Pinocchio in Brighton and Hove

Great food, great service great pricing! What more can you ask?!

Brought my dish out wrong and then upon receiving the second one it had chicken in it which I don’t eat. Unopened mussels in seafood pasta as well. Staff seemed angry at us for this

This place has definitely got better over time. Rare to find a restaurant like that in Brighton these days!

This is my go to restaurant in Brighton. Owned by an Anglo-Italian family and fusing Italian food with British taste accents, it delivers on all counts. The portions are plentiful & very reasonably priced, particularly if you choose the fixed price menu, which has bags of choice. The wine & beer options are well chosen and competitively priced & the service is fantastic. Many of the staff have been there for years, whilst many of the customers are serial diners, which perhaps should tell you all you need to know. It's a Brighton institution!

Donatellos directed us to this restaurant as they were full. Possibly sister restaurant as they offer same dishes and set menu deals. Great food, more intimate and quieter than Donatellos, but it's on a pretty street behind Brighton Pavilion. Definitely recommend a visit!

Great food.. great service...good price..will be back

Great family run restaurant, tasty food at very competitive prices. Will definitely be back.

DO NOT GO HERE! If you want low quality food that is cold and not what you ordered then this is the place for you. Starters, I mean I can’t complain about that as it’s melon and shop brought cured meat. “Fillet Steak” is seemingly boiled with more peppercorns than meat. I have had better microwave meals that I would pick over this in the future.

Very disappointed. We had a booking for 45 people (for a Christmas party) at 19:30 on a Friday evening, which was booked with the restraunt around 6 months in advance, and deposits given. When we arrived they seated all of the party except for about 6 of us. They said the extra table wasn't ready but would be soon. There was already a party of 40 there that were halfway through their meal. Mostly children, with a few adults on their seperate table drinking alcohol and paying the 35 children no attention. We waited 45 minutes seperate from the rest of our group, with no staff asking if we'd like to order a drink. In the end after seeing the rest of our party had gotten the drinks they'd ordered, and were waiting for the mains to arrive we gave up and left. It did not help that children from the other group thought it was hilarious to attempt to break down the toilet door of one of our friends waiting with us, which greatly upset her. Even after seeing this the staff did not check we were okay, what had happened or step in at all to help. We were greatly disappointed, and felt very disrespected by the staff's attitude towards us the whole time we were waiting. It felt as if they thought they'd got the majority of the party seated, and they'd be spending money so it didn't matter about the remaining 6 of us. I would not recommend coming here in large groups, they seem to take on more than they can handle which seems they care more about getting money than providing a nice restruant experience/food/drink. Would also not recommend if you want a friendly, calm atmosphere or to be paid any timely attention by your waiter.

My friend told me she knows a place, and we went there to eat lunch. It was very nice and the waiters were cute.

Lovely family run restaurant with great food, service, and atmosphere.

I was pretty disappointed with Pinocchio’s because I had heard such good things. The staff were friendly and nice, and the service was speedy, which is why I have given it two stars instead of one. I’m vegan and they had a section on their menu called plant-based pizzas, so I ordered one. When it arrived, I had one slice and was convinced it was dairy. I asked the waiter if this was a vegan pizza and he said “yes, that is all vegan”. I said how I was really surprised as it tasted so realistic. I had another slice and started to feel really wrong, it was definitely dairy cheese. I asked the manager (who I ordered with) to come over and see the pizza and she said “you are right that pizza is not vegan”. I was really quite upset I had eaten that much cheese after such a long time. They were very nice about it and compensated the vegan pizza I later got, which wasn’t very good anyway. Overrall, a nice place but I can’t look past a mistake like that.

First off, lovely service and nice atmosphere. Portiins are very good and a nice choice on the menu. As expected, excellent value on the set menu. However just a couple of things that let it down for me. I had prawn cocktail. Plenty of prawns but it came so quickly I could tell it was pre made and had been sitting for a while. The bread was hard and the lemon was dried up. There was a pool of water at the bottom where the water had settled which meant I could not. finish fishy tasting wet lettuce. I ordered the pasta Pinocchio based on a photo I was here. It looked delicious. Mushrooms, tomato, cream, ham. However it was outrageously sweet. I struggled to finish it and they actually did themselves out of a dessert I was going to order as it was so sweet. I’d expect a tomato cream sauce to be tomatoey sharp creamy. I’ve only ever tasted it like this when I’ve made a sauce over acidic and added sugar or sugary items to counterbalance and messed it up and this is just what it tasted like. I wonder what went wrong as I was happy with most other things but when the main dish is odd from bite one it’s hard to really enjoy it.

Brilliant, such a great restaurant and fantastic food! 100% recommend!

We have walked past this packer out restaurant countless times on visits so popped in for lunch. Great value for money as the portions are massive with very little difference between kids and adults. The taste is very good and the price is realistic for a family restaurant. We will be back.

Surprise visit as where we had planned felt like too much of a walk and we were very hungry. Partner and I went in for pizza then saw the menu and ordered anything(/everything? :) ) but. Grilled fish was great as were the accompaniments. Pudding was a dream. The food wasn't cutting edge or avant-garde, but it had no pretence of being that - great. The staff were warm and welcoming and everything felt very authentic. service was prompt and everything was very reasonable in price - will definitely come back next time I'm in area and would certainly recommend . We attended just before the Friday evening rush, so it was very chilled - no idea what its like during peak times - but I would imagine super busy (rightly so) so you'll probably want to book.

My first time at the restaurant,the food was lovely. Iam gluten free,and the gluten pasta and dishes I had were very tasty 😋

Cheap and cheerful but actually pretty decent quality food too. Massive portions at a very reasonable price. Pasta was cooked well and the flavours was good. More of a 4.5 stars. This isn't the most refined place in the world but if you need something quick at a good price with some flavour that'll fill you up, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Three cold tasteless pizzas! One had a raw egg on it, as pizza too cold to cook it. How the waiting staff didnt notice i don’t know. Low grade ingredients added to the poor experience. Sue must be turning in her grave. Other reviews say similar. GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER! Show Brighton some respect.

Staff were friendly but slow with the bill. Toilets in need of cleaning. Quality of the food was below my expectations, but for the price was about right. Plenty of better restaurants in Brighton - not as good as it’s sister restaurant Donatello’s.

The food and the portions are good but the waiter’s attitude when we were paying was horrendous. Not only they put our pizza order under “2 course meal”, he would ask for us to clarify how we calculated what we were paying for, even though everything was paid for. Very bad mannered waiter…

Updating my review.... Visited for the second time. Very welcoming and friendly staff, quick service and very tasty food!

omg.twicw we've been here both times have been fantastic. the food is beyond exceptional. it's very reasonable price wise. I can understand why it's always packed .do ya self a favour go to this place .there's something seriously wrong with you if you can say you didn't like it.

Outstanding experience! Food was excellent and hot, service was prompt, atmosphere was very enjoyable.

The staff were really friendly! Great food at an affordable price! I’ll definitely recommend it to my friends!

It was the worst meal I have ever had at the restaurant. We were there as a group of work colleagues and the majority of us agreed the food was very bad. I ordered seabass and I got two pieces of deeply fried white fish with a leaf of ugly lettuce and some potatoes. It was absolutely disguising. Who fries sea bass? I went for seabass because I wanted something nice and healthy. Even the people who went for pizza or pasta said it lacked any flavor and was very bad. And it looked to them as if it was cooked from frozen. I do not recommend this place.

Nice to revisit this restaurant. Still right up there and will go again when next in area.

All round pretty poor. The glasses on the table were dirty, one had lipstick on it. The food was luke warm and clearly not fresh. The aglio e olio had pretty much a plateful of sliced chillis in it. Fortunately the spice wasn't too overwhelming as it was vastly over powered by the multiple supermarkets worth of garlic used in the dish. The pizza was decent enough to prevent this being a 1 star. Waiting staff were friendly enough. On the plus side I managed to kill multiple fruit flies, I usually struggle to swat fruit flies due to their size and erratic flight pattern. But I really nailed it this time. The first one I clipped on the wing, seeing it struggle I put it out of its misery. The second I managed to take down midway through the main, swatting it with a thunderous clap, my own mini round of applause for a job well done. Anyway when killing 2 flies was the highlight of a restaurant experience then it is probably not worth a revisit as I could just buy some bananas amd leave them to rot to gain the same feeling of achievement. Basically I wouldn't bother going here.

Nice food and staff at a very reasonable prices!

A Brighton institution! Excellent food and value

We both had the three course set menu. 2 courses £14.95 or three courses £17.95. We went for 3 courses. We both had prawn cocktail. Best ever. Plenty of prawns, lots of sauce and a small amount of lettuce with lovely granary bread and butter. Main course :, I had tagliatelle Spinaci. Huge amount in a wonderful creamy sauce. My sister had Pollo Milanese - chicken in breadcrumbs with spaghetti pomodoro. She said it was delicious. We made room for a dessert. I had Torta Al Tartufo - amazing - almost like eating solid chocolate. My sister had tiramisu which she said was delicious. We finished with a coffee. Can thoroughly recommend this restaurant

We both had the three course set menu. 2 courses £14.95 or three courses £17.95. We went for 3 courses. We both had prawn cocktail. Best ever. Plenty of prawns, lots of sauce and a small amount of lettuce with lovely granary bread and butter. Main course :, I had tagliatelle Spinaci. Huge amount in a wonderful creamy sauce. My sister had Pollo Milanese - chicken in breadcrumbs with spaghetti pomodoro. She said it was delicious. We made room for a dessert. I had Torta Al Tartufo - amazing - almost like eating solid chocolate. My sister had tiramisu which she said was delicious. We finished with a coffee. Can thoroughly recommend this restaurant

Fantastic food. Very nice staff. Very good value for money. A must.

Went today before we went to theatre , staff were so welcoming and the food was delicious and well worth the money . Will defiantly be back

Refused to serve us outside, how rediculous you turned away customers as you can't be bothered to walk out the door to serve us for one minute. We have spent multiple birthdays and special occasions with you, and to be honest this amount of pettiness has put off returning

We had our little pup with us and sat on a table outside, they had multiple Tables laid out and they told us we can't stay as we aren't serving outside! You can't walk 2 seconds out the door? Why have tables outside?pathetic

Hadn’t been for good few months. Went for dinner prior to visiting the theatre for a production of Hairspray. The restaurant was packed with a pre theatre crowd. Great atmosphere. If you are going to eat prior to the theatre allow a good hour and a half and definitely pre book. Great menu, great food and exceptional staff. Wine prices are very fair too. We chose the set menu - two courses for £14.95, excellent value for money. So glad that they still do this! We had garlic mushrooms and a prawn cocktail to start followed by a cannelloni and a pizza. All the food was delicious and very generous portions. We shared a bottle of pinot grigio. Also very good!! Highly recommended when in Brighton. Sister restaurant to the equally great Donatello. Excellent choice for a reliably good pre theatre meal, just a 2 min walk away. PS The waiters working upstairs on Thursday 3rd of October were great. It was so busy but the service was amazing!

Excellent quick service and lovely food at good prices. We arrived without reservation but they got us in if we could eat and leave within the hour, which was easy. Top marks! Update: Been back to eat here again, everything as good as before. Keep it up Pinocchio!

We booked for my daughter's wedding dinner. The 10 (9 adults, 1 toddler) were well looked after throughout our meal. We weren't rushed, service was attentive, food was plentiful..."doggy bags" available. Will be going back.

The food was good but service charge as a hidden fee

Good food good service good price good not top notch but doesn't try to be . Perfectly decent place for a good feed 😀

Great food and generous portions

Tasty food,and attentive service!

Very nice place, very nice service. I recommend it :)

Fast and friendly service. Fresh and tasty food. We ate pinocchio pizza (good but I think it's for connoisseurs - with fish 😉), spicy pasta with chicken (for me the tastiest), potatoes with salmon, pinocchio pasta and potatoes with chicken, we all liked it. We recommend it :)

We visited during 2023 and all good; nice atmosphere and good food. We revisited on 2/9/24 and didn't even make 5 minutes. The waitress was by far the rudest we have ever experienced in decades of eating out. She didn't want to converse and was full of attitude. I asked her if there was a problem, but nothing. I then told her we were leaving, still nothing, apart from a stare and a shrug of the shoulders...just delightful!!!

Always a great place to go to. Lovely, high quality, good value food, with a nice atmosphere and friendly staff. The lemon coppa is amazing! (Sorry I've forgotten what they call it on the menu!)

Had a fantastic pizza 🍕 we were seated in the window seats which was perfect. Service was great.

Great food, great prices, fast, friendly and very helpful service. I definitely recommend it.

Amazing foods here! I ordered minestrone soup, marinara spaghetti and tiramisu. All of them were very delicious. These three flavours are highly recommended for you to try. Additionally, I thank Rachel for her courteous service.

Very average in everything. The pizzas were tasteless, not bad per se, no, just no taste at all! Same for the tiramisu, no taste. Welcome and service could do with a bit of a smile! The only good thing is the affordable prices. I guess you get what you pay for.

The meal was OK, but good value. Bread was stale and too chewy to eat. The lights were too bright and ruined the ambience. The staff seemed disinterested and more interested in closing down. Several staff were milling around the bar area chatting. No attention to laying the table or arranging cutlery.

Great food, great prices, quick service. All up would definitely recommend.

Horrible! They fried the chicken in the same oil as the fish!

After reading positive reviews, not being locals we thought we would give this a go. Unfortunately the food was hugely disappointing. The salmon arrived slopped on the plate and the pizza was watery and greasy. Rosemary and garlic potatoes were raw and drenched in oil. Service was very good but this did not make up for the poor quality of food.

Super lekker gegeten! Mega propere locatie en top bediening! Soms wat lawaaierig maar dit komt doordat het een kleinere locatie is. Het is ook helemaal ingekleed in het thema Pinokkio! Een dikke aanrader!!

Nice ambience, wonderful staff, tasty food.

Fantastic friendly service, great value for money. The meals were very tasty and presentation was spot on . Would definitely go back again.

The girl with the braids is very beautiful, please do not fire her

My pizza was a bit thinly topped. noodles etc. however, plenty.

Had a lovely time dining at Pinocchio, the starter and main deal was extremely good value and the pasta was very nice. The fresh seafood was also good! The tiramisu, although looking good was a disappointment as it was too sour.

Great Italian restaurant. Lovely food, fantastic service at a great price. Always enjoy the atmosphere. Highly recommended 😋

In Brighton for the weekend & my first visit to Pinocchios. Great food and value for money. Portions were ample and the service was great. Even though the waiters/waitresses were very busy, ours made time to take photos of our group when asked. Highly recommended.

I came here with a friend and we had a simple dinner of pasta and garlic bread. The food came out so so fast / my spinach pasta was lovely and large serve but the cheese garlic bread was terrible - no garlic and the bread was not even toasted. Simple enough place for pasta.

Really great price and quality! I got the spaghetti marinara which is only £10 but has a ton of quality seafood in it. Pasta was cooked perfectly, fairly garlicky which I love in a seafood pasta so I really enjoyed it. Really large portion for the price as well. Service was very efficient and friendly. If you’re looking for a casual dining spot this is the place!

Can't fault this resturant. Quality is very good and there are a few Vegan options now. Staff extremely helpful. Good value for money.

Quite nice to sit outside on a sunny day. Sardines were nice, and the salad was okay but my mussels were so sandy they were almost inedible - the kind of basic mistake that makes me think pasta will also be overcooked. Dessert was okay - nobody came to ask if I was enjoying or had enjoyed my food - just happy to take the money and see you leave. very okay - 2.5 stars out of 3. Probably suitable for a budget quick bite if visiting and/or before the theatre but otherwise there are many better places to go to in Brighton.

Excellent varied cuisine, attentive staff, charming place

Very quick to deliver the food… almost too quick. I ordered a marinara that came in less than 5 minutes and the pasta was overcooked. The portions are incredibly huge and the food just didn’t taste fresh. The pizza was freshly made. I also ordered the celebration desert which was a monster of a dish with everything in the desert menu piled on top of each other in a massive bowl. Overall, it was overwhelming and a Frankenstein of a desert.

First time for my sons birthday service is amazing food was good for the price very reasonable

Consistently good food over the years.

Table was the only one not clothed, wasn’t wiped down or properly cleaned before seating us. The server got the drinks wrong after clarifying what kind of coke multiple times. When the drinks came out the glasses were still warm as well as the cans of drink. The ice melted fast and wasn’t nice or very carbonated at all. The juices were watered down and tasted awful. With the main meals, they weren’t very warm and were very much like microwave meals. To back this, it was very vastly brought out despite it being quite busy. The Spaghetti Bolognese sauce was so watery that you are better off heading to a supermarket and buying one from the fridge or freezer. When asked if we wanted cheese or pepper they were quite aggressive whilst asking and made use feel bad for wanting more cheese. overall the food was edible but not at all the best for pricing and honestly you are better off heading to the ready meals section of tesco.

Best Italian in town. The food is delicious. The prices are cheap.

Budget chain but a bit too budget. I know this is a cheap and cheerful Italian but honestly it is possible to have cheap food but good is ok. Pasta very overcooked - most food looked the same colour. Not great really. Not well seasoned. Misnomers on the ingredients - with some pretty budget ingredients used. Sort of pasta you’d expect a student to make. But good service and quick - and big portions if that is what you are after.

Not authentic Italian at all, the food is okay but I wouldn't recommend it. The place is nice though, the upstairs is spacious and well lit. It's okay if you're happy with average not-quite-italian food.

We had a nice diner here. Pollo pancetta and carbonara ordered. Quick service, friendly staff. Food is nice, but the carbonara made with british bacon instead of italian pancetta what is just 3* for me and it makes it just another fast food restaurant.

Food was absolutely delicious!!! We loved everything 🫶🏻 Generous portions, good quality, affordable prices!! We waited so long time after we called them to order or pay. Which was only disappointing point. However, overall, fabulous best Italian restaurant 🤍

Excellent service and food at very reasonable prices. Would highly recommend.

Great food. Great value. We had a really fantastic family meal here. Everyone loved their food. Personally, I highly recommend the spaghetti aglio olio.

Great restaurant, busy with nice atmosphere, excellent menu choice and fantastic value. Well worth a visit.

Lovely restaurant with authentic Italian atmosphere. The food was amazing and such a great portion size for the price! Would highly recommend

Just stopped for a quick bite to eat. Sat outside service was quick and friendly, food was really tasty thank you

The food was delicious, there is a great variety between pizzas and pastas, without a doubt the pastas are exquisite. The ratio of the food to the price seems super good to me. But the only thing I didn't like was the service. I've always heard that they have friendly service, but when I went it was the opposite, I didn't like it one bit.

Nothing but praise for this incredible gem of a dining experience Delicious food, at such affordable prices Great offers & the portion sizes are huge - make sure you haven’t eaten for a day before coming here I highly recommend the pasta - Diavola & the pInocho, and arrabiata Nothing is ever too much trouble for the staff - they go above and beyond - excellent service Thank you for such a treat - I recommend this place to anyone unreservedly

Lovely food and friendly service. So nice to eat well prepared food rather than chain food 😋

The risotto was not cooked yet, the rice tased so hard, and the pasta tasted tasteless 😑

Huge portions. Great vegetarian options.

I have been to this restaurant 3 times in a total of 1 year. My first and last visit (Today), I had an upset stomach after eating. I am not a person who often has an upset stomach. Even my friend who went with me also sick.If it was bad on 2 out of 3 visits, I am seriously concerned about the hygiene of this place.

Had family & Friends over from Sweden popped in without booking and the service & food was excellent. Everyone enjoyed their meals and the staff were very attentive and fantastic prices 👌

Quick service, some dishes are bland but overall its a great family or friend place to eat and reasonable priced

It's basic, poor quality and not great.

Really good portions for cheap prices, and so flavourful!!

We really enjoyed our meal and our evening at this restaurant. They accommodated changes in our party size with no fuss and service throughout the night was very good. Having just come back from a week in Italy eating the most spectacular food I would say that the food at Pinocchio is not at the same level, perhaps to be expected, but was very tasty nonetheless. They also offered gluten free pasta with many of the sauces which was much appreciated.

Firstly, we never received everything we ordered, but bothered not to tell them once we tasted what we did get! The pasta was overcooked as you were picking up the spaghetti, It was breaking apart. Everything was covered in sauce I guess to mask the taste of everything else. To call this restaurant, Italian is a joke. I guess it’s called Pinocchio because they lie about their food and quality and taste.

Happy with the food. Staff are friendly and attentive.

The best pasta money can buy in Brighton

I always enjoy a visit to this restaurant. Good food, never rushed. Staff are excellent.

The pizza was okay but the seafood pasta wasn’t great. The workers were polite and the food took rather long but the pudding was great

I'm not really sure why Pinocchio 'only' has a 4.4 eating on Google Reviews. There's numerous pizza restaurants in Brighton, but something drew us to this one. The atmosphere was good, the decor is great, it opens out onto the street, the food is very typically Italian (we've been to Naples this year and this gave us positive flashbacks!), the service is very good and attentive and the prices are very reasonable for what is a central Brighton restaurant. Ok, there was construction work going on nearby, but New Road is a busy old walkway anyway, so always buzzing. We will definitely come back again on our next trip! Grazie mille!

I had the chicken with creamy mushroom sauce, really tasty.