The Meeting Place Cafe in Brighton and Hove

We only had a cuppa but the it was awful. I couldn't drink mine .

Pedí dos conos de helado. Thay vino en conos de tamaño micro con poco espacio para el helado. Además, la pequeña cucharada de helado ya estaba medio derretida antes de entrar en el cono. El precio. . . . £ 8. 60 ! Un producto muy sub-estándar por un precio exorbitante. Tendría que decir que me sentí realmente estafado. No volveremos a visitar!

It was definitely not clean, our plates were dirty. It tasted disgusting, the ice cream was awful.

Couldn't understand the lady serving us as she couldn't speak English so communication was hard. Our cups were dirty.

Not sure if its the same owners but this place is terrible. Hot food and ice cream all in the sun, not protected at all. Their icecream became milk in about 3 seconds and they are very tight/stingy on the portions, like they were serving from their skin.

A lovely restaurant with a wide variety of food. Very delicious dishes and fabulous service. some meal options are a bit pricey but still worth trying. It has a homely atmosphere and is good for family outings.

Our favourite place in Brighton. Special memories for us going back over 20 years

A great place to meet up with friends have a cup of tea and a bacon sandwich take in the magnificent view and go for a dip in the sea 🌊

To be fair, all I'm reviewing is the ice cream, as that's all I had. But it was insanely good! Perfect for a hot summers day and walk along the beach.

Nice location on the seafront to sit and relax. Quality of food/drinks isn’t amazing though and it’s a bit overpriced for such. Cakes are low quality and often dry.

Fuimos hoy , gran lugar y cuando vimos el menú pensamos en la buena relación calidad-precio que era. Había frito huevos en tostadas y mi pareja tenía scampi y papas fritas. Los huevos fritos estaban rotos y tan duros y grasosos en tostadas sin mantequilla, abismales. ¿Qué tan fácil es cocinar huevos fritos? Socios scampi estaba bien fichas no eran grandes. tal vergüenza como s gran lugar justo en el paseo marítimo. Muy decepcionante.

Nice coffee and an excellent bacon and egg bap

I came here today because I needed a drink after walking for ages I got a can of Sprite and a sausage roll came up to £6.50 for something I could get at Gregg's . For half and it didn't even taste good I basically got robbed

Breakfast could've been a bit bigger but atmosphere was awesome. Service were polite and bubbly

Service wasn't very friendly. And the food was awful. We had a breakfast and scrambled eggs on toast. All the ingredients are very poor quality. And deep fried was really uneatable. Such a shame it's sure a good spot to sit and eat in the sunshine. We won't be back I'm afraid.

My tuna sandwich was chucked together, with no love or care. I asked for salad and got told it doesn’t come with salad. Rude miserable staff. Avoid!

Not what I would call fish n chips

Very overpriced but great location and variety of drinks and snacks.

Awesome spot to chill and meet locals

One of my more favoured places on the seafront.

Not the best experience. Ordered a veggie breakfast and coffee......came to £12.50 and breakfast consisted of 1 sausage 1 has brown, 2 half slices of toast 1 egg and beans. Very expensive and still elft feeling hungry. Prices here have rocketed in the last vew years whilst the experience has slipped. Service was quick, but very poor value for money, the place itself is slipping and looking tired, presumably because the owner plans to knock it down and rebuild...........breakfasts here used to include a coffee, now its extra.....please lets get it back to how it used to be and maybe I'll return.......

Further along the promenade towards Hove (but not quite that far!) Is The Meeting Place Cafe. Glorious views of the beach and fabulous ice creams so what is not to like.

Has definitely gone down since our last visit very poor sausage sandwich coffee cups were chipped an old and for two coffees and a sausage sandwich 11 pounds 30 definitely overpriced and not very good

Unfriendly staff. Rubbish food. I asked for a veggie hot dog, hot dog made of mashed potatoes, burnt. Bread older than me.

It is what it is. Connivence at the sea side. Staff mixed with personality and service, it’s fast food by the sea don’t expect to much but enjoy the views and a snack / lunch

It's convenient and usually has tables with shade on the decking at the back. Food is rubbish but they do smoothies and ice creams with a Seaview, and nice coffee. It is what it is :)

Been to The Meeting Place before whenever we’ve stayed in Brighton and this is the first time I’ve seen cooked food being handled by the man who was doing the cooking. Not happy so wouldn’t go back, strangely enough though I thought the place looked suitably clean and tidy just unfortunate that they seem to thing the practice of handling cooked food with bare hands is acceptable.

Nice spot for some simple food with seating am amazing sea view

Decent beach cafe with one of the loudest voices in the area.

Do not eat here. For the price, the food is very disappointing. The view is nice though.

Very nice coffee food and lovely setting Friendly staff

Overpriced and food is not very good. It would be nice to have someone run this who cares about food quality and ingredients. £2.20 for a small bottle of water seems greedy too.

The ice cream was delicious. The staff were really friendly and patient

Absolute disgrace , my son ordered a hot dog that clearly stated it came with chips to be told “ no you ordered a plain hotdog do chips are extra” £5. 95. Disgraceful . Only treated him this was as he was a teenager

We came here yesterday for the breakfast. Was amazed at how big each breakfast was for the price. Amazing value. A great location overlooking the beach and sea. The place was busy but the food came out fairly quickly and all freshly cooked. I always read a few reviews before i do my own and really cannot understand some of the reviews here. Im thinking people have this place confused with somewhere else. Highly recommended.

The homemade sausage rolls are to die for, but I do find the restaurant overpriced but they all are now in the parks...

the food is rubbish .. plain bland abd the chef is rude .. run by migrants.. used to be wonderful they need a proper chef

Great food, especially bacon baps, delivered with friendly service in delightful, seaside location.

Breakfast after a swim! Open from 6.30. Lovely service and Onur very helpful in making vegan breakfast.

Nice coffee and a friendly service

Oh dear... This used to be such a well run cafe. The new owners have imaginative plans for a new building on this special site, but yesterday it as looking very rundown and poorly stocked. The old owners kept a full selection of home made cakes and always paid particular attention to keeping things clean and pigeon and gull free. But yesterday the tables were unclean, dirty cups and plates not cleared away and they had placed an open rubbish bin in the middle of the tables where a seagull flicked out rubbish which then blew around. There was a very small cake selection....hmmmm..i hope they get it right.... Its a prime location

Wonderful location on seafront; weak filter coffee, limited pastries. Seagulls feasting on leftovers - tables need to be cleared quickly to avoid this. Service patchy.

The worst calamari I have ever had. I felt like I had the fake squid. It tasted like plastic. I was scared what I was eating so I didn’t finish it.

They defrost the prefab panini in microwave then they put it in the toaster. Result is a terrible tasting panini which is still cold / frozen inside . Cheap solution and a scam for the costumer

Exceptional place on the seafront with great views

Had to wait over 10 mins for a bacon butty!?

Pretty decent food, I had a vegetarian "fry up" and a coffee. Quite pricey for what it was but I suppose that's the price one pays to be on the seafront, likely the government-inflicted cost of living crisis doesn't help matters much in that regard either. This was my second visit, so clearly they're doing something right 👍

After waiting for 45 minutes for a veggie hotdog, they served me a meat hotdog. When they realised it was the wrong one, they were out of the veggie hotdog option. They said I could have another thing but have to wait again. I got my money back and stayed hungry.

Good cakes, okay coffee, vile 'fish burger' - a cheap fish cake with an odd texture dumped in a white bap. Not even two sachets of tartare sauce could disguise how disgusting it was

Great place to grab a quick coffee / tea to take away for your beach stroll

A favourite cafe of mine for years. Idyllic location. Wide selection of tasty dishes & drinks.

Coffee served with a smile and drank in front of the sea.

Cooks not friendly to Autistic clients, they have a long way to understand clients' dietary needs are not complicated but necessary to many. One of our staff has sensitivity to mixing meal items because of Autism and upon asking for a Jacket potato topping to be put on the side to take away this person was confronted by cook cat calling attitude 'complicated'. Despite the meals and offers of the cafe to be wonderful we should expect all diets to be greeted with 'I hope you enjoy your meal' or 'thank you'. We hope this review helps this establishment to review its cooks' training when greeting customers and with diverse dietary needs. No clients with a not visible disability should have be made to feel their custom is a burden.

Love this place, always our go to place when we visit Brighton.

Been years since I've been here. Noticed a lot of negative reviews, but our experience was positive. Staff were all friendly, can't vouch for the cooked food that seemed to get some negatives, but the banana bread and coffee were very pleasant.

I just met my relative ,who had spent the afternoon there. I did not drink or eat , neither was I approached by staff,which suited me fine. I worked in places where they would have asked me to leave if not ordering .

Good food selection, staff pleasant and helpful

Expensive cafe food not that good

General overview, awful. Full English £8.95. 1 sausage, 1 bacon(both overcooked), 1 snotty egg, hash brown, beans, oily mushrooms, 1 toast, no butter or sauces available, included hot or cold drink. Impossible to cut with wooden cutlery that snapped. Wobbly table and hassle from seagulls, which I appreciate is not owner's fault. For same price in Central brighton can get more than twice as much food. Never again.

Poor service and expensive,waited 15min for 4pieces of toast costing £8 only 3 pieces came with no butter, cheap bread asked for money back, manegerss,very unhelpful,finally refunded money ,

Hot dog beaucoup trop cher, 4,9 livres pour un simple pain avec une saucisse et un cornichon. Arnaque. Mais le milkshake est très bon.

This is a place for a cheap seaside lunch. An excellent position almost on the beach and it used to be pleasant enough. I ordered a simple sandwich from the list. The bread choice was white or brown so no wholemeal or granary etc. Bottom of the range industrial bread. The order taker was a bit brusque but it was late afternoon on a hot sunny day. I was told to wait - others were allowed to sit and wait for their order number so I am not sure why I was left standing. I waited. I waited a little more. I waited a lot more until I asked what was happening. The sandwich then arrived. The worst presentation I have ever seen. Two slices of not that fresh bread cut once on the diagonal and skewed across the plate. The filling was OK. I think it was the lack of any sort of finesse that troubled me. I liked the place once and it is convenient being a mile from my flat so a good two miles walk there and back was what the doctor ordered. The 'lunch' was not what a doctor would order and whilst I may call for tea, my eating days at The Meeting Place' are over.

Dishwater tea and coffee. I knew my drink was going to bad from only previous visit, but I needed to sit down. It's location is a tourist trap otherwise I'd say they wouldn't have half the business.

Nice food and reasonable prices

Can’t recommend this place. , my coffee mug had lipstick on it , and I don’t think my complaint was well received , coffee very average and the rock cake stale. The customer is always right , the area where you sit is dirty littered with cigarette butts and rubbish not sure why they don’t sweep this eating area every day and maybe scrub it occasionally. Go somewhere else

I came here starving. This burger Gave me depression.

We ordered 2 hot dogs at the counter then we were asked to wait until our number was called. Whilst waiting we watched the ‘chef’ cooking food orders. We were shocked that he was handling burgers and fried eggs on the grill with his bare hands. He picked up food from the grill and put it into baps. He was touching raw and cooked food, handling a microphone to call out people’s numbers. We asked and were given a full refund only to be told that this was a reoccurring thing and that many people had complained about him handling food before. Unbelievable!!

Always a good stop off when walking/cycling between Brighton and Hove - on the border in fact. Great range of snacks including great ice cream and more importantly a great mug of strong tea

Great location, but maybe stick with the coffee and ice cream. I ordered a fish burger that was pretty sad. It was more like a bland mashed potato patty. Even the seagulls weren't interested.

I have visited the property at Seafront in Brighton a few times and I have never been to decline a coffee or a biscuit however I Tom P Gibson previously did not have my debit card and so I had to decline a biscuit then. However all my past experiences of the meeting place have been super, and I would like to say that I greatly enjoyed visiting once again.

Amazing location. Medium quality fish and chips with a scent of over and over cooked oil...

Easily the worst Fish n Chips I’ve ever had! I felt sick all afternoon…Also cooked to death and chewy. I thought maybe it’s just me but my friend left half of his too. Who sells fish n chips with no mushy peas or curry sauce? Keep the menu small. Dirty dishes left out for the seagulls to help themselves to the leftovers!! Walk further down the road and there’s much nicer places. Avoid if I were you!

We ordered lunch today. I have never been so utterly disappointed with our food. Worst food I have ever tasted. Toilets were disgusting. 40 minute wait for food. Came away feeling sick!

Always pleasantly busy. Great coffee and cakes. Nice place to meet friends.

Disappointed, first and last time we will eat here. Food was very disappointing, the oil that cooks the chips needs definitely needs changing. Lettuce in the BLT had turned and was browning, hot dog for nearly £5 was tiny and just generally not very nice. It's a shame as it's a great location but the food and queue times left allot to be desired.

Large range of dishes, one of the best places on the seafront to sit, relax and watch the world go by.

My friend and I had a vegetarian breakfast, which was not very good at all. The sausages and hash browns were over cooked, fried eggs were awful and they do not provide any toast to go with the breakfast. We were very disappointed. It’s a shame as the Meeting Place cafe is in a brilliant location.

This is a very nice cafe serving lots of Vegeterian / vegan options too along with non veg food. The food is fresh and good quality as well as quantity. We bought food and sat by the beach to have it. There is generally a small queue during meal times. They also sell hot food , ice creams , cold drinks and juices. There is a outside seating area with few tables. The prices are moderate. The entrance / food order and takeaway counter is wheelchair / stroller accessible. This business is LGBT+ friendly.

Nice place to sit and have a cuppa and food right by the sea

My daughter was having a bit of a tantrum over what drink to have so we bought everyone's drinks and moved away. The gentleman serving went out of his way to cheer her up. Excellent service, my daughter (and the rest of us) walked away with a smile 🙂

The owners seriously ripped me off over some drinks. Food quality is really bad. Had a sandwich here once and it was grim! If they could I bet they'd probably use cardboard for their sandwiches. Avoid!

Wait for ages and the staff then do anything they can not to serve you. Ignored yesterday by all 4 staff who were too busy chatting/ doing other stuff to even acknowledge the line that had formed outside. And the big sign that says homemade cakes is a bit of a porky. Most are prepackaged. Plenty of better places in Brighton & Hove, folks

Would not be surprised if this place is a front for something because there's no way to explain the lack of care and quality!

Best location worst food. And that’s for years. They used to do a lovely Rock cake. But that just me that I like a hard-rock cake.

I've been going to this café for longer than I care to think but I'm now reluctantly moving my custom to The Lawns further up the prom. My main complaint is that even on sunny days, the main café area is left bare without tables or windbreaks - and they do have the tables and windbreaks, they just can't be bothered to put them out. There is only a tiny area of sheltered seating. I counted 12 customers on Sunday at the Meeting Place all huddled into this tiny area as opposed to The Lawns where there were over 30 people enjoying the sun and well sheltered from the wind. In the end, the coffee and teacakes are much the same at both places - but at The Lawns you are out of the wind.

It barely exists now. After over 30 years of loving this place, we are disappointed every day to find the tables haven't been set out, the windbreaks haven't been put up. Why? Why buy the cafe and never use the space? The Meeting Place Cafe was aptly named not just because it's on the border of Brighton and Hove. It was also somewhere people regularly met. The prevailing wind along the seafront is southwest. With the windbreaks are up, you can sit at this cafe and enjoy the stunning view almost every day. Just putting tables in the wind next to the railings or in a tiny cramped area right by the queue, doesn't cut it. Who wants to be squashed up by the queue and the kitchen when there's a whole cafe space unused? Down the prom, The Lawns cafe is booming. It's taking up the clientele who used to go to The Meeting Place. They have their tables out every day. Come on! Shape up! Your food is irrelevant if you don't even set the cafe out.

Poor quality food. Frozen chips made from reconstituted potato. Disappointing. Omelette made in a sandwich maker ! it could be do much better with a bit more care and attention they would still make a decent profit because of the location. Clearly all they are interested in is the bottom line so they do the basics, but not very well. Catering everywhere else has come on in leaps and bounds but here still stuck in school food standards of the fifties. OK for a cup of tea and a nice view though.

Just ordered food and was shouted at when I politely checked whether my drink was ready. I was so upset I left before receiving my food despite paying. Nobody should have to put up with that lack of respect, least of all a paying customer

A few of us working here have had the sausage sandwich! Pre Cooked Deep fried sausages then reheated = burnt and tasteless. The local open market could source you better quality meat. The blonde girl is so polite too!

Used to be so good now not so good vile salad not fresh. Fish cooked within an inch of it's life. Dry tasteless burger as for the chips 🤮. The oil tasted day's old. Coffee was so thick. Such a pity won't be returning.

Relatively quiet, bad attitude of server, long wait for food, stale bread, cold chips. Not great for a seafront venue

The only good thing about this place is the views... I ordered a Chicken Bacon Avocado panini and when I got it first of all it was smaller than the description that they gave me and then when I opened the panini the amount of filling was ridiculous small, a little bit of grilled chicken it was so little that you couldn't even tested, the bacon was tasteless (difficult for a bacon) and the avocado it was literally 3 really small pieces so I put them together it did cover not even half of the panini. So If you want to enjoy the sunset and a coffe or something to drink it's fine, but if you want something to eat better to go somewhere else.

Very disappointing. Have eaten here before on my visits to Brighton and Hove. Used to be good food at a reasonable price with pleasant staf. Not sny more. The fish was - well pretty disgusting which I could eat. The salad consisted of chopped tasteless tomatoes, thick triangle of cucumber and 2 sad looking tinned olives. When i took my food back, the first thing the staff said was 'we don't do refunds' I did get a refund but only because I stood my ground. Really awful customer service. I would score zero stars if I could. Such a shame that a place with a great reputation in a prime location has dropped to the lowest level.

Regular here for over 25 years for the tasty generous portions of wholesome food and fab views, but although the views remain stunning, the last 6 months has resulted in change; I’ve recently had stale sandwiches with prawns past their best and tuna mayonnaise sandwiches with stingy portions of tuna mayonnaise with barely any sweet corn. Guys, this is a false economy - your reputation amongst us locals has always been good- don’t let it slip- we’ll go elsewhere!

Had a cheese burger here and it was the worst I’ve had..avoid it..position is good but the food is not!!

Breakfast with a view. Perfect.

Just had an iced vanilla oat latte but the menu looked pretty good. Away from main town and beach but still busy which is a very good sign ☺️

Meat breakfast one bit of bacon one over cooked sausage one over fried egg nearly 8.pound snack a cheese and tuna cherbata cold tuna under cooked onions raw no more food cooked from there ever again

Good food, seaview reasonable prices

Great location and a bit pricey. Don't bother trying to get an early breakfast - although signs say breakfast from 7am the cook doesn't arrive until much later.