The Set, Artist Residence, Regency Square 01273 324302

THE year has begun with a flurry of openings, last month’s big ticket newcomer The Salt Room giving way to this month’s upstart The Set, an equally bold albeit smaller proposition.

Restaurants are apparently taking advantage of Brighton and Hove’s greatest asset – the sea.

And while The Set may not have a direct view from buzzing Regency Square – home to boutique guesthouses and trendsetting cocktail joints – you can virtually taste the salt in the air.

The intimate 20 cover restaurant with on-trend stools at the pass, is the work of Semone Bonner and Dan Kenny, like The Salt Room’s Dave Mothersill, alumni of Ben Mckellar’s Gingerman group of restaurants.

It was conceived as a vehicle for the kindred chefs to be experimental, playful and nostalgic, for increasingly adventurous diners.

A win-win for foodies, set menus mean courses, variety and expert direction, while the chefs can concentrate on more concise menus, control stock and express themselves.

This could veer into pomp and indulgence in the wrong hands, though there’s little chance under the calm stewardship of this immensely talented pair.

An opening bite of chicken nugget with ketchup is of course not of the freezer variety, with shredded confited meat ridden with tarragon and a lightly-spiced in-house ketchup.

Another nod to childhood comes with the start of menu one – duck egg, toast and truffle. Little soldiers fill the room with a marvellous aroma after a lick from the blowtorch, while the soft slow-cooked egg comes with truffle mayonnaise, grated black truffle and more tarragon.

The minimally-described ‘potato, garlic, molluscs, dill’ offers hints but little clue to the creative use of those ingredients.

The potato comes in an espuma – a feather-light foam bed for scattered pickled shellfish including sweet deep-fried oysters.

An inspired highpoint after an impressively strong build-up was the meat course, with a set of ingredients which have surely never shared a plate together, let alone worked this well.

A scarlet slab of venison squares up to a croquette of mac ‘n’ cheese. Pulling off mac ‘n’ cheese without it becoming a claggy, dehydrated mess is no mean feat – let along deep-frying it – so it’s a nifty riposte to the legions of bandwagon-jumping amateurs by a pair of proper pros, rich cheese mingling with lean, earthy flesh, and buttery caramelised cabbage.

More childhood memories in dessert with the chefs’ take on a chocolate fruit ‘n’ nut bar, a pretty collection of ganache, dehydrated grapes, hazelnut sponge, popping candy and grape sorbet.

Each of the three set menus comes with wine, menu one matched with an Alsace Riesling, a Château de La Moutète reserve rosé, a Sugarloaf pinot noir from New Zealand and Paul Cluver late harvest Riesling from South Africa.