Hotel du Vin Brighton

It would be surprising if the Hotel Du Vin Brighton didn’t drip with personality, given the setting — not only are its thirty-seven unique bedrooms divided among several renovated structures, but the structures themselves are unusual, some in a mock-Tudor style, others Gothic revival. No chance of a dull and dreary double-loaded corridor here.

The seaside is perhaps more than a literal stone’s throw away, but not by much. And the rooms, though outfitted with the necessary luxuries, are unpretentious, as they should be — even the top-of-the-line suite, with its twin freestanding tubs right smack in the middle of the bedroom, feels sweetly haphazard, more authentically curated, somehow, than the crop of modern design hotels. A more highly polished approach would run counter to the ramshackle charm that’s among Brighton’s strengths.

Notably absent is the usual Bistro component common to the rest of the Hotels du Vin. Fret not; the Pub du Vin adjusts the concept to the setting, with a menu which, although it takes its inspiration from British pub culture rather than Parisian bistro cuisine, is quite up to the usual thoughtful standards — and the vin, it should be said, is, as ever, present and accounted for.