The Bystander Cafe

Unbelievably awful!
We had two baked potatoes tuna and cheese. The potatoes came in soaked in butter from the bottom, the cheese was frozen cold, and the tuna was as chunky as it came from the can they didn’t bother to break it down! Neither did they took the effort to warm the cheese !! The salad on the side tasted like eating Mayo from the jar!
We also had a latte. And this is for real! ²⁄₃ the cup is foam!!! When I removed and I asked for more milk (nicely) the girl who made the coffee took it personally and started trash talking me behind the counter as if I wasn’t there.
I wanted to return my food after the first bite and leave the place but cause I payed for it I felt bullied to set and digest the uncomfortable situation I was in.
Recommendation: stop hiring people because you want to offer jobs and take your business into consideration. You need to hire a new cook and a new barista !! I can see that you take reviews here into action, and the location of your business is on point, and that you’re taking a good care of the place. Just a bit effort in hiring and recruiting process and you’ll be the next great thing there, especially the competition you have inside the station, plenty of great restaurants and cafes.
Good luck!

Great service, food, prices and environment.

Das Café liegt direkt neben dem Bahnhof, nur 1 Minute zu den Zügen–
Im und vor Café hat man einen hervorragenden Blick auf das Treiben vor dem Bahnhof. Es wird nicht langweilig, ständig betreten neue Akteure die Bühne.
Das Englische Frühstück, das wir einnahmen, hatte alles was man erwartet von Eiern über Bohnen zur Blutwurst über Tomate und Champignons hin zu Würstchen und Toast. Für 4,95 wird man wirklich satt.
Die hübsche und sehr freundliche Bedienung sollte auch noch erwähnt werden.

This place makes a mean fry up! And a gorgeous amaretto hot chocolate! Just not in the nicest of settings, I’m not a fan of this high st/​area of brighton.

The Bystander Café is a great little greasy spoon in an incredibly convenient location. Situated as close to Brighton station as you can get without being inside it, this is a great place to grab breakfast before you hop onto a train. This is especially the case if you’re hung over, as their not-​particularly-​healthy, greasy-​spoon style fry-​up will be exactly what you need.

This is a late night eating venue for anybody looking for some greasy British food after dark. Not open quite as late as venues like Buddies or the infamous Market Diner, the Bystander generally closes around midnight, although this can vary depending on trade.
You’ll find the Bystander directly opposite the Brighton Railway Station smoking area, that kind of sums up the physical appeal of this small café.
Selling the normal menu, you can also get a range of omlettes and other cooked meals, although serving times of dishes do tend to vary, again depending on the business.
Still, there are better options located nearby.

The Brighton Bystander used to be a favourite of mine when I was waiting for the train: a nice place for a fry-​up, as well as a variety of different meals for very reasonable prices. However, now that my time-​keeping has gotten better, as has my wallet gotten fatter, I normally end up heading under the arch and down into the North Laine: it’s not the Bystander isn’t nice, it just doesn’t offer as much as some of the lovely places nearby. Location can’t be the only reason you go somewhere!
Comparable to other greasy spoons in the area, the Bystander does it’s best to hold onto passing trade by serving a variety of meals, but there’s nothing really special here. With some of the nicer places that have opened just into the North Laine, there’s little holding customers here, and it’s a shame. It’s just uneventful, and that’s one thing that Brighton has always sported in droves.
If you are in the mood for this sort of food, the Bystander is a perfectly nice place for a bite to eat, although it isn’t the best food around. The fry-up’s perfectly nice however, and what I’d recommend if you are here. The other reason to come here is the internet café at the back: need to check your mail before jumping on the train? With the advent of iPhones and Blackberrys, the point of places like this is lost on me too, although it will be useful to those of us who are a little technologically behind.

The place has had a little refurbishment a while back to bring it up to date. Don’t expect any marble counters or glided tables. Still, it is nice to see the place a little cleaner and fresher.
It also retains it’s café credentials and serves decent coffee. The food is okay and what you would expect from a café. Plates of baked beans, bacon and toast all do the job. I have eaten better cooked breakfasts, but for the price you won’t be disappointed.
It’s a good spot to arrange to meet anyone arriving by train or to just hang out fora while and read a paper.

Great little café by the train station — handy if you get there early or are killing time before picking up a mate arriving by train. The breakfasts are great and since they tarted the place up with a fresh interior and a couple of couches by the window it’s a nice place to hang. Aside of fry ups and sarnies there’s a wealth of Italian dishes too. Great lasagne.

I have enjoyed many a pre-​train fry-​up at the Bystander. It is the closest place to the train station, which can be a recipe for disaster with the reliance on passing trade tempting the owners to deliver poor standards of food and service. There is an emerging pattern in Brighton that disproves this theory (see reviews of Grand Central, The Queen’s Head and The Prince Albert).
The Brighton Bystander continues this trend of disproving my hypothesis. It is the perfect place to go if you’re going on a long journey, as the generous portions will give you much needed nutritional support, but also knock you out for that tedious trip. Just make sure you set your alarm so you don’t miss your stop!