What: A high-reaching tasting menu-only restaurant in central Brighton within the space that was once home to Japanese restaurant and bar Oki-Nami. Two years in the making, Furna’s name draws inspiration from the Furner family, former owners of the land the restaurant sits on, and the surname’s ancestral meaning of ‘one who sets bread in the oven’. Offering a £90 tasting menu straight off the bat, Furna is the most ambitious restaurant to have launched in the city of Brighton and Hove for some time.
Who: Furna is the debut solo restaurant project for well-known Brighton and Hove chef Dave Mothersill. Originally from Yorkshire, Mothersill has been cooking in the city for over 20 years, cutting his teeth at highly-rated vegetarian restaurant Terre à Terre before rising swiftly through the ranks at Ben Mckellar’s The Ginger Pig gastropub in Hove. He was in charge of the food at Raz Helalat’s Blackrock Restaurants group from 2015 to 2018 before returning to Mckellar’s group to oversee his The Gingerman flagship as head chef. Mothersill’s senior team is made up of Brighton and Hove talents he has worked with before. Isobel Humbey is sous chef, Jessica Elliott is pastry chef, Ross Truman is general manager and Rosie Greene is bar manager.
The vibe: The 37-cover restaurant is set in a handsome Georgian building opposite the Royal Pavilion’s gardens. The space has a grown-up but not staid feel, retaining many of the building’s original features. Design elements include floor-to-ceiling windows to the front of the space, a striking curved bar, a green ombre colour palette, banquette seating with gold stitching and a high-spec open kitchen to the rear with counter seating. Mothersill and team have plenty of room to work with the basement of the site home to an impressive PDR with its own kitchen and extensive wine cellar as well as a generous amount of prep space.
The food: Mothersill’s considerable and varied experience is evident throughout Furna’s menu, which kicks off with a trio of snacks and a notably-assured bread course before moving on to dishes including milk-brined sweetbread, puffed wild rice, chanterelle, chestnuts, roasted chicken and sherry sauce and winter truffle; and Cornish monkfish, smoked eel, celeriac, apple, horseradish and Exmoor caviar. Mothersill’s food is characterised by a lightness of touch - for example a beef and lobster dish is paired with a hazelnut dashi rather than a more cloying jus - clever use of acidity and a willingness to put his money where his mouth is when it comes to sourcing high-quality produce.
To drink: Furna’s drinks offering matches nicely with the ambition of the kitchen. What the wine list lacks in breadth it makes up in variety, striking a good balance between the classic regions and the less obvious. The wine pairing option of the tasting menu is priced at £65 and entry level prices for still wines are £32 for both red and white. High rollers can choose from a selection of top-end wines from nearby wine supplier Brunswick Fine Wines, which are held in Furna's cellar on a consignment basis.
And another thing: Mothersill’s ‘go big or go home’ policy looks to have paid off with Furna having already made its mark on Brighton and Hove's restaurant scene. It looks like there’s a new contender in the long running contest to win the city its first Michelin star in decades.