The Urchin, Hove: ‘Does its thing with gusto’ – restaurant review

Who’d mourn for their old boozer when it comes back to life as a seafood gastropub?

The Urchin, 15-17 Belfast Street, Hove BN3 3YS (01273 241 881). Small dishes £7-£10.50. Large dishes £10-£14. Dessert £4. Wines from £18

Once upon a time the Urchin was called the Bell and before that, the Belfast after its street address in Hove, which is definitely not Brighton, even if you can’t see the join. You only need look at the architecture to see the role it once played: it’s a block of a building on a corner site, surrounded by terraces of simple, flat-fronted houses. This pub was once the classic extension to the domestic; the living space outside the home in which everybody congregated. If you lived here and your dad went AWOL, it was probably worth looking in the Bell first.

The Malaysian prawns, in a deep curry-spiced version with a ballast of soft nutty lentils at the bottom, are all swoon and ahh