We were greeted at the entrance to the breakfast room and taken to a breakfast table which was in the Cyan restaurant just outside the main breakfast room. It was a lovely quiet location with a sea view. The greeter showed us to our seat and explained how the fully self-service buffet worked. The hot and cold food choices were excellent.
After breakfast we set off on our chosen walking route from the Rough Guide to Brighton, Sussex and the West Downs. Our route took in the sea front, The Lanes, The Pavilion and the Railway Station and the Volks Railway Station. I was a bit surprised by Mr C’s reaction on seeing the Pavilion for the first time. He laughed!!! Not at all what I had expected.
During our walk we stopped for lunch at Brand 16 in the Lanes, Duke Street, a place that serves luxury toasties. We had enjoyed a refreshing drink there the previous afternoon on our initial walk around Brighton.
We returned to the hotel to chill out and recover from our 8-mile walk. Once again, we had hoped that we could dine in the hotel’s Restaurant Cyan but we were informed that it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We elected to dine in the hotel’s grill bar which they kept pushing. The food was good quality but not exquisite. I chose the fish option but the sides and sauces didn’t quite work to perfection. The service was not as attentive as we would have expected from a hotel of the Grand’s calibre. Whilst we were dining, a fight broke out just outside the hotel entrance area which the duty concierge skilfully dealt with.
The fact that the hotel’s main restaurant, Cyan, was not open on Tuesdays meant that we wouldn’t be able to dine in the hotel for our anniversary meal the following day. This meant we needed a plan B.
I chose a more appropriate skirt for walking for walking along the windy lanes of Brighton in search of a pub that Mr C thought had potential for a good pint of beer. The previous evening my skirt was light and flyaway so I had to hold on to it to preserve my dignity. We arrived at the chosen pub to find that it was Karaoke night. Not at all what Mr C had in mind. He quickly located a potential alternative but soon after we arrived, he didn’t like the atmosphere and would happily have moved on again. I felt quite comfortable there and didn’t pick up on any negative vibes. We returned to the hotel where I took a nightcap up to the room to enjoy whilst writing the days adventures into my holiday notebook.
Sometimes things just don’t work out as planned. A pity that your Hotel Restaurant was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays
We found out the following day that they had also closed it on Wednesday for a private function that didn’t happen. By this time we had already given up trying to eat in the hotel. There were other nice places nearby.