What happens when you finally try out *that* place: A lesson from Hove's Wild Flor

Wild Flor is one of those places that I always walked past, looked in the window, and decided I wasn't fancy enough for. It's that sort of moodily-lit, shiny-banquetted place that you assume is the sole preserve of fat-walleted people doing shady business deals or having illicit dinners with people that aren't the people they're married to. 

Then Octoberbest happened. 

Octoberbest is an annual event that aims to encourage the people of Brighton and Hove to spend their money in local restaurants. The local restaurants do their best to encourage this behaviour by running special set menus. Wild Flor was running its own Octoberbest promotion, offering four courses for £25, including a vegan option. I decided it was probably time I stopped walking past Wild Flor, and walked in instead.

The interior is beautiful, the sort of cosy, bare bricks and comfy seating arrangement that autumn evenings were made for. The service was brisk. And the clientele was more family groups and romantic dinners than small time gangsters involved in skullduggery, but I decided I could look past that.

The first course was a teacup of soup. Homemade soup is a lunch of first resort in the Flickingthevs household - you can't go wrong with chucking whatever's in your fridge into some stock, but it's hard to go exceptionally right. Props to Wild Flor for making an exceptionally good soup then. According to the menu, the soup was one of squash, miso and szechuan pepper, and pretty amazing it was too. The depth of flavour was really impressive. I could happily have finished off a whole tea set's worth, let alone the one dainty cup. Sourdough was available for an extra £2, with the option of olive oil instead of butter for the vegans. £2 well spent, we agreed. 

The second course was an autumn vegetable 'croustillant' - that translates as 'crispy' or 'crunchy' in English, or if you distill it still further, an outsize spring roll.

The huge spring roll came with fried sage, a sherry sauce and a duxelle type arrangement of shiitake mushrooms. If you were sad about the changing of the seasons, this is the sort of dish that reminds you autumn does come with its compensations.

More autumnal flavours arrived with the next course, a celeriac and pear tart, with beetroot pickle and crispy kale. Behold:

Pastry or something similar exists in most food cultures worldwide. It's clearly a fundamental human need to put stuff inside a carby wrapper and enjoy it.

I loved the balance between the sweetness of the pear and the sour of the beetroot pickle, the softness of the celeriac and the crisp of the kale. A little salad or other vegetable friend on the side to cut through the richness of the dish would have been very welcome. (There were other vegetable side dishes for £7, which I was told could be made vegan). 

The last of the four course was a spiced pear with stout custard. I love poached pears and would happily launch a one-woman campaign to restore them to restaurant menus worldwide, especially if they come with particularly good custard, as this one did. I'm not entirely convinced that a cold pear should have a hot sauce - otherwise you end up with both lukewarm - but I suppose that's why people like me don't go into fancy restaurants like this. 

Did I mention I really like poached pears? Excellent. I really do. What made this one extra good (apart from that particularly good custard) was that the hole where the pear core would have been had been filled with a chocolate and hazelnut arrangement that made me think of a high-end Ferrero Rocher. Delighful. 

Wild Flor isn't the sort of place I'd have expected to have a vegan menu, let alone such a good one, for £25. Clearly the only wrongdoing that's afoot at Wild Flor is me having left it so long to pay a visit. 

Wild Flor
wildflor.com
42 Church Rd, Brighton and Hove, Hove BN3 2FN
01273 329111