La Choza Review - Mexican Street Food, Brighton

Rating: 6/10

Cost: Burrito and beer for £9.50

Go there if: You're young, trendy, hungry and want some tasty, filling, inexpensive nosh.

Conclusion: Not bad but disappointing; restaurant reliant on image and decor more than food.

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La Choza is proving to be an extremely popular new restaurant in Brighton. It's unlikely you'll get a table as this small venue is permanently packed. Instead they have a system of taking your mobile number and calling you when a table becomes available, and they're keen to stress that they won't be offended if you find somewhere else to eat in the meantime.

I missed out the first time I tried to try La Choza as my friend and I were too hungry to wait and we went to The Chili Pickle for lunch instead (for the £13 thali) followed by 2 for 1 caipirinhas at chain restaurant Las Iguanas (it was Christmas Eve). On my second visit to La Choza for lunch a few days later there still wasn't room for me and I still couldn't wait to eat, but this time I got take-away. I was dying to try the food and wouldn't be back in Brighton for a while.

The menu is quite limited - no bad thing - and all the main courses are based on the simple system of selecting a base (burrito, burrito bowl, quesadillas, tostadas), a filling (slow cooked beef, marinated and shredded free range chicken, homemade Mexican chorizo, pit-smoked pulled pork by Bar-B-Q Shack, deep-fried battered fish, roasted spicy squash and sweet potato with feta, prawns fried with garlic, chili and lime) and a salsa (mild pico de gallo, mild green, medium cooked chipotle, hot habanero).

I chose a burrito with the pulled pork and hot salsa (£6). As well as your chosen filling, the burritos come stuffed with green rice, cheese, sour cream and refried beans.

The helpful and cheerful waiter recommended the Modelo Especial Mexican beer (£3.50), which I enjoyed while waiting for my lunch. I had to stand in the cramped space between the door and the little bar, and watch seated diners enjoying their meals while being jostled by constant new arrivals trying to get a table.

The decor is very bright and funky, featuring lots of sugar skulls (Mexican painted skulls) and Mexican-style fabrics. The clientelle seemed to be predominantly young and female. I think everyone there apart from me was under 30.

Image from La Choza's website

My burrito arrived and I took it outside to eat standing up next to a table that I put my beer on. The soft burrito was large and generously filled but mainly with rice. The rice was nice and the burrito was tasty, but it was lacking - lacking in care for the way it was filled (sections of individual ingredients clumped together so it was impossible to get a mouthful of everything, and I had to work my way through grated cold cheese followed by sour cream and just tonnes of rice), lacking in pork, lacking in salsa, lacking in punchy Mexican flavour. Some of the quite hard chunks of 'pulled' pork were too big for one mouthful but were difficult to bite in two.

Much is made of the slow-cooked element of La Choza's fare, but I struggled to taste the sparse pork. I could tell that effort had been made with the rice but the sheer quantity of it took over everything else. The refried beans clearly hadn't been made to an authentic recipe. They seemed to just be a bean purée. Why take such care with the meat and rice but not bother with the beans? Especially as the menu is so limited; every item should be the best it can be. That is what I assumed I would experience after reading about the restaurant's pride in the meats it serves and seeing the small menu. I was disappointed.

I'm sorry to say that I think the popularity of La Choza is down to its trendy image and the aesthetic appeal of its interior and not to its food. Hence the youthful customer base. Yes, I only tried one dish but I think you can judge a Mexican by its burritos. It would still be nice to eat in there with the bright colours and filling, tasty food, but it could be really fantastic and it just isn't. The crampedness would even add positively to the street food feel if the food was as good as it could be. But as it is, I would rather have fajitas in Las Iguanas, with plenty of juicy meat, salsa, guacamole and enough space to dine comfortably.

Brighton; Kurdish Restaurant Reccommendation, Pomegranate

There are so many restaurants in Brighton, mostly with the same 'for-educated-foodies-but-not-fine-dining' aim, that it is difficult to decide which to try next, and a gamble that your chosen venue will achieve its aim. Here is one to try that you might miss, without a recommendation: Pomegranate, in Kemptown. It's in a side street (Manchester St), just near Harry Ramsden's on the sea front, and it's not only good, but interesting and exciting, too.

For starters, the very fresh garlic chilli prawns were juicy, perfectly cooked and genuinely very spicy and garlicky indeed. They were covered in chili oil and coriander in oil, richly seasoned, and served on top of a light flatbread. The flatbread soaked up the absolutely delicious oil and juices. Yesss! It was that elusive find; a chef who is not afraid of serving plenty of flavour or oil. My companion was so impressed, that he ordered a second plate of the spicy prawn dish to go with his main course.

Prawns with garlic and hot pepper

Next up was lamb kebabs for me, lamb chops for him. The kebab dish was one of the nicest things I've ever had in my mouth; plate-sized, puffy, soft flatbread, with chunks of tender griddled lamb, Pomegranate's 'special butter-yogurt sauce', HOT and fragrant chili oil in a pot, beautifully roasted Mediterranean vegetables, delicate salad (lovely, not-too-sweet honey dressing), and this buttery, salty erm.. stuff all over the bread and soaked into a little mound of rice. I would normally leave all the rice with a carby dish like this, but the butter sauce was so unbelievably delicious, that I had to keep going. I didn't want this dining experience to end, anyway. Plus, I kept having sneaky tastes of the prawns again, and then having to finish once more on the butter.

The generous portion of char-grilled chops came with a mellow lemon and oregano oil, dainty salads and rice. Both massive platefuls were big on presentation, but the portions were not over-sized - just generous and presented with a bit of refined and pretty drama.

Lamb kebabs

Everything was so goddamn tasty, running with flavour and mouthwatering juices, and perfectly balanced in every direction. All the dishes were clearly cooked to order, and everything was certainly made from scratch on the unassuming premises. I really wish I'd had room to taste the delightful-sounding stuffed figs, but hopefully another time. Even though I'm usually on a mission to keep trying new places, this is one place I have to go back to - my mouth waters at the thought.

The prawns were £6.50, the main courses about £12 - amazing value, considering the thought, skill, ingredients and effort that had gone into the food here, compared to other similarly-priced restaurants. I've just seen from Pomegranate's website (www.eatpomegranates.com), that their ingredients are organic, and the chef (Hassan) is also the joint owner, which all helps.

The waitress (is that the owner/chef's partner, Zelal?) was friendly, attentive and discreet. The timing between courses was ideal. (UPDATE: That wasn't Zelal - we met her the next time we ate here, when she was our waitress - highly professional with a sparkling sense of humour.)

I'm utterly chuffed to have found this eating option! Thank-you, Pomegranate, for a special meal.