Baby's first tapas

Pintxo People
95-99 Western Road, Brighton (01273 732 323).
**

Pintxo, the Basque word for tapas, is pronounced pin'cho. Aptly enough, a freezing wind hurling off the English Channel had pinched our cheeks and noses a wino's purple and turned the lips of the two-year-old with us a worrying shade of blue.

The warmth of the welcome from the staff at Pintxo People - the new self-styled 'slice of Barcelona in the heart of Brighton' - momentarily took second place to the efficient central heating.

We had booked for lunch in the restaurant on the first floor of what turned out to be handsome premises with the stained-glass glazing and spaciousness that speak of a former existence as a Victorian pub.

Some fancy London designer with ideas about pearly-grey walls, tomato-red seating, Venetian-glass chandeliers and dangling spotlights focused on snowy-white tablecloths has helped blot out the memories. I'm not sure if he has succeeded in conjuring up Barcelona or, indeed, the quite separate Basque country, but the look works well.

A large bar area to one side, furnished with black leather Chesterfields, doubtless comes into its own in the evenings. Jason Fendick, who is behind the venture, is apparently a celebrated cocktail mixologist and previous venues of his have been winners of Evening Standard Bar of the Year.

If it was Jason who came to talk to us at the end of lunch, he is also a nice, child-friendly individual.

The restaurant menu is designed for sharing. A helpful waiter explained that the sheet of paper entitled Pescado was fish dishes, that of Carne was meat dishes and Verduras referred to vegetables.

Emboldened by this knowledge, we ordered Bellota acorn-fed Iberico ham with tomato and toast to start. Before that arrived we were given three little white ceramic spoons containing a cheesy purée that was perfect baby food.

The ham was daintily arranged and grated tomato mixed with olive oil made a good dip for the bread and, later on in the meal, an all-purpose sauce.

Chef Miguel Jessen trained at the Madrid restaurant El Amparo, which specialises in creative Basque cooking. If I remember correctly, he also worked in Ibiza.

A deft hand was applied to the cooking of a Spanish-style stir-fry of seafood and vegetables, but the impact was spoiled by the quality of the fish, which included flossy prawns and chalky scallops.