Work life balance is the key but I have been working like a petit chien of late. I've only just sat down and it's midnight for goodness sake. One thing I must do before I keel over is tell you about the dinner I had at Residence pop up restaurant, part of the Brighton Fringe festival (and probably the only thing I'll have time to attend this year in it).

This is the second year Residence has run and again will have a different artist in residence each sitting to potentially sketch you while you dine. Last year one poor table of diners were depicted naked from the waist down! This year there is an additional 70s theme, so the food harks back to an era of platforms, glam rock, VHS, Newsround, brown and loads of stuff I don't understand because I wasn't born yet. The food is cooked and served by students of City College Brighton (under some very good head chefs) and it never fails to amaze me how good it is - and for such a good price! You really MUST go along if you can get a table, hence why I'm powering on through to get this down - the way things are going I'd have posted this in September and you only have until the end of May to get down there, useful!

Here are some highlights from our meal there - I took 7 friends down with me (and I had been the Friday night before too) so we tried pretty much everything.



Lucky we went on Wednesday because you can get an extra special Wine Flight chosen by Henry Butler who kindly explained all the wines to us whilst wearing a very pink and very frilly shirt. The 70s hook was that all the wines had been chosen as they were popular regions or grape varieties in that era. We had a Mas Marcia Cava aperitif, then a Château de Fontaine-Audon Sancerre with the starter (my favourite) and a bottle of Les Graves de Mahon-Laville with the mains which was a little contentious. Wasn't my cup of tea but the fellas on the table absolutely loved it.

We almost had a full table of Scotch Egg starters - and to be fair they were excellent, wonderfully seasoned sausage meat and a lovely homemade tomato chutney that had a cheeky chilli kick.



The table carved Springs Smoked Salmon was also a winner - I had this on my previous visit.



Also getting a thumbs up was the asparagus and flaked smoked haddock soup. Nice bowl!





Seeing as I had had my very first Chicken Kiev experience on my last visit and LOVED it (I must have lived a very sad sheltered kiev-less life) it was tempting not to order again but it had to be the Duck a L'orange. Fruit and meat is a bit of a dirty combo for me normally but I have to say I enjoyed this very much. The orange, although sweet, cut through the fat of the confit nicely.



Most impressive main was the Cote de boeuf, again table carved (what was it with the 1970s and table carving?). Big juicy hunks of meat, fat chips, mushrooms and tomatoes. Hell yeah.



Popular desserts were the Crepes Suzette Flambé, mainly to see the near-children servers almost set alight to themselves or the ceiling tiles! A good dozen people ordered this throughout the night and it got a bit of a woop every time - I love Brighton.



Also good was the Baked Alaska, Crème Caramel and Profiteroles.





This is a really fun night, lots of laughter and merriment coming from all the tables so catch it if you can.

Dinner excluding supplements (£2 for the beef, £1 for the crepes etc) was a teeny tiny £16.50 or £12.50 for lunch. Wine Fights are available on Wednesdays and includes a glass of each wine for £12.00. Dangerous but delicious 70s cocktails are also available.

Tables are getting booked up this year as word is spreading so do call ahead. Visit www.residencepop-up.com or call 07825 508 083

Residence Pop-up Restaurant
Whitecross Street
Brighton BN1 4FA
07825 508 083

Open Tuesday to Saturday