Casa Don Carlos - (Near East Sussex, South East)

1 /5 Selcuk Bahtiyar: I brought a friend here to try Spanish food for the first time. As someone who has actually lived in Spain, I honestly regret that choice. The paella wasn’t even average — it genuinely felt like someone had abandoned it halfway through, then later added a few things on top and served it. How they managed to make patatas bravas this bland in a country like the UK, where you can find some of the best potatoes in the world, is honestly impressive in the worst way. The chicken in the chicken chilindrón was extremely tough. I took a bite from my friend’s plate just to try it and immediately felt embarrassed for bringing them here. The prawn casserole was £12 and came with five prawns. That has to be a joke :) Anyone who has eaten the same dish in Greece or Turkey knows what a real prawn casserole looks like — restaurant owners, maybe take notes. Ironically, the best part of the meal was the bread and the aioli. We kept dipping the bread just to fill ourselves up — and even that wouldn’t satisfy an actual Spaniard. Brighton has so many genuinely good restaurants run by people who know what they’re doing. Give those places a chance instead of this one. In total, the £60 we paid was absolutely not worth it. The food looks better in the photos than it actually was.

5 /5 Michael Riley: This is a lovely restaurant with great staff and good food. We had about 2 dishes each and some wine, and that was plenty for the four of us. A very enjoyable way to spend a Saturday evening and it always seemed to be busy which gave the place a nice atmosphere and buzz.

3 /5 .: The owner was very welcoming and the restaurant atmosphere is very comforting. However the food is a little bit over priced considering you only get small plates. For relatively simple ingredients, I did not find it good value. The paella was very average, not what you would expect from a Spanish restaurant, sparingly scattered with small varieties of seafood. So apart from the owner being a lovely host, its not a place I would return to.

5 /5 Trav El: Still a favourite, managed to get a table without reservation but we were lucky. Food as good as ever and lovely guys that run this place. Always come here when in Brighton. Is it the cheapest tapas in Brighton? probably not but i think its the best, homemade authentic tapas :-). Drink prices reasonable too. keep up the good work guys.

1 /5 Carol A.: If there was less stars for the food I would give them to them. Very disappointing experience. As an Spanish visiting this place for the 1st time it really made my heart hurt. The food was terrible from start to finish. I honestly wonder in what part of Spain people eat bland frozen kidney!! It was hard and completely without flavour. The fish portions were extremely small. The octopus platter came with eight tiny pieces of chewy octopus, served with a smear of cucumber, half a tomato and a small salad leaf. For a dish that should represent Galician tradition, it was very poor. People from Galicia would be ashamed to see their cuisine treated like this. The honey aubergine was also disappointing. It was mushy, bland and clearly made from frozen aubergine that had been deep fried. Overall the food was expensive and absolutely terrible. Please dont let them fool you, this is not real spanish cusine! Its a money making so the brits belive it is. I would not return.