Black Lion in Brighton and Hove

Delightful, vibrant place. Chloe especially was extremely friendly and helpful, but the other staff treated us very kindly as well! Not in Brighton often but may have to come here every visit. And the truffle parmesan chips are just godly.

Had a very good time with my friends for my birthday

What a nice pub! I've probably walked past this pub a hundred times on the way into the lanes, but never stopped for a drink. We did today, and a spot of lunch too, and it was great. Staff were friendly, food was very decent pub fare. We'll be back!

Had a great time at the Black Lion last night. There was a very nice atmosphere with friendly and helpful staff. Would defo come again!!

Went for a Sunday Roast after the half marathon and was served by Danny . Excellent service and an amazing lunch to fuel some tired legs ! Would recommend for sure !

Loads of space but still feels cosy. Nice garden and friendly staff

Had family visiting from up north and we chose the black lion for lunch at the weekend. Great atmosphere, lovely food and the staff were really welcoming. We ended up staying all afternoon.

Best atmosphere in Brighton 🕺🕺🕺 all staff were lovely x

Manager And all Staff Friemdly And Well coming

A great bar close to the coast. Great selection, a little more expensive.

This place is an absolute disgrace. My boyfriend and I (I’m gay), along with a few friends (including a woman), were denied entry because we were supposedly a “group of men.” Meanwhile, inside, the pub was already packed with large groups of men who were loud and clearly intoxicated. So what exactly was the issue? Hypocrisy? Discrimination? Both? It’s 2025, and yet this place thinks it can turn people away based on nonsense rules that they don’t even enforce fairly. The staff were rude, dismissive, and completely unwilling to explain why we were treated differently from the drunk men they’d already let in. If you value fairness, respect, and a decent night out, do yourself a favor and avoid this dive. They don’t deserve your time or money

Biggest dive in Brighton, it’s not even worth 1 star. Absolutely terrible, the bar staff are incapable of making cocktails or shots and security are RUDE.

The music is great, the people are lovely but the state of the toilets is shocking 😲 maybe they were short staffed but I'd rather pee down an alley than use their toilets. Drinks on the rather expensive side compared to other places in the area.

Place was nice however some of the staff were very rude!!

Stumbled upon during a day trip to Brighton. The atmosphere, the service, the Sunday lunch was awesome! Will definitely be back!

The atmosphere was amazing the burger was amazing the ice cream was great a really good experience this pub deserves more attention one of the best in Brighton and in England

Lovely pub with very friendly staff 😀

Qué gran sábado por la noche tuvimos aquí. Estábamos en un paseo y nos hicieron sentir tan a gusto aquí. Nos quedamos toda la noche. Todo el personal era encantador y lleno de diversión también. Gracias a todos.

Watered down beer bad attitude avoid

Delicious roast and amazing mulled wine. Excellent service, Cat was very helpful 💕

Nice place with outside booths with lights and heaters

Just had drinks ( black lion cocktai ) ,staff very nice and good atmosphere when singer came on , think it was Esme

The burgers were absolutely delicious! Lovely friendly staff and a great pub.

£12.50 for a single whiskey and ginger ale??? This is why I don’t go to pubs much anymore

Spent a few hours sipping cocktails with colleagues. Great atmosphere and tasty drinks. Served by Julien and Louis, very good service, thank you!

Had a couple of drinks and some nibbles today and Daisy and Cillian made us feel so welcome. Lovely atmosphere too. Thank you!

Lovely service from Adam - the best we have had in the Black Lion and we have been several times before.

I love black lion, it always has good vibes and the staff are the best, particularly Louis who is always so friendly!! I always make sure to visit when in Brighton. 10/10 recommend

Tuve un gran almuerzo el domingo ayer en el León Negro. Tanto la carne de vacuno como la de cerdo se cocinaron maravillosamente y agradables verduras y verduras que venían con él. La cerveza local (Laine) era bueno también. Buen servicio y buen ambiente.

Louis was amazing. Great recommendations. And he's a tall drink of water too! What a dish.

What a place! Ellie and Tom are brilliant.

Terrible DJ. Douche bag central.

The black lion is sick, louis is lovely, friendly easy to approach top bloke 👍

Amazing roast, with a thick Gravy and no extra charge for more, as we both love lots of gravy

Came in for a quiet drink before heading home, Louis was really funny and brought a bit of sunshine onto my gray boring day

We had our cousins visiting, and as we planned a trip to Brighton on Sunday, we spent quite some time choosing the right place for the perfect Sunday roast. The location is very convenient and away from heavy traffic. There are plenty of seating options inside and either at the front street terrace or in the back in a more private and cosy garden. The roasts were tasty and up to standard. But the brie, cranberry and pork stuffing was raw in the middle. The food and drinks also took 30 minutes to come out, which was quite disappointing, especially since it wasn't busy. The staff behind the bar were nice. Bathrooms seemed looked after. Giving a benefit of the doubt I only dropped 1 star as I would not be opposed to return, hoping we were just unlucky with the long wait, as well as believing that if we asked for having the stuffing recooked, the staff would do so.

ren was so much fun! Served me an amazing drink, so much professionalism and very appropriate. Can’t wait to come back here again

Ren served us on this great night out. She was a lovely energy and we all had a laugh. Would recommend black lion and Ren to all my friends. Shots shots shots!

El personal del bar era increíble! ¡Especialmente Ren! Todos sabían lo que era mejor comprar, sabían lo que tenían! Amable y confiable y también tenía bromas! ¡Grande Ren sin embargo! 😊

What a fantastic venue, picked this up on an article of great places to have a Sunday Roast. Wasn’t disappointed, food was fab and full of flavour, generous portions but doesn’t make you feel full, service was friendly and quick, really wanted to look after us. Well done x

Never eaten there before does get very busy quite late at night too busy sometimes ?

Friendly excellent service & lovely garden area wth dj.

Only popped in for one as we were all bar hopping but nice venue 👌

We initially ordered a roast, but were then informed they had finished serving them. The meals we exchanged to were still absolutely great, and we were offered complimentary half-pints for the inconvenience. Excellent service!

Superb, generously sized meal & friendly staff

Fantastic food, service and vibes here at Black Lion, a Brighton local favourite with everything from Spanish tapas to classic fish and chips on the menu. There are a number of specials such as two-for-one and cocktail hours and it is in prime location in Brighton's lanes. The curly fries were SENSATIONAL.

The door bouncers are clearly racist. This shouldn’t be allowed

We tried 2 4 1 on burger Mondays... good bit food for the money very happy

Staff were really rude. We booked in for a roast and were told there was none left, it really seems like they hate working there.

Great food, awesome DJs and the staff really looked after our family.. It's not always the case when going out with kids but this team treated us like their own!

Expensive for what we got....£ 30.00 for burger and chips..twice.....🤔🤔🤔🤔 should of gone to a burger bar

Julian and the team were amazing taking care of all of us after pride. Credit to the establishment

Absolute gem of a pub. Great food and atmosphere and the GM there is a specialist in hospitality. If you're ever in Brighton make sure you pop in.

Great location, really helpful as we had our dog with us

Probably the best pub and night of my life ngl. Shout out ‘Mo’ on the door who kept our beers for us to collect on leaving.

Sat in this pub right now and been refused to be served food as my son has a peanut allergy. This is absolutely disgusting and discriminative. You should offer allergen details and we can choose our food based on this information. My son is sat here crying as he feels it’s all his fault that we can’t have lunch. Your approach is lazy and offensive.

Such a lovely welcoming place. Beautiful Sunday roast and totally accommodating. Dog friendly and such a chilled atmosphere. Thank you so much guys 😎 s dalton & crew

Great experience overall. The food was delicious and the drinks were reasonably priced. Specifically good work by Taryn who was more than helpful with her cocktail knowledge and recommendations!

Great pub. Lovely outside area. Kids and dog love it.

If i could give this zero stars I would but I can not. The first sign of why we shouldn’t have ate here was that no one was there. Immediately we were addressed rudely by the bartender named Darcy. She was so rude and was more focused on her friends than the customers. Secondly we got our food. If you want microwaved food come here. We ordered cheese fries that came out looking like they had been in the microwave and this also happened with the nachos. I would recommend not coming here unless you want very poorly made food and rude service.

The staff are nice and service minded. The backyard is not much of a garden, but it provides a suitable break from seagulls and wind. 😉

Really nice little pub with a great vibe. We had the Sunday roast and it was pretty good! Servers were great. I liked the inside decorations and setup.

Relaxing and great afternoon, good food and service,

Nice characterful pub in a nice area of the city centre. Spacious inside and out. Plenty of choice for beers and lagers. Didn’t eat here so cannot comment on food offering but it’s a great pub to visit especially in the summer where you can sit outside.

Nice pub, great service, quite spacious both inside and out with their impressive beer garden. No cask beer which is my preferred choice however keg ales available. Food was filling but disappointing as I ordered a rabbit and bacon pie with no discernable rabbit in it but plenty of bacon pieces!

One of my favourite pubs in brighton for drinks and music at night. Great smoking area with booths too 👍

Sunday roast was unexpectedly good, generous portion too

Absolute tramps whose names begin with J with steal money and act like his mum died in London for attention. JOE. Avoid. He wears a Bape jacket and other pubs in Brighton facilitate him. Poor man thinks owning a stone Island lets him con people. Avoid here and black lion! Joe who also drinks in black lion is a begger, please don't listen to sob stories.

£7.95 for a flat lager in a plastic cup - dreadful place Just seen the reply to this - attempting to justify a plastic cup of lifeless lager being a mere shilling off £8 by mentioning that, at 3pm on a Tuesday, you can get a tiny discount on a small selection of their worst selling drinks. Truly mental, I'm almost impressed by the lack of shame!

Quick beer pre lunch. Sat outside and watched the world go by. Nice experience.

Come here instead of the cricket, it's got a good Atmosphere and nice staff.

Great food, and equally great service!

Really good food, great drinks and equally good service! Had a lovely sit in the beer garden and was lucky enough to catch some sunlight.

Came in the other night, was such good vibes! Think our server's name was tiegan, she was lovely. Will definitely be coming back soon!

Walked in on a Sunday and had a great time. Lovely roast with generous portions and great staff. Would definitely recommend!

Your absolute stars 🤩 wowsers amazing place

Visited on our stay in Brighton to celebrate my friends 60th Birthday. We didn't eat here as had eaten earlier in the evening so can't leave a food review. We come here after hearing about live Music. We had a great evening and were not made to feel unwelcome ( being a couple of older ladies we often get ignored or feel out of place). Big thank you to Julien, Luca and Molly ( bar staff) for making our evening fun, enjoyable and friendly. Live music was fun, drinks were good, staff were great .

Visited early Thursday afternoon lovely friendly service (sorry we did not catch your name,) had a conversation about evening entertainment then enjoyed a drink out the front. We then returned in the evening after earlier recommendation on live cover band. We had a lovely evening and can't thank Julien, Luca and Molly enough. Being on the mature side of life we find it harder to feel comfortable/ welcome in bars. But we felt so at home here.. varied age range in bar, and had a very enjoyable evening listening to live band over a few drinks. I very much appreciate the discreet assistance regarding personal needs. Thank you. Be proud guys you helped towards a memorable break away.

Became our local during a long weekend trip to Brighton during the Marathon weekend

We visited early evening on Good Friday. The staff were not the friendliest. (I was next to be served but one female member of staff blanked me twice and chose to serve much younger customers.) And it is severely overpriced, even for Brighton! £21.30 for two mediocre glasses of wine in pretty grotty glasses! Plus there were two rowdy patrons sitting near us goading the staff and spoiling the atmosphere for everyone else. That was standard for most nights on the Black Lion, apparently! The door staff were lovely though and understood our reasons when we explained why we were leaving after one drink.

Ordered a roast dinner it looked lovely , but the plate was cold and the food luke warm ,by complaining, not sure what would of been done to my dinner and by walking out , I did not have time to go somewhere else. I did say to the waiter/staff when he took our plates away. He said sorry. I was not going to put a review online , so I emailed them to say for future customers, but I did not get a reply.

I ordered a roast . It looked lovely , but the plate was cold and the food was luke warm . I did not complain as I was not sure what would happen with my dinner . Also I could not walk out as I did not have time to look elsewhere. When the waiter/staff took my plate he asked how was it , I explained , he said sorry . I did email them to say I would not put a review online,so they could learn for their future customers. But they did not reply.

We had 3 lovely roast dinners and a kids meal. The food was really tasty. The staff were great and it was good value. It was a friendly atmosphere and felt cosy. Would highly recommend.

Perfect for drinks with friends. Great vibes, music and staff. Can get very busy though! We will be back again for sure..

Nice selection of drinks. Photo booth is a cool feature

Great venue but sooooo busy and crowded most days and evenings. Too loud and noisy for oldies like me

Had halloumi and falafel and fries. Loved it staff are realy nice

This place looks nice from the outside but please don’t order food.. it’s so bad! Sent back two cold dishes (bit into one of the meatballs) the same dishes came back within an inch of their lives and the meatball still had teeth marks in it 😂 come on guys at least try to disguise it. One of the staff said read our reviews! Shame I didn’t read before we came in. By the way they have two pages on trip advisor so take a look at both. Avoid avoid avoid!!! P.S The food photos don’t belong to this pub!

Lovely place polite and chatty staff.

It's really cool that the old structure is impeccable. But I found the cost to enjoy the drinks and food to be very high.

Very nice pub with very friendly staff who explained the types of beer to me in detail. Unfortunately I didn't eat anything, maybe next time!

I must be getting old, the pub has been modernised too much, lost its old fashioned vibes, now just an ugly cafe/pub thing.

The bar tenders were not welcoming nor gave a good service. Would really recommend to have better bar tenders or improve their services.

Staff behaviour towards customers was not good. Went to this place with lot of expectations and research and experienced the worst service.

Mia behind the bar was great! So professional and great service!

Lovely bartender Mia, great atmosphere great drinks

Mia is Amazing great moves and so lovely!!! Xx

Mia was great, service was quick and efficient. Couldn’t recommend more

Julia was amazing I love her to bits. Best bartender in Brighton

guilia was so lovely and great service great atmosphere always and the music is great !