Brighton's Shelter Hall is looking in great shape for Christmas

It’s already in full seasonal swing, with a whopping great Crimbo tree, and enough baubles to fill even the biggest grotto.

We paid a visit on a pre-holiday Sunday afternoon and eased straight into the popular venue’s chilled vibe, aided considerably by some awesome sounds from the Chris Coull Jazz band.

For the uninitiated, Shelter Hall is a mammoth three-storey food hall close to the old West Pier, home to seven kitchens, two bars and some pretty impressive sea-views from the mezzanine first floor.

This Christmas there’s also plenty of huts on the terrace and three large party domes for groups of up to 16 people, and there are packages available for large and small parties.

We took our seats in the aforementioned mezzanine and looked down on the brilliant jazzers performing in front of lovely decs, like a nicely-understated Christmas song promo reel.

There was the option to stay comfortably put for the duration as you can order from all of Shelter Hall’s bars and kitchens through a fairly straight-forward app, but we obviously wanted to have a look around the cool kitchens and get a sneaky look at the food first-hand.

After some predictable toing and froing we chose dishes from Conchita’s Mexican Kitchen, Little Bao Boy, Sear by Salt Shed, and from the Alpine Festive kitchen.

As you’d imagine with ordering from different kitchens the food arrives as an and when it’s cooked, which turned out to be pretty darn sharpish.

We shared a hefty bowl of cheese loaded Nachos from Conchita’s Mexican kitchen, a great mound of tortilla chips with black beans, melted cheese, sliced jalapeño, and some fantastically fresh and zingy pico de gallo.

The pescatarian in our group settled on a couple of beauties from Little Bao Boy, veggie gyozas with sweet chilli, and big rice bowl of crispy cauliflower and aubergine with lashings spicy mayo slaw, siracha mayo, edamame, and kimchi.

The ever-hungry 10-year-old budding gourmet carnivore swifty discounted the idea of choosing from Shelter Halls kid’s menu, and instead cranked up the red meat quota with a superb plate of bavette steak and chips from Sear by Salt Shed.

Thirty two-day aged and as tender as Santa’s derrière after a long night in the sleigh saddle, the steak’s flavour was boosted no end with some freshly made herb-packed chimi churri sauce and pickled red onions.

In the run up to Christmas there’s also the option of booking a three-course Alpine-themed festive menu in the party domes and private dining rooms.

I selected a couple of elements from the above, with a joyously messy traditional Bratwurst which was laden with so much ketchup, mustard, and sauerkraut, it came apart spectacularly within a few sauce-heavy bites.

Slightly more cohesive but no less indulgent were the festive loaded potatoes, the little gorgeously-golden crispy spuds were as close perfect as makes no difference, and were given a considerable covering of Christmas in the shape of shredded turkey, gravy, stuffing crumb, cranberry, crispy onions and chives.

In addition to the great grub there’s also the Silver Spurs Makers Market on December 17, which features independent artisans, makers, performers and businesses, and New Year’s Eve Party hosted by singer Billie Gold

who promises a night of glitter, glitz and glamour.

And there’s more music to come at Shelter Hall with performances from the Uplifted Voices Gospel Choir on December 11 and 18, who will sing renditions of your favourite festive songs.