. 3 ROUNDS of doubles is £30… Only go here when you get paid :0 or if your on a date with someone rich ;0

Really great renovation. Very impressed with the décor and service. Can’t believe I hadn’t popped in sooner, it’s very comfortable and authentic. The bar staff member I spoke to was very friendly and energetic — great vibe.

Quite a nice pub located right near the train station. There was only draught cider on offer, but a reasonable selected of the bottled variety. Gin-​lovers are also well catered for with nearly twenty on offer. Upstairs is the really cool Nightingale Theatre with various cabaret, comedy and music events on throughout the month.

I went to Grand Central ahead of its reopening this week.
The décor has a marked improvement, it has a higher class feel to it than it did before (it used to be quite grimy).
The upstairs area/​theatre is absolutely lush, velvet furnishings with a feeling of opulence about it. Unfortunately I didn’t get to sample any cocktails from the cocktail bar this time, but I will make sure I do in future!
I had Steak Onglet for dinner, which was tasty but nothing out of this world. I’m not sure whether I would go back for food — My friend had the spatchcock chicken, which wasn’t actually spatchcock chicken, it was a roast poussin, so they may need to change the description on the menu.
The Roof Terrace is an absolute suntrap, complete with a new seating area, and lots of Jasmine has been planted, which smells absolutely divine. I can see this being a hotspot once the hot weather kicks in!
The prices behind the bar are a bit above average — there is a wide selection of craft beer, ale and cider but it was a little on the pricier side for me. I don’t want to pay over £5 fora beer or cider if I can help it.
All in all, a lovely place, but due to its location and the price of the beer, I doubt it will become a regular place for me.

This is a very nice bar to go to, should you be waiting for a train at the nearby station.
They have a decent-​looking menu, a good selection of beers, and an incredible rooftop terrace (on a sunny day, it’s a delight !).
The service is OK, nothing special, and the toilets’s cleanliness is quite average I must say…
Other than that, they seem to host theater plays in a separate room…

This is a lovely pub situated right next to the station. It’s an interesting building and the pub is spacious with a central island bar. They have a good range of speciality lagers on tap and the main room is airy and retains a pub feel without becoming dingy.
The real treat about this place is the roof terrace. It’s not obviously advertised, but if you go through an unassuming door at the back a flight of stairs leads up to a lovely AL fresco seating area. It catches all the sun of the day and is high enough to remain fresh from the sea air.
They have a decent looking menu, but I have only ordered some light finger food when I was peckish. It gets pretty busy on the weekend, especially with a lot of Friday night after shift workers stopping by for 1 or 3! Even though there are many pubs in the area, it’s the roof terrace that makes this place really shine.

An unremarkable bar, The Grand Central is only conceivably busy due to its location opposite the train station. This means they get a transient crowd passing through and a distinct lack of community feeling. Like those fake airport pubs it’s all a bit artificial, with many people waiting for trains. That said, a pub is a pub, and there’s nothing awfully bad about this place, it’s just rather forgettable. But the location makes for inflated drinks prices too, which is hardly welcome when we’re talking about fizzy lager in a mediocre bar. Take 20 seconds to walk up the hill and you’ll find a much nicer establishment in the Battle of Trafalgar.

Grand Central purports to be one of Brighton’s nicer and better pubs, and in many ways does the job pretty admirably. However, what is an already expensive town seems to be hyperinflated here, and the huge prices have stopped me from going back here more times than I’d care to admit. I suppose the fact that most of the clientele are London businessmen who’ve come down to Brighton for a drink, and this is the first pub they’ve seen, thus toddled into, allows them to push the prices high, but it alienates everyone else: there certainly doesn’t seem to be a local crowd at all.
This wouldn’t be so much of a problem if Grand Central had any atmosphere, but it’s just all a bit… dead. It needs some sort of crowd to create some semblance of atmosphere, but instead there always seem to be little going on. This already combines badly with the prices, then add on top of that a pretty poor selection of beers on tap and overpriced food and the whole thing’s a complete disaster.
The saving grace here is the theatre upstairs: on show nights, a vague sense of camaraderie seems to form, and everyone enjoys chatting a little about the show or just enjoying each other’s presence. The theatre is a bit of a Brighton institution, and well worth looking into: it’s called the Nightingale. Beyond that, the smoking area is also impressively nice, if a huge flight of stairs to get to. Come for the theatre, but don’t make it a regular visit just for the pub.

If there was an award for the best pub location in Brighton, then Grand Central would probably get it. If I’m meeting friends from Brighton Station, this is the first thing we see as we walk out of the entrance, looming over us and boldly proclaiming: That which is considered to be true art is that which appears not to be art at all on its exterior wall. A nice sentiment, I think.
As far as pubs go, Grand Central really isn’t too bad. At one end you’ve got tables and chairs for sitting down and eating and on the other side of the enormous 360 degree bar are huge leather sofas where you can kick off your shoes and relax with a nice glass of wine or three. Drinks prices are quite average not cheap but not expensive either, especially in such a central location.
Due to its proximity to the station and Queen’s Road-​based businesses, Grand Central is often filled with local workers having a pint and some pub grub at lunchtime. Most of the time it’s not overly busy as a lot of people just pop in here for a quick pint on their way to and from the city. I usually go here for mid-​afternoon or extended after work drinks rather than a night out, but that’s what it’s perfect for.

Not a bad pub but you wouldn’t want to hang around in there all evening/​day as it hasn’t really got a great deal of atmosphere. It is quite comfortable though and the staff are friendly enough I guess. I think when a pub has this much transient custom you lose that local feeling.
It has got one of those screens to tell you when the trains leaving which is really handy and it is a great place to wait for a friend to turn up.
The sandwiches are pretty nice in here too but there is a couple of delis on Trafalgar street that are a much better option!

With its 360° bar, beer garden and great location the Grand Central is one of those places you can’t miss. The average selection of drinks makes it somewhat disappointing for wine, ale or cider fans but the good vibe and generally pleasant staff make it more than welcoming. There’s regular live music however, due to the lack of proper staging, the standard is sometimes a bit amateur. That said I’ve seen some decent shows here in my time. Because of its central location it gets really busy at weekends so perhaps head elsewhere for a relaxed pint but if buzz is what you’re after you could do a lot worse.

Grand Central is definite winner for location, right next to the station, I’ve often pop in for a swift half before/​after journeys. It has a quite a plush décor with large chesterfield sofas and dark wood paneling.
The location is reflected in the price though and it’s one the priciest pubs I know. It does have a massive roof terrace which no one knows about so if often very quiet in summer day times.

Appropriately named, as it’s the first pub you see when you come out of Brighton Station. It’s a large pub filled with commuters and visitors and there’s a handy LCD TV showing train timetables. There’s a good happy hour where Strongbows are £2.50 and this usually runs from 5pm-​8pm (Sun-​Thur). Apart from that, the pub is quite standard and doesn’t have much character. Weekends are a good laugh and food is expensive for what it is, £6.45 for a mediocre banquette.

Designed so as to offer its customers 360° access to the bar, The Grand Central is a popular pub in central Brighton. Literally the first pub visible from the entrance to the station it tends to attract a rather transient crowd but due to regular live music and drinks promotions it also attracts many locals on the weekends. With a rather standard selection of drinks it doesn’t stand out from the rest but its one unique factor is the lesser-​known garden out back. In the summer it’s a great place to chill with a pint before heading into town. While not the kind of place I’d spend all night in, The Grand Central is a decent pub with very friendly staff. You could do a lot, lot worse.

This is the first pub you see when exiting Brighton station, and for this reason is a popular place for a post work pint for many, and is a good place to meet friends coming from out of town for the same reason.
The exterior is an unusual, with a round half-​tower on one corner, so it is immediately noticeable. Inside, there is a lot of dark wood and leather, which can seem either sophisticated or dingy depending on the time of day. It also boasts a church font, topped with wood to make it usable as a table.
The food menu seems to change fairly often, but is consistently good — when I last visited the Mezze platter was espeically good value as a shared snack, with lots of fresh bread, feta and olives.
Upstairs there is a small theatre showing local amateur productions, although I have yet to visit this. The real draw for me, at least in summer, is the highly unusual rooftop decked garden. Reached from stairs at the back of the pub, this is another world — a quiet, sun-​filled oasis amongst the rooftops.

The Grand Central inhabits an impressively large and imposing building on the corner next to Brighton train station. This aptly named pub (alright, Brighton station isn’t quite NYC’s Grand Central, but it is beautiful) is large and quite swish inside. Drinks are not the cheapest in town, but they do have a good selection of beers on tap and they also have a nice house wine.
The size and décor of the pub make it feel a little formal, so its not necessarily somewhere I would pop in with friends for a casual drink. I have been to a work do here, and I’d say its the perfect location for group functions– plenty of space and a bit of a wine bar atmosphere, if that means anything to anyone! It’s a good place to start if you’re a visitor to Brighton, gasping for a drink when you step off the train! Th roof terrace is lovely… in fact I prefer it to the inside of the pub!

This is a fab little stop off for a half if your waiting for a train but can get expensive if you spend a evening there. It has plush interior with chesterfields and wooden panel walls.
Its popular with afterwork drinkers sp can get mega busy inbetween 5.30−7pm on weekdays. There’s a large outdoor roof terrace which is a right sun trap in the summer months.
The pub also plays host to a small theatre
, which provides a variety of independent work formed outside the mainstream, from small theatre groups, poets and artists. Definitely worth checking out for all those arts boffs looking for something different.

I’m pretty confident in saying Grand Central is the first pub you encounter if you arrive to Brighton by train. Sometimes going to the first place you find can be a mistake, but credit where credit is due, this cannot be said about Grand Central. It is a spacious bar, has great bartenders and a vast array of drinks. There is a roof terrace and also a pretty impressive food selection. If I ever have to meet friends who don’t know Brighton, and are going to have to wait for me for a while, I will tell them to go to Grand Central, safe in the knowledge that they will easily be able to spend an hour or more in comfortable surroundings — eat, drink and generally gain a good first impression of Brighton. And this is not to say Grand Central is only good for passing trade. I will choose to go there above other pubs in the area for the reasons previously mentioned — simply put, it’s a pretty-​darned good public house.

This place attracts a youngish (20/​30s) crowd and is a nice place to meet mates for a drink after work. Though getting served when it’s busy can be a bit of a nightmare. Prices are slightly dear but not excessively.
They’ve got the standard selection of beers and the staff are quite friendly. I haven’t eaten there so don’t know what the food is like. They also have free WiFi and put on music events.
The main area is split in two by the bar. One side has a gentleman’s club feel with nice sofas and wood panelling. While the other has more modern feel with solid wood tables and chairs. Upstairs is a nice decked roof terrace which comes into it’s own in the summer. It could do with more seats and tables though. The entrance to it is hidden at the far back of the pub.
Food times:
Mon-​Thu 11:00−20:00
Fri 11:00−19:30
Sat 11:00−19:00
Sun 12:00 — 19:00