The Pond

I had the Thai Green Curry and Duck Spring Rolls. Great value at £6.95 for two courses, and the food was really good. Smallish area to sit outside but still great for lunchtime. Would definitely go again.

We live on the road opposite from the Pond and we love going down there for a drink and chat with the friendly landlord! Thai restaurant upstairs but you can eat in the pub and take away too-we’re in there a lot! The pub is intimate, only criticism would be that theres a big tv behind the bar that often has odd programmes on with the sound on and its a bit of a strange addition! But we’re big fans of the pond eitherway!

My friends have been coming here for years and finally took me there.
Upstairs at The Pond, the decorations and tables are not lavish Thai restaurant style but functional. Specials are written in chalk on the mirrors.
Upon perusing the menu (and deciding I wanted everything!!) I went for Tom Yum Kung soup, followed Green Curry with king prawns and steamed plain rice. My company chose fish cakes and the calamari special to start, then the two prawn specials each with Coconut Steamed Rice. We opted to have some communal prawn crackers to share. Because, you know, crackers.
They were tasty and with a hint of spice. Not the generic crunchy white grease circles you get from take aways, the real deal. Gone in a heartbeat.
My soup came quickly and was delicious! Generous in prawns, clean and fresh flavour with just the right level of heat. I was really impressed. I nabbed half a fish cake and thought that the texture of them was spot on.
My green curry was easily the best I’ve ever had. I stopped short of licking the bowl but only because I was in public! I don’t like it when the holy basil is the strongest flavour– but this was not an issue. Everything was wonderfully balanced: the lime, the chilli, the coconut… I made my friends try it and they agreed I’d won dinner!
Three of us had a starter each, main dish and side rice and the crackers to share. Bill came to £50. That is pretty bloody reasonable in my mind. Service was great, they clearly have lots of regulars (as the staff came out to hug a birthday girl and sing to her with a cake) and my friends assure me that this place consistently delivers high quality nosh.
I will be back!

This was my first visit to The Pond and my expectations were perhaps a bit high based on the reviews. It was good, average Thai food but I was expecting something special and it wasn’t.
We ordered quite a lot of food as we were hungry, a special of the day starter, salt and chilli squid, it was ok, but on the greasy side and not as salt and chili as I would like. We also got a the mixed hors d’oeurves for two and it was ok. Nothing special.
We also ordered a prawn red curry special main, the sauce was like soup, very tasty but the consistency of a brothy soup. And we ordered a prawn noodle dish, which was pretty nice but not exactly what we expected. I felt like it wasn’t worth what we paid, but maybe we picked the wrong dishes!

This review is for the Thai restaurant located upstairs, as I’ve not actually been to the pub part save to use the restrooms.
The most compelling thing the restaurant offers is value for money — particularly in the form of their set dinner containing something like seven courses, or nine I suppose if you include tea and dessert! As this is a specific set menu, rather than allowing you to choose some from a list of many options, you’ll probably only want to have this once — and you certainly should try it once because it’s an excellent tour of the restaurant’s cuisine, extremely filling, and all the food is decent.
However, once you start ordering a la carte, the value declines, and while the food really is just fine, it’s not so good that you really want to try everything they have on offer just to explore your way around the menu.
Service generally consists of one waiter, so there is some flagging down involved and your water might run low (which given Thai cuisine is spicy, might be problematic), but at least was generally friendly.
Finally, one thing I really appreciate about the restaurant is that when everything is full, you can generally rely on being able to get a table here! This came in really handy for a last minute Valentine’s Day situation.

Consistently the Best Thai food in Brighton. You can always get a table either in the restaurant or in the bar. The massaman curry is great.

Brighton is already amazing, but this place is sensational: after waiting over an hour for a nearby restaurant to seat our large party (9, with 3 under 16y.o.) and then getting unceremoniously turned out, the Thai restaurant upstairs at The Pond took us in immediately and had us seated within minutes.
The service was excellent, the food was great and came out quickly enough for our large party. Definitely try that crispy squid appetizer when it’s on special… I’ll be ordering it every time I go.

Really good Thai food that’s cheap and quick. Great for a working lunch with a small group of colleagues. Really enjoyed this pub and have returned multiple times.

This is areal gem o a pub in the heart of the North Laine. The downstairs is a cosy little bar which can be a bit of a struggle to find seating at. Thankfully, if the weather is good they have a walled mini garden out front where you can enjoy an after work bevvy. This however is all a warm up to the Thai restaurant that operates upstairs.
You will have to pop down to the pub every time you need a drink, but you will be more than happy to do this due to the quality of the food. The guy that runs the kitchen is a resident of Thailand who sends a lot of his profit back to his family in Thailand. He also regularly takes trips there to work on his growing house. I guess the fact that he is able to do so illustrates the success of his business.
All the dishes are totally authentic and the Tom Yum soup is simply sublime. You pay a little less than a swanky Thai restaurant, but prices are above your average pub meal. Seating is also limited and it is well worth tracking down the number and reserving a table in advance. This place can get filled up fast on most nights and if you don’t have a reservation I would suggest arriving early. The only other drawback is the lack of air conditioning and the dining area can get pretty hot pretty fast in the summer months.
A great pub and a genius idea to leave the cooking to an authentic chef, rather than trying to imitate a cuisine to be different.

Located up in the North Lanes the big blue exterior of The Pond is a well-​known feature of Brighton’s pub scene however it’s a somewhat underrated pub. The upstairs restaurant serves some pretty decent Thai food and on Sundays it’s a great place to get a roast. They serve a decent selection of drinks and the service is really friendly. All in all it’s well worth a visit.

This review is primarily about the Thai restaurant upstairs at the Pond. I visitied downstairs only briefly for a quick pre-​dinner drink — brief impressions were of a small, cosy and traditional style pub.
Upstairs, in contrast, is a really quite decent Thai restaurant. Thai food seems to have become ubiquitous in pubs, and Brighton has its fair share of standard Thai restaurants — but this offers something in between, with a little of the pub feel but in a very separate place from the main pub. Food was good, Thai standard — all the normal curries, stir fries and starters available. I had a tasty, well cooked red curry here. There’s nothing particular to mark it out from other Thai places, foodwise, but the staff are friendly and helpful, and with a pub downstairs to provide you with your after dinner drinks, this is a good choice.

The striking blue exterior of The Pond is a familiar sight for most Brightonians but I’d hazard a guess that, apart from those living in the immediate vicinity, its interior isn’t as well known. Nestled away in the north lanes it’s perhaps not located in the ideal place for mass market drinking. However, its charm and eccentricity is surely something worth visiting for. Serving Thai food its upstairs makes for a decent restaurant that also does a cracking Sunday roast. All in all, it’s a perfectly good place for both eating and drinking, which will appeal more to those who avoid West Street and other such places.

I’ve never had a bad meal at The Pond. The pub area downstairs is really friendly and welcoming with a fantastic array of lagers and bitters. Its quite small and cozy and there’s a really nice, happy buzz around the place.
You would never expect a Thai restaurant to be bubbling away upstairs but that’s the deal here — and it works really, really well indeed. You arrive, order a pint, someone from your group pops upstairs and books a table (they may have one available on the spot or you may have to wait in the pub… win win situation!)
Its a really intimate affair upstairs, the tables are really close together so as long as everyone else dining is cool and isn’t shouting as loud as possible, you’ll have a nice time.
The food is amazing, really fresh and cooked to perfection. I usually skip starters or pinch some of my wife’s and go straight in for a green chicken curry and a pad thai which is really filling indeed. The wine is a little more pricey than it should be but pretty good quality.
My only other criticism is that the place doesn’t hold more people but I guess that’s part of its charm.

The Pond is eccentric in theory and fantastic in practice. The outside is classic pub architecture but painted blue and purple– very Brighton, in a good way. The pub on the ground floor is small and cosy with a décor of traditional pub dark wood and Pub ephemera on steroids, by which I’m referring to the gaggle of chamber pots hanging from the ceiling. The ale and beer selection is unusual and tasty, the bar food is classic English pub food that you can eat at your table. So far so good– quirky, comforting pub. Upstairs is another matter entirely. The second floor of the pub holds about six tables and a few small Thai decorations that reveal the larger purpose. That’s it. the upstairs is a Thai restaurant. Not just any Thai restaurant though– the best Thai food in Brighton. At least for what I always order… corn cakes to start (I would travel FAR for these), veggie green curry (it often has the most amazing pumpkin pieces in it!) and coconut ice-​cream to finish. What an amazing meal. The prices are so reasonable. I’m trying really hard to find something bad to say (it’s so enjoyable to criticise after all) but I CAN’T!

A nice place for a drink or two. You can sit inside and marvel at all the chamber pots hanging from the ceiling. Or you can take your drink outside and enjoy the fresh air on the medium sized patio. They have a couple of ales to try otherwise it’s an averagely stocked bar.
But UPSTAIRS is a cheap and cheerful restaurant serving authentic Thai food. Very fresh and tasty dishes that are really good value — about £15 for starter and main.
Pond. Chamber pots. Thai food. Can you see the connection? No neither can I.