Sahara

Wonderful atmosphere and food. Just watching everybody enjoying themselves with the BYO policy.

Oh my Oh my, such good food. We were there for an office xmas do and we thought the starters were immense. Then they bought the mains out. There were only 10 of us but there was enough food to fed at least 13. Beautiful tasty meats, lovely vege food. And great that you can bring your own wine. Am stuffed!

Good flavor! Must try the chili sauce. So good!
Ordered Cous Cous with vegetables. Would give it a 5-​star but the center of my dish is a bit cold. Otherwise, great experience.

Very very nice and cozy place, food is delicious, service is fantastic! There are options for veggies, alcohol is not sold inside, but you can bring your own, which makes it even better. Great place!

Great place. Was looking for an intimate place for a romantic evening with the Boyf. Spotted this on tripadvisor and thought we’d give it a go. Excellent, friendly staff. Booked online and they made us feel so welcome. The food was spicy and plentiful. Love a BYO place as it means you can concentrate on the food. Spent the evening staring into my boyfs beautiful eyes. Definitely a «boss» place. Love it!

Tastecard is a great scheme which offers 50% off or 2 for 1 deals at certain restaurants. A Taste of Sahara advertises that a 2 for 1 offer is available any day and time except for Fridays and Saturdays.
I visited the restaurant yesterday (Thursday) to enquire whether they had tables available, which they did. Upon mentioning the Tastecard however I was informed by the owner that they did not accept it after 6pm on any day.
This would rule out any evening bookings which does not appear to be in the spirit of the offer.
The owner said that this restriction was not made clear on the tastecard website but was made clear on the restaurant’s own website. I can find no reference to Tastecard on their website.
I would suggest finding another restaurant if you want to use a Tastecard unless you do out for dinner before 6pm!

Loved it! Good food, big portions and great price! It was my first time here and my cousins came a couple times. They have good meat entrees along with a sheesha place outside. I’d recommend

I have eaten here several times! I love middle eastern food and i have tried every middle eastern/​north african restaurant in Brighton!
Now Sahara is ok its nothing spectacular! The reason being is that the portions are relatively small compared to other restaurants offering the same food and its also more expensive. I also found the mix grill very bland!
Unfortunately Brighton really does not offer very good middle eastern food, I am half arab and grew up in the middle east and the closest i have come to enjoying a real middle eastern meal is al rouche for lebanese, nayeb for Iranian and mascara for Moroccan those really are the best ones in Brighton!
However if you want to really experience middle eastern food you need to head to london either edgware road or knightsbridge as they have some of the best restaurants there!
What i will say about this restaurant from what i have heard the belly-​dancing evenings are pretty cool i personally haven’t experienced it so maybe give that a go?

The owner was very polite, accommodating and friendly. The atmosphere was lovely, and décor nice. The food was very generous. I had the mixed kebab it was all good except the lamb kofta which had a strange texture. The best thing about the restaurant was the good service, free corkage and the shisha garden which has an outdoor heater.

Excellent restaurant with very fresh tasting food, very warm staff and a wonderful ambiance.

Fantastic restaurant. The food is fabulous — and plenty of it. The owner is friendly and attentive. This restaurant has recently been taken over and is trying to shake off its previous reputation. Lovely décor and surroundings 5 stars

This place was pretty fun. Not only was the food tasty, but the waiter was a nice guy, and after all… its a BYOB.
My friend and I grabbed a bottle of wine two doors down so we were all set. Even after more friends came, and that bottle was done, I just slipped down the street for another. How convenient.
In the courtyard out back you can smoke a hookah as well, if thats your thing.
We ordered a veggie platter for two, which was yummy.

went to to the new taste of sahara with afew friends who had never eaten middle eastern food. We were recommended the mezze which was truly mouth watering, followed by the sultan mixed grill which was the most tander chicken and lamb that we had tasted for years. well done sahara. All round it was perfect. Great service and top notch food

This is one of two restaurants almost next door to each other that do Middle-​Eastern/​north African cuisine. Perhaps slightly misleadingly, Sahara’s menu actually focuses on food from Lebanon and Persia, but the style of cooking is similar. The mains are dishes like tagines, kebabs, kofta and side dishes include grilled halumi, foul medammes (basically broad beans) and other tasty bits and pieces. The food here is really good. Other reviewers have remarked that it is expensive, I have to say given the quality of the food, I didn’t notice it being particularly more pricey that other restaurants which provide a similar level. I have only ever been in when it has been extremely quiet (that is, we were practically the only table) so the service wasn’t hard pushed to keep up with us. The décor is very in keeping, lots of plush red velour and tassels. The one real downer is the lighting. They always have it turned on full, it’s like trying to eat your dinner on stage, or on a football pitch under the floodlights. Not conducive to a relaxed, romantic dinner.

The best thing about this restaurant was the bring your own alcohol policy — with no corking fee — unfortunately the flattery stops there. We waited for 45min for an ok kebab, salad, bread, dip and beans, that would have cost £5 across the road at an ok takeaway and only taken 10min but here cost £25. The kebab came with a mountain of rice (this was way too much for four people) and a poor salad of bad lettuce and tomato. The beans tasted like they had just been poured out of a tin with the brine still with them and whilst the kebab meat was nice it was nothing special. If I were desperate and there was nowhere else open I might eat here again — but I would have to be very desperate. This restaurant was a real disappointment because a reasonably priced, cosy north African restaurant serving good food would have been a new favorite for me. Sadly this wasn’t it. ²⁄₁₀.

I wish I was cool enough to sit outside Sahara, I really do, but I’m not. I just can’t pull off that hookah look. Maybe it’s to do with not wearing trackie bottoms and a huge baseball cap, I don’t know, but Sahara has never really appealed to me. Under duress, I did enjoy my meal, although I paid an arm and a leg, and waited for ages for a bill that was incorrect twice (very similar to what India, below experienced). If you think you’re cool enough to go, be my guest, the food is worth it, although everything else leaves quite a bit to be desired.
What started off as a glib beginning to this review needs explaining: the clientele here are just awful. This seems to be a favoured starting point into town for some of the seedier elements of the Brighton nightlife, and I’m not really in the mood to be hob-​nobbing with this crowd at the best of times. Add on top of it that the service in Sahara, which is something seems to have experienced, is pretty awful: slow, rude and often incorrect. And then, to add insult to injury, the prices are astronomical… Why is it worth coming here again?
Ah yes, the food: once you get past the people, the service and the prices, the food isn’t half-​bad. It’s not exceptional, and certainly not worth all the hassle to get there: in the end, don’t bother unless any of the above really, really appeals to you. Or you love hookahs!

I’ve recently started getting in to African and ethnic foods, so I came to Sahara to develop my burgeoning love.
I noticed India mentioning that Sahara can be a little bit pricey, but this can be avoided if you come between Monday and Thursday. During these days/​nights, you can get 2 courses from as little as £6.95 (£8.95 in the evening).
If like me, you are big on trying to take advantage of these promotions, Sahara is definitely a restaurant that should be added to your list of potential choices.
I had a mixed meat dish served with couscous and salad, I can say with all certainty that I was not disappointed. Sahara is good alternative to the more Western restaurants, I could certainly see myself heading back.

We had a very unfortunate experience here the other Friday evening. We were looking for somewhere for an inexpensive bite to eat with a friend, and outside Sahara was an ‘A’ board advertising as its headline ‘Set Lunch £6.95, Dinner £8.95′. In the adjacent window the set menu selection looked very good, with plenty of lamb, chicken and vegetarian options. This hit the spot so we went in.
We were given menus, but found no sign of the set menu at £8.95. We asked about it, and were treated to a rather loud and slightly embarrassing exchange between the waitress and kitchen of ‘are we doing a set menu tonight?’ which went on for a few minutes.
The waitress then said they weren’t — the offer was only on weekdays, which did not include Fridays. We pointed out they were advertising it outside (with no caveats about which nights it applied to).
Then another member of staff appeared, and suggested the weekend set menu — which, at £38 for two, was more than double the price. I pointed out that they were advertising something different outside — after all, it’s not a great effort to take in an ‘A’ board. He just repeated that the offer was on Mondays to Thursdays only.
We felt ripped off — we’d been lured in on a false premise. We left with a bad taste in our mouths — so can’t actually comment on the food…

The atmosphere was very nice in sahara and the arabic selection of dishes is probably the best in Brighton. The lebanese mixed mezze is a must try with all the different starters all on one plater.
Service was good and polite, could have been a very slight bit faster though but still very good.
A final plus is the new ‘she sha’ garden they have opened in the back, which is quite nice after a meal :-)
Recommend it!

reviews of sahara on other sites are a bit of a quandary. I read them and had a feeling we shouldn’t go (a mix of some excellent ones with suspicious names as if maybe the restuarant had added them interspersed with some bad ones about crap service and food) but it was eve of my birthday i had people down we hadnt booked anywhere we had beer & wine and not much money so we did go…
and it was good! I think personally its worth going for tagine over anything else. I had two mezzes falafel and a salad (which wasnt salad but a coleslaw humous hyrbid) my boyfriend had a kebab which at £10 was pricey and we’ve had better elsewhere for this type of thing (kebab shop down the road at fraction of price), but couldnt fault the tagines which some friends had (veg or meat). Being BYO means it worked out £10 each and we drank merrily.
Another point raised in other reviews (on diff sites) were rude service and waitresses i couldn’t disagree more they seated us (table of 9) without prior notice on a saturday night (admittedly early at about 6pm and not because it was desserted). They served us very well opening all our bottles of wine.
Worth trying if only once.