Off The Beach Cafe

You'll find yourself at the edge of Hove Lagoon, watching the water and the people watching you back—it's one of those spots that feels properly local rather than touristy, even though it's right on Kingsway. The cafe does that increasingly rare thing of getting breakfast right: the coffee's actually good, the pastries aren't stale, and the brunch menu doesn't read like someone's fever dream. On a decent day, the lagoon-side seating is genuinely lovely, and you get that sense of having stumbled somewhere real, away from the usual North Laine crowds. It's the kind of place where regulars actually come back, not just Instagram tourists passing through.