Silo

Un lieu bon dans tous les sens du terme. Silo a pour objectif de restaurer ses hôtes avec une nourriture saine dans le respect de l’environnement. C’est un restaurant zéro-​déchet, une boulangerie bio ou la farine est moulue sur place, un café où le café est exceptionnel.

There is something exceptional about this restaurant. The head chef is clearly very passionate and ambitious about the restaurant’s objectives, but is also talented. The food evolves with the seasons, from foraged autumnal recipes to delightfully green spring ingredients. There is no other place in Brighton that I know like this — and I am sure it is not exactly for everyone, but it is definitely worth a try. Everyone there is friendly and clearly onboard with the pioneering visions of the owners and every dish, every plate and every piece of furniture has a great story behind it.
I have gone a few times for lunch — I like to start with the soup, which is served with their amazing bread and butter, followed by a meaty main.

Brighton has to be the place to be if you have sustainability in mind. I’m not sure which of Silo or that trend came first, but I sense there’s a bit of a chicken and egg sort of thing going on there.
They say the devil is in the details, and it most definitely is true when it comes to sustainability. Silo went very deep into this whole detail business and what they built is very inspiring indeed. It delivers resourceful cooking and I defy anyone not to be impressed with the level of service and dedication each member of staff brings to the cause.

Before I go into my own experience of Silo, I’d like to start by explaining their ethos. They are zero waste establishment and everything they serve, is either foraged or intercepted from large food retailers, that would otherwise, just be binned for being a bit a little non-​uniformed or undersized. They also brew their own alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. I absolutely love that!
The same principle is applied to the design of the space. Using OSB offcuts for chairs, spare sheet metal applied to old school desks for diners to eat on, free-​cycled plates, glasses, jars and cutlery are also used. Naturally they also have great industrial filament pendant bulbs everywhere too.
I originally came here with my partner back in January for their tasting evening. It was a six course meal spread over four hours. Each dish was amazingly well thought out, so unconventionally tasty [compared to most food I’ve tried], and one of the chefs or servers would come over to serve and explain each component of the dish and where its origins were. For the last course the head chef and owner came over to explain the dish and asked how we were getting on. We were all given a complementary gin, with homemade cordial and pink lemonade.
Without going into detail too much about each dish, they really executed the evening so well. My top two dishes were the catch-​box fish, seaweed with violet potatoes and the braised venison, parsnip & rosemary which had an amazing texture along with some superb flavors.
They also do great coffee and lunch, where they use lovely sourdough breads and always have really interesting fillings, much to their normal way of doing things.
Highly recommend this place!

Brighton is all chic, vegan, hipster, quirky. After recommendation from the awesome kiwi at Crosstown Doughnuts, he said check out Silo. Silo are the first UK Zero waste café. They choose local food sources that avoid processing and create everything on site, with the extent of having their own flour mill.
We were served their homemade complimentary sour dough bread with home made butter. This bread was so incredibly soft and moist. They are served on these rubber looking plates which the chef informs us is made from recycled plastic bags. The menu is simple for lunch. One — fish, plant, meat, dairy, and wild. We were given one menu to share between two of us, but if ya can’t share the menu is projected on to the wall in two places for everyone — I guess their way of saving paper.
The fish was cod and you can’t get any better. The fish had been caught that morning! It was so soft and velvety and served on a delicious seaweed and poached leek mash. The menu is so light and innovative and nothing is soaked in oil or butter. The produce is well cared for and served accordingly. If your on the run, they have a selection of baked goods and takeaway sandwiches.
I think the concept for Silo is exceptional. No waste and recycling is a great example to set for other restaurants. The wait for the food was a bit long but the standard of food is so high its well worth the wait. The staff are very informative and the chefs explain the dishes whilst serving and are very proud for the concept they produce.
Rating
Food: ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Service: ⁸⁄₁₀
Value for Money: Very Good
39 Upper Gardner Street, Brighton BN1 4AN
Opening Hours:
Mon-​Weds 9am-​5pm
Thurs-​Sat 9am-​830pm
Sun 11am-​5pm

A fairly new addition to the Brighton dining scene Silo bills itself as the UK’s first ‘zero-​waste’ restaurant, which is quite possibly the most ‘Brighton’ sounding thing ever. So it was with excitement, and a little apprehension, that I headed to Silo to see what all the fuss was about for myself…
Décor wise, they’ve got it bang on. Sparsely decorated, with exposed brick work and chalk board wall, all eyes are on the chefs who work away in the room itself, and are quite happy to offer advice on the menu.
Things start off very nicely with the discovery of a 7% apple and elderflower cider made in the basement for £2.50 a jar — dangerously good — and I’m pleased to say things only improve from there.
I opt for the braised ox cheek with caramelised turnip, buckwheat and kale for £12 whilst my dining partner went for the whole partridge with sweet potato and something fermented which I can’t quite recall for £14. Both were melt in the mouth delicious, and beautifully served in refreshingly generous portions. All plates also come with a side helping of bread, served on a recycled plastic platter, naturally.
If this is what zero-​waste tastes like then consider me a fan.
Reasonably priced, inventive, tasty AND saving the planet? What’s not to like!