I tried Brighton's first seafood boil The Gothic Crab

But at The Gothic Crab in Brighton, it’s not just encouraged – it’s inevitable.

Rising like a kraken from the depths, it occupies a spot on Madeira Place in Kemp Town, a stone’s throw from the sea.

Owned by seafood merchant Phil Dono, his partner Anna Pollard and their friend Benitto Tarantino, who runs Morelli Zorelli in Hove, the eatery already has a good pedigree.

The newly-coined Brighton Dream (Image: Newsquest) The USP? It claims to be the first restaurant to specialise in that most Cajun of cooking traditions, the seafood boil.

If your social media algorithm is in any way attuned to the gastronomic, you’ve probably already seen TikTok videos of crawfish, corn and potatoes being poured into vats of golden boiling broth.

READ MORE: My experience at one of Brighton's top restaurants Wild Flor

If not, imagine the aquatic inverse of a BBQ, but equally synonymous with the Deep South.

But are these delicious fishies more than just bait for Instagram?

I had to find out.

I was ready for action (Image: Newsquest) So I loosened my belt, donned the black latex gloves and apron provided and set to work on the feast that was laid in front of us.

As my dining companion said, we looked like something out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre – which was fitting, it turned out, when our exuberant host Jordan Graham brought out the food.

Presented in a classic white and blue tin tray, this cornucopia of Poseidon’s bounty was a far cry from the plastic bags of seafood, tipped onto the table, which is the most typical way this communal dish is served.

The boil in all its glory (Image: Newsquest) Between two, we had (deep breath) a whole local lobster, a whole local brown crab, langoustine, wild king prawns, tiger prawns, razor clams and mussels, mixed with Cajun-style sausage, mini chorizo, corn on the cob and new potatoes.

At £65 a head, it’s not cheap – but given the variety and quality of seafood on offer, I’d say it’s decent value for money.

The most challenging to access proved to be the most rewarding; the brown crab claws were packed with meltingly delicious strands of flesh, but encased in a thick armour which needed Jordan to bring out some mallets.

There are not many places where smashing your dinner with a hammer would be socially acceptable, but this fishy funhouse was one of them.

It turns out this type of cuisine needs more attention than most from your hosts, who in our case were regularly refreshing our bowls-come-graveyards where the remains of our prey had been tossed aside.

Jordan also made sure I got into that crab claw, giving it some welly when my feeble attempts failed, while chef Al Studd gave us some advice while coming out to check on us and fellow guests.

As the shells were cleared, what became increasingly visible was the golden pool of meat juices and broth at the bottom of the dish, just crying out to be dunked into by some springy fresh bread.

What a feast.

I was pretty much defeated (Image: Newsquest) To wash this down, Jordan whipped us up a couple of cocktails of his own invention, using muddled strawberries and raspberries, lime, limoncello and Brighton gin, topped up with elderflower.

By his own admission, ‘mixed berry Brighton gin dream’ or some variant was too much of a tongue-twister.

But whatever it is called - perhaps Brighton Dream? - it should be added to the menu stat.

Sherbetty without being saccharine, this was delicious and as my fellow diner described it , "like a holiday in a glass".

The Brighton mess (Image: Newsquest) With the Ibiza-adjacent saxophone tunes playing in the background, you could almost mistake yourself with being at the Café Del Mar - if not for the decidedly more Art Nouveau than Gothic furnishings.

Our other host, Charlotte, cleared away the debris from our marine massacre, quipping that we wouldn’t want a shard of crab shell in our desserts.

Mine was a Brighton Mess: fresh strawberries, meringue and Chantilly cream mixed with a homemade berry jam made the day before.

It’s a personal favourite anyway, so maybe I’m biased, but it hit all the right notes.

In my excitement to describe the main course, I have also neglected to mention the starters we had, which set the tone for a delicious evening: a cheesy baked crab dip, sumptuous scooped on bread, and smoked haddock croquettes, which had a similarly oozing filling.

The smoked haddock croquettes and a cheesy crab dip (Image: Newsquest) Perhaps not a wise move ahead of a Romanesque banquet, given the carbs, but a delicious one nonetheless.

I think perhaps more than any other food, seafood is the most synonymous with ritual: take oysters, for example.

But this was a whole other level, from the apron to the gloves and the plethora of options available.

Who said playing with your food was childish?

A fantastic addition to Kemp Town’s food scene and one I hope won’t go off the boil.