Essex Eating in Brighton - The Ginger Fox.

I'd booked a table at The Ginger Fox for a late dinner on the way home from our couple of days in Brighton. It's a Gastro Pub, owned by the Gingerman group, who also run the rather excellent Ginger Pig in Hove, which I raved about here.

The Ginger Fox is located about 15 mins drive outside of Brighton, a mile off the motorway, and a short way down some country lanes.
Pulling into the car park in the early evening sun, the pub presented a rather picturesque scene - with the thatched roof, incorporating a fox chasing a game bird, and the building overlooking some lovely countryside. The tables outside looked perfect for a lazy afternoon drink.

Entering the pub, we proceeded to the bar and enquired after our table, slight hitch - my reservation had disappeared, but luckily for me - there was a table for two available so no harm done.

After nibbling on some rather nice bread, I ordered Braised Pig Cheek Ravioli, with Gooseberries and Braising juices to start. The ravioli was nicely cooked, the pigs cheek contents strong and meaty tasting, but not entirely sure it worked with the gooseberries, the sourness of the fruit not being balanced with any sweetness, but all the same it was pretty good.
The GF declined to order a starter, as is often her crazy custom.

Onto the mains, I ordered off the chalked board of specials, Pumpkin seed crusted loin of Venison with Gamekeepers Pie, and Courgette puree. This was an altogether more successful dish, The Venison nicely seared, served moist and pink, the gamekeepers pie containing more tasty offerings of venison in a rich gravy, not entirely sure about the courgette puree - it looked nice, but didn't add a lot to the dish - although, I'm not the biggest courgette fan. But overall, very nice indeed.
The GF ordered Roast Butternut Squash with Blue Cheese and Watercress Lasagna. There's no photo of this because a) she stuck her fork in before I could get a photo, and b) Lasagna isn't the most photogenic dish anyway. In any case, her considered opinion is that it was just OK, not bad - but not good either. I tried a bit and wasn't sold on it either.

Onto desserts, and these were a lot more like it. I ordered Cherry Oat Cake with clotted cream, and it was a winner, warm, moist and sweet with juicy cherries layered throughout. Great stuff.

The GF chose hot Chocolate Fondant with Blackberry sorbet, and once again, it was really nice. I've eaten a fair few fondants and made them myself fairly regularly, (Recipe Here) and this was a good example, being baked lightly on the outside, but molten chocolate within. Paired with the rather good Blackberry sorbet, it was a nice way to finish the meal.

So, the verdict. Pretty Good. I would visit again if I was visiting Brighton or the Downs as its perfectly placed to pop in on the way back, being just off the motorway to London. It's also a lovely example of a gastro pub, the food is interesting, some dishes working better than others.

The thing is, I wanted to like it more, I had such a great meal at it's sister restaurant, the Ginger Pig in Hove back in February and was really looking forward to eating there. Perhaps I built it up too much in expectation, perhaps on the night I didn't choose the best dishes, but in the end The Ginger Fox was good, just not as good as The Ginger Pig.

The Ginger Fox
On the A281 at the junction with the B2117,
West Sussex.
BN6 9EA.

Tel: 01273 857888

http://www.gingermanrestaurants.com/