Santiago Restaurant

Before coming to Brighton I had already decided that I wanted to eat seafood along the beach. My friends and I originally planned to go to Riddle & Finns, but before we actually got there Santiago, which is literally right next door, caught our attention — it looked really busy (which we interpreted as a good thing), and the food looked exactly like the stuff we had in mind. So we ended up here on a whim (kind of) but I’m so glad we did.
For lunch I got the hake fillet with clams, new potatoes, and green beans — the most popular dish of the day, according to our waitress — and I loved it! It was my first time trying hake and let me just say that Santiago left a great first impression. The fish was cooked perfectly — I especially appreciated how they didn’t put too much sauce which I find is unfortunately pretty common. The clams were wonderful too — normally I’m not a fan of clams, but for some these ones were so good I think I might give them another try in the future. I liked the potatoes too, but the green beans were a bit too hard (undercooked?) for my liking.
The minus one star is partially because I was a bit disappointed in the green beans, but also because the service in the beginning wasn’t the best. We were left standing by the entrance for a really long time before being acknowledged. I think their system might be to only acknowledge you when there’s a table ready? Not a fan of that, but not so much so as to stop me from coming here if I ever visit Brighton again.