Anakuma in Brighton and Hove

Been so excited to try this place and it didnt dissapoint! Went to Octoberbest with pals - i had vegan menu & they had fish & meat. We all thoroughly enjoyed the set menus, I gotta say that the corn bao with curry sauce was incredible - best bao i have ever had!!! The vegan dessert was ridiculously delicious and so far from normal. The cocktails were delicious - I will be back to sample more when it's not a school night!! Massive thank you to the staff; it was a packed out restaurant, super busy & warm and they were so polite and hardworking and helpful. Big up yourselves, will be back!!! X

My wife likes small plates, and being Asian was wanting a change from British fayre during our UK trip. This worked out well on a fusion basis. The highlight was the sweet corn ribs, which were in a sweet spicy sauce that smacked off Korean chicken. The pork belly satay hit the notes of peanut, but this is a fusion dish so do not expect a traditional SE Asian satay sauce. The bao's were nice fluffy - we chose the duck and oyster mushroom. There is also a deep fried bao for dessert, which was very tasty and the first time I have seen this done.

OMG! If you don't love their tenderstem brocoli you might need your taste buds re-examined! Buns take a long time to process, so if you want them as your starter, you need to say so up front. Service is Excellent, wonderful knowledgeable staff.

Lovely from start to finish. Gorgeous food with some unusual twists. Wonderful team, do friendly and efficient. This will be a favourite for us! A worthy sister to the fabulous Halisco

Came here the night before our friend’s wedding for a lovely meal. Both the food and drink were amazing. Service was really friendly, can’t wait to go back!

I was completely wowed by the food here. Everything was so delicious with massive flavours, beautifully presented and different to anywhere else I’ve been. Our waitress was sweet and lovely, highly recommended. Our friend couldn’t come and I will go back to show her how amazing this place is. Thanks for a great Friday evening meal.

Amazing food and great value for money. We got the set menu and everything we had was beautifully cooked, well seasoned and packed full of flavour. Can’t recommend it enough!

The service was impeccable. The food unreal and the ambiance outstanding. Such a relaxed atmosphere and the drinks were incredible. Thank you 🙏🏼

Incredible food!!! The sister restaurant to Halisco, these guys know how to take us to flavour town! Everything was delicious. We were a little greedy! The highlights were the pork belly and Korean chicken, but everything was sensational. Lovely staff - chatty and fun. I blame them for us eating so much! Will definitely be back.

What a find! A alums is a new, intimate, family-run Asian fusion restaurant definitely worth your time. We ordered 6 or more sharing dishes and every single one hit the spot. Highlights include the roast aubergine and the insanely delicious corn ribs. A short but interesting wine list. The place was full on the Friday night we were there but service was intimate and punctual. We will be back to try the other half of the menu!

Fabulous service, lovely atmosphere and most importantly fantastic food. The taste sensation of each dish we had was amazing. The squid was cooked to perfection, melt in your mouth. I could go on and on. We will be back. We'll done guys.

Was really disappointed by Anakuma after having had a great experience at its sister restaurant Halisco earlier this year. I booked the table pretty much as soon as the bookings were opened in October for my birthday meal on 10th December at 7pm on a Sunday night. When we arrived it was quite quiet and they said we could sit where we want, the service was really slow for drinks and ordering. Once ordering, I asked if we could order bao buns first and then pick some small plates afterwards - it took over 20 minutes for 3 bao buns to come out which considering the restaurant maybe had maximum 12 other people there, with not a lot of other food coming out than the occasional bao bun, was really surprising. They then didn’t all come out at the same time and weren’t even very hot. As mine came out I ordered another one straight away when the waitress brought the others having seen how long it took. Before it even came out, we were told the kitchen is now closing so if you want anything else you should order now - it was 8:10, we had been there just over an hour and had only eaten 3 bao buns and hadn’t even been asked if we wanted more drinks. We decided to get the bill instead, given we had never been told the kitchen closed that early. The waitress then proceeded to tell us they were closing because her “head was gone” and she’d had a busy Saturday night there so she needed to go home. I can appreciate not feeling 100% and wanting to go home but it just didn’t seem handled very well. Can’t say it’s made me want to come back again any time soon which is sad as I had been really looking forward to seeing what the Halisco guys had done next.

Today was my second visit at Anakuma and I love food here ! My favourite is pig cheek bao bun. (Please never take it off the menu😅) Kiwi kimchi is great, even if it’s a bit too spicy for me. They do awesome cocktails and staff is super friendly! Definitely will be back many many times.

Visited this evening for the first time, and is up there with the other great restaurants on Preston Street. Absolutely delicious food (the aubergine and squid special were the pick of the bunch). Generous portions, excellent accompanying sauces. Friendly and welcoming staff. Great whisky sour. Will be back.

As a big fan of Halisco we expected big things from Anakuma considering the hype around it - sadly we were very disappointed! Surprisingly it was empty on a Friday night and really lacked atmosphere - the decor looked ill-considered and rushed, (it looked like they had kept old parts of the decor from the old place). We were disappointed by the food - we ordered 9 dishes between us and 5 or 6 of them were unbearably salty and lacked any flavour (even for people who love salty food!) so much so that all you could taste was salt and no flavour at all. We were particularly disappointed by the hash browns, scotch egg and prawn toast which all lacked flavour. The crab rangoon and aubergine were nice but didn't make up for the other dishes. I understand new restaurants have teething problems but overall we were disappointed - sadly we wouldn't return :(

Our dining experience at this establishment left much to be desired. After perusing the menu with great anticipation, we decided to start with the "torched and cured" mackerel, only to receive a raw and stinky dish. The mackerel lacked its usual robust flavor, instead tasting like old fish that lingered in our mouths unpleasantly throughout the evening. It was truly off-putting. We also ordered the “kiwi kimchi” which didn’t taste of kiwi at all and was extremely spicy, almost like eating raw chilis (we love spicy food but this was ridiculous). Next, we ordered the prawn toast, which we had high hopes for. Unfortunately, for £9, we received a minuscule, thin piece of subpar sandwich bread that resembled a budget option from Lidl. It was excessively greasy and had only a sparse layer of prawns. We know of other dining establishments in Brighton, such as Baby Bao, where you can enjoy a modern rendition of this dish for less money, devoid of the greasy aftertaste and brimming with prawns. Moving on to the crab croquettes, they left much to be desired. They lacked the distinct flavor of crab and were undercooked in the middle. Furthermore, they were disappointingly small in size. The beef cheek bao, while substantial, felt excessively heavy and lacked a citrusy element to balance its richness. Additionally, it was supposed to be served with pork scratching, but this was conspicuously absent from our meal. The discomfort continued as we noticed the restaurant's interior was exceptionally cold. We witnessed another diner voicing their concern about the temperature, and many patrons resorted to wearing scarves and jackets to stay warm. To add to our disappointment, we were billed for a more expensive beer we hadn't ordered. In summary, the menu failed to live up to our expectations, offering overpriced, insipid, and unpalatable dishes that felt like an affront to our taste buds. Regrettably, we had to seek out another dining option for a satisfying meal after our experience here having already spent £50. We have no intentions of returning. It felt like the chef was taking the piss.