Brighton's oldest and most established vegetarian restaurant

Food for Friends restaurant was founded back in 1981 by Simon Hope. The ethos behind Simon's idea for the restaurant was to have global vegetarian cuisine that was "not just a load of old lentils". Before buying Food for Friends back in 1981 Simon worked at Food for Thought in London, and decided he wanted to open his own restaurant. Struggling to find the right premises in London, it was his spice merchant who offered to sell him his restaurant in Brighton which was a rather gloomy indian restaurant at the time.

In 1981 when the restaurant opened with a new fresh look the area was completely different. The streets were littered with overflowing antique shops, and Simon would not let his wife walk down the street for fear of getting mixed up in the various fights that broke out far too reguarly. Food for Friends became a place that Brighton's mix of eclectic locals knew and loved.  A magnet for students it was a regular occurrence to see scores of hungry people queuing around the building waiting to order their lunch at the infamous Food for Friends counter.

Food for Friends is still enjoying the same level of popularity but for different reasons. Over the years Brighton became more upmarket and Brighton divided into differnet areas. The lanes filled up with restaurants, shops and bars making it a magnet for people who enjoyed going out and enjoying themselves. When we took over the restaurant in 2004 we wanted to bring this much loved Brighton restaurant up to date. Our customers told us that they wanted to have a relaxed friendly and comfortable environment to eat good food in, as they felt that they had out grown the hippy café which was the Food for Friend's of the 80's and 90's.

In 2004 we gave the restaurant a facelift, taking out the counter service and creating an elegant, welcoming and contemporary space that reflected the restaurants new direction towards gourmet vegetarian cooking and service.