THERE’S a big old elephant lurking in the corner of Brighton’s proverbial dining scene.

Despite flourishing tourism, easy-ish links to London and substantial culinary talent, the city is yet to earn its first, much-coveted, Michelin star.

Does it really matter? The nod of approval from a group who must logically look like the restaurant critic in Ratatouille? Not really, not in the big scheme of things. But praise from the Michelin inspectors would certainly confirm a certain culinary coming of age for the city.

But roll on 2017, the year where all of that could change. Rumour has it the inspectors have been snooping around Brighton’s foodie poster boy, Michael Bremner. Stephen Edwards of Professional Masterchef fame will open his first restaurant, Etch, in the spring. And this week we welcomed the first stage of the much-hyped new project from Matt Gillan.

For those less familiar, Gillan earned his first Michelin star during a decade-long stint at The South Lodge Hotel, near Horsham, and shot to relative fame when he cooked the main course – an intricate, 12-element goat dish – at the banquet on the BBC’s Great British Menu.

His new restaurant is just about as good looking as he is. Gillan’s new digs, the freshly refurbished Redroaster in St James’s Street, is surely one of Brighton’s most beautifully designed spaces.

All indoor shrubbery, marble and chrome, the design would be more at home in LA than St James’s Street. The gleaming white surfaces are lit up by a dazzling shaft of sunshine – the ceiling has been transformed into an enormous skylight – and the whitewashed walls are outshone only by the waiting staff’s pristine matching shirts. It’s not a place for anyone with a hangover or particularly low self esteem.

The daytime menu is divided up into all-day breakfast options and a selection of dishes dubbed “From 11”. An evening tasting menu – Gillan’s Pike and Pine venture – will launch later in the month.

The menu is tantalising, a promising jumble of all-day breakfasts and Americana fare. There’s a heavy focus on sweet and savoury pairings – shellfish brioche for instance – and a smattering of Asian ingredients, with yuzu, enoki and kimchi all getting a mention.

The drinks menu is equally impressive, including no fewer than five different iced coffees and a healthy selection of non-alcoholic cold drinks. We opt for a Rock Shandy, a cocktail of bitters and lemonade, and an almond milk iced coffee with cinnamon.

In lieu of standard starter/main/pudding configuration, we order a selection of light brunch-sized plates. The place is heaving and by the time we sit down at 2pm a number of dishes are sold out. But it’s their first week and while The Gourmand usually avoids reviewing in the early days of a new venture –the honest truth is we just didn’t want to wait. So some aspects of the meal will be excused as teething problems, including a few service issues, with one missed order and a longish wait for some plates.

For carnivorous readers the herb waffles are worth a visit alone. Piled high with sticky, salty bacon jam, sweet apple puree and apple batons, a crumble of black pudding and just for a final protein flourish, two rashers of streaky bacon. A perfectly cooked fried egg sits alongside and give or take the bacon spending a few extra minutes under the grill, it’s a nigh on perfect brunch dish.

The sea trout from the “From 11” menu feels like a very different offering. Beautifully cooked fish sits alongside slivers of cooked and dehydrated beetroot and an earthy watercress sauce. At £14.50, it’s the most expensive dish on the menu and by the looks of things, one of the daintiest. It’s delicate, precise cookery but a few friendly carbs wouldn’t have gone astray.

Duck bao buns come stuffed with soft, slow cooked duck leg and heaps of kimchi, which is pleasant but lacking the funky hum of long fermentation. There’s a pleasant backnote of spice from a chilli paste, but the advertised citrus curd was either absent or too subtle. The buns themselves were a little bready, not quite the cloudy puff of carb perfection.

There are only three dishes on the pudding list and it was sad to see the slightly obnoxiously named punk tiramisu sold out, as was the churros (which strangely features on the breakfast menu). So we opt for the lemon tart, a thin slice of sweet citrus custard on a lovely buttery base. With a crispy, bruleed top, a quenelle of white chocolate ice cream and a sharp passionfruit sauce, it just about nailed the ideal blend of sweet, sharp and texture.

We round things off with the “house mix” granola, which while it features on the breakfast menu can second as a dessert. It’s delicious and thankfully a hearty portion, but the pile of dried fruits and grains dwarf the dainty scoop of yoghurt and elderflower syrup.

Four plates and nearly two hours later, it’s finally time to head home. A quick visit to the bathrooms concludes the visit and even the loos are golden and glimmering like an instagrammer’s nirvana. On the way out a huge chrome sign catches our eye – enormous silver lettering declaring “The Beach is Boring”.

It’s a cheeky declaration from the new kid on the block. And while it wasn’t a faultless meal, it’s safe to say that after one visit to the new Redroaster that dining out in Brighton this year will be anything but boring.

  • The Gourmand pays for all his meals.

REDROASTER, ST JAMES’S STREET, BRIGHTON 

Food: ★★★★ (out of Five)

Service: ★★★★

Atmosphere: ★★★★★