The Brighton On East

I go to the brighton at least once every two weeks. I do not understand how these people can have such bad experiences with the place because I have never had a bad time. People can never be satisfied these days. The food is always excellent. The brighton burger is a classic and the chicken parm sandwich is the best sandwich in rochester.

Pleasantly surprised by the very good food. After reading many of the reviews my partner was hesitant to try this place but since I had a good meal here last year I convinced her to give it a try. I knew the service could be slow and it was a bit spotty, but not like what I have encountered in the past.
The french onion soup was very good, as was the Brighton burger (cooked correctly to med rare). They gladly subbed a salad for the fries with no up-​charge. The meatloaf dinner was very good with a subtle tomato based gravy and the shoestring onion rings on top were excellent.
Overall a good experience, though if you are looking for a hip place this is not the spot since the crowd is made up of older loyal customers. And also they need to listen to their voicemail since that is how they take reservations during the day — they did not have our request though we were able to get a table…

Service was very slow and we had to ask several times to try and order when no one arrived after 20 mins. They seem ill prepared to do business. I was very disappointed and mentioned it to our server. Who then forgot to get me water three times. I contacted the owner, and apologies were made, and a promise of a Gift Certificate. Which never came. I will not go back and I recommend you don’t either.

Went back after a long break. The burger was cooked properly, which was my main complain from last time I was there. Hopefully the good burger wasn’t a fluke and it will be consistently good. Will be back again soon.

The Brighton on East is a classic Rochester bar and restaurant that has had various owners throughout the years. The newest management renovated the interior with a more modern décor while keeping the charm of the historic building. There is usually a good crowd for lunch and dinner, and the menu has a wide variety of options, including regular specials such as their Friday fish fry. However, some of the items are a bit pricy and the service can be slow at times. The bar is a more subdued than what you would find further down East Avenue in the Entertainment district with a regular crowd of younger patrons and a fairly standard selection of beer, wine and cocktails.

Unlikely we’ll be back. Service was polite, but untrained. There were 2 tables in the whole place when we stopped in with a ~2hr window for dinner before a game. 20 minutes for 2 drafts, 45 for fried calamari (3/​5, a little soggy and the calamari wasnt cleaned properly), and we never saw our burger or salad entrees before we had to leave. This with maybe 10 patrons at 2 tables, and ~4 guys at the bar drinking beers. A sad state to say the least. Clearly no professional training of the staff. Only the bus boy paid enough attention that we could even get our check to get out of there.

I don’t know WHY I bothered returning here after my last experience with them, but I had heard that there were new owners, and it’s close to where I live, and, besides, they accept the WXXI card, so why not give it a try? Well, first of all, they no longer accept the WXXI card, so that’s 1 strike, before even entering the door. Also, the parking lot is atrocious.
First off, the bar LOOKS nice. They offer seating on the porch for smokers, and for people who crave road noise while eating/​drinking. The walls and the seats LOOK nice, and the menu looked promising. We decided to not tempt fate, and we ordered a couple easy-​to-​make dishes, namely a burger cooked med-​rare, and an order of pasta florentine. The burger came out med-​well, with a paper-​thin slice of hothouse tomato, intsitutional fries, and was dry. My pasta was well past «al-​dente», and closer to «al rubbery», being overcooked. It was quite bland, as well, which, at $ 15/​serving was quite overpriced.
Having a concert to go to, I really didn’t want to drink any alcohol, so instead, I made the mistake of ordering hot tea with my meal. When the meal came, expecting nothing more exotic than Salada or Tetley, the waitress presented me with a wooden box filled with tea for me to make my choice. I opened it up, and it had been refilled with… those cheap teabags that Wegman’s sells for $ 1.99 for a box of 24! As if THAT wasn’t bad enough, there wasn’t a single tea that was made for having with a meal; they had chamomile, earl grey, chai, decaf green tea, and english breakfast tea, but not even 1 single orange pekoe! Seriously, when your menu tends towards meat-​and-​starch, you need some decent DINNER tea.
Also, for those eating vegetarian, your choices are pretty much limited to the aforementioned lousy pasta dish, and maybe a meatless ceasar salad, and that is ALL.
It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if the food was priced more reasonably, after all, if it’s just a bar, it would be halfway-​decent «bar food». But, as it is, they are attempting to look like an upscale restaurant, but in the end, they fail on the food department. I MAY go back for drinks some day, but never again for food.

Fine dining posers.
The menu has all the right words, the staff is plentiful, energetic, clean and uniformed. The room is beautiful.
The highest priced white wine on their list was Toasted Head. The croutons were very odd, broke into chunks that felt like eating glass.
They were out of the soup. And after waiting 25 minutes the waitress came back to tell me they were out of the special, snapper, that I had ordered. The waitress picked up the tab for our drinks, but the manager never came to the table so we left.
While we sat and waited for the meal that never was we watched the server at the birthday table of 20 something women next to us serve them… and join them in… two rounds of shots. That was about to get ugly, glad we left, won’t go back.

Although this place claims it reopened in 2012, so almost a year ago now, I feel they are still working out some kinks. I waited at the host stand for several minutes before a staff member even acknowledged I was there. They would walk by, ask the guy in front of me if he was all set, then walk away. It wasn’t until the customer in front of me told the staff I had not been helped that they assisted me.
The menu seems to lack focus. You can order burgers, sandwiches, pasta, seafood, steak, salad, etc. etc. etc. … I am not sure what their claim to fame is.
I ordered their salmon special. The only thing that was special was the salmon itself was cooked well, and the raspberry sauce on top. The sides were nothing great. I would rather spend $ 20 – 25 on an entrée someplace else.
Maybe in some time I will give this place another try, but my overall experience was nothing impressive or worthwhile.

Wait staff is good, bartender didn’t know how to make a proper Old Fashioned. We had a couple appetizers, was happy with them. Probably would have gotten a meal to split as well, but the drinks were terrible and we took off.
Will be back again, to give it another try

Had the crabcakes for dinner and was so yummy. The hostess was friendly the second we walked in and our waitress was just as sweet. We enjoyed the italian cookies from Savoia bakery with tea and gelato for dessert. was a perfect end to the meal. I will definitely be back to try the chicken french and the burger. The brunch menu sounds great too. A band was setting up on a saturday night and the bar seemed like a great fun vibe. I was impressed by The Brighton overall and it’s really nice job of renovating recently. Definitely recommend for a classic american meal in the Roc in a really nice atmosphere. Not too fancy but not too casual.

The food is fantastic, all fresh, made to order. Love the décor too, and the staff is friendly and attentive.

Bar was very nice and the wrap around deck is a plus. Our dinner sadly was horrible. Service was fine though. Our calamari came and it was hot and delicious. We had high hopes for our dinner. Chicken Parm was disgusting the sauce tasted like Campbell’s Tomato soup. My husband got the fish fry, I didn’t taste it but he said it wasn’t that good.

The Brighton gives off a strong vibe of a bar that’s trying to step up its restaurant game. The wait staff is polite and professional, and the menu *looks* good. Aside from being printed on cheap paper.
Unfortunately, they don’t quite seem to be able to deliver. The crab cakes were all breading and no crab, the scallops were overcooked, and the linguine they came in lacked flavor. The lobster cocktail appetizer was a neat idea, but the lobster was a little fishy and hardly worth $ 17. That was basically the theme: good idea, but poor execution & not worth the price they’re asking.

My phone died, so I couldn’t take pics. The staff was friendly, we just ordered appetizers at the bar.
The wings with buffalo, jalapeño, ginger sauce. Oxymoron it was buffalo style, slight ginger and heat from the jalapeño. I think it would have been more successful if it were a pepper jelly sweet heat with ginger tones. Just saying. They were crispy and cooked well though.
Calamari were also well prepared, tender and flavorful.
Shrimp cocktail were a great size.
Tomato basil soup was deliciously creamy and great basil punch.

Had lunch with friends today. Need reservation. easy parking. prompt
speciality dish. sandwiches very adequate. fries homemade and delicious. prices very reasonable.
Good place for a working lunch

The Brighton of today is not the Brighton of yore… which is to say that their main competition is, for some folks, a memory of what the restaurant used to be like. Long a tradition in our family, the Brighton used to be a home away from home. Super traditional (and memorable) items included a wonderful spinach salad with warm bacon dressing and the classic Brighton open faced steak sandwich.
Our last visit there was okay, though. The ambiance is, for those who remember the old restaurant, less clubby than it used to be. The noise from the bar was not too prevalent the night we went. The verdict? Not bad… they still offer a strip steak sandwich. I tried the Brighton burger, which was MASSIVE (I think I’m still digesting that one) but somewhat hampered by it’s accoutrements. I’d recommend changing up the roll, perhaps switch to Martusciellos bakery? My wife’s Mediterranean scallops over linguine almost fit the bill, leaving her somewhat moderately displeased. She’s incredibly picky about scallops, though.
Service was brisk but quirky. Our server was friendly but infrequently attentive. I’m not shy about flagging wait staff down, though, so it wasn’t a real issue.
All in all, the Brighton is a somewhat decent reboot, well worth checking out. I’ll revisit them again when we want to dine out on a Friday or Saturday night and can’t get a reservation elsewhere…

Improved

I’ve had a few interesting experiences here. The first time for dinner — our waiter was great, lots of fun. I had the Freixenet sparking wine, good of course because you can’t really mess up a small bottle of bubbly. I ordered the gnocchi — it was a little gummy, but I did enjoy the marinara sauce. Flavorful and light.
My second visit was just to see a band and enjoy a drink at the bar. The bar area was filled with a few people — older and many who were sitting alone so it was a strange vibe as a 20-​something on a night out with a few friends. We were laughing and had a great time, but every moment there was a break in the conversation there was this strange silent presence, knowing that everyone was eavesdropping on our conversation, including the staff.
I didn’t hate it here, but don’t love it either. I know it’s a local fave among some of the Brighton-​area folks so I’ll leave it for them to enjoy and I’ll head over to a bar where I feel more comfortable.

I always feel a little conflicted writing a less than stellar review based on a single dining experience at a restaurant. Maybe I just ordered the wrong dish? an off night?
This place was recommended to me by a friend so I went on a date there saturday evening. Reservations were not required and we were seated immediately when we showed up around 6:30 pm or so. Id say the place was approaching full, but not overly crowded.
The ambience of the place is great. I can imagine how nice it would be during the warmer months to sit out on the patio area. Inside was great however, and the staff was courteous, the place was clean, dimly lit but not dark and noise level was comfortable. I would say the Brighton leans more toward an older crowd, but I totally felt cool here as an early 30-​something.
The only issue I had with the Brighton was the food (details, details). First off the rolls they give you are fresh baked, warm soft and off the chain. They are a little stingy with the butter packets but thats ok.
I went with the chicken special, which was one of the specials the waiter offered. I’m not sure if he mentioned it or not, but the pasta in the dish was bathed in peppercorns, making it way to spicy and overwhelming to eat. It was accompanied by broccoli rabe which I devoured and thought was tasty. But the bulk of the dish (ie the pasta with the chicken) was not enjoyable.
My date ordered scallops which he said were ok, but not impressive. He declined to comment further.
I think if I were to return here I may get something like a burger or a salad as I think this place might do better with simpler dishes.