The Bull (Hotel) — Hotel in Lewes

We have in the past stayed at this hotel on 3 previous occasions. |Last week we stayed here for 4 nights. Room was ok but furniture and decor looking tired. Bed comfortable but pillows very thin and most uncomfortable. Bathroom very dark, with lack of ventilation….window did not open. ||One evening we were late back to the hotel. We had been told that if we returned after 11.30pm that the car park would not be available ( as battier put down for security. ) That was fine but our key fob for the front door would not work! It took about 30 minutes of repeated attempts to get the door to open. We had contacted the Manager by phone ( emergency contact details given upon check in) but his mobile went straight to answer phone, and our call was not returned. Just as well the door worked in the end!||Food was ok however, Sunday evening meal pretty poor….we had a Sunday roast at 7.30pm. It was clear that this type of meal had been provided all day and our plate of food was poor value, not much beef and what there was was tough, and the vegetables were raw. My meal looked as if it had been thrown at the plate! ||However, Sheena, one of the members of staff, served us at breakfast most mornings. She was delightful, friendly and helpful. She apologised for the trouble we had getting into the hotel, and made sure that our fob worked properly the morning after the debacle. |She pointed out that the manager was in the hotel that following morning. He was busy sorting something in the dining room. However, he did not take the time to speak to us to apologise, for our problems accessing the hotel, nor for the fact that he did not respond to our telephone message asking for urgent help! |Cooked breakfasts were very good. |We did feel however that overall our stay was not good value for money.||The hotel seemed to lack...

Veering a bit too close to gastropub territory for my liking, sadly an inevitable fate in a clearly very well heeled village like this one, but they had managed to retain at least some of the original character of the interior in the bar room, with a more modern dining area at the back.

The main thing I liked about it is that they serve wine from Ridgeview, which was good as I was in the area to visit vineyards. Although of course I recognise the irony of on one hand bemoaning that it isn't 100% a traditional pubby sort of pub, and on the other hand being pleased to find a sophisticated English sparkling wine there, obviously a modern innovation - I can't really expect to have my cake and eat it!

As for the food, at least in terms of the vegetarian options I can't help but think they're trying to be a bit too cheffy and ending up overdoing it slightly, when simpler dishes might work better all round. The starter - (Wild garlic dumplings, butternut squash, wild mushrooms) - was overly fussy in its presentation, and frankly a bit naff. The flavour of the wild garlic got a bit lost, and it was all over in about four mouthfuls.

The main course, (Tortellini, olive, sundried tomato, ricotta, basil, rocket), fared better, but the texture of the pasta was a little tough in places, although that is I suppose encouraging that it was probably home made.

Again I'm probably asking to have my cake and eat it here, given that creating vegetarian options from traditional English cuisine can be hard work, but I would have loved to have something which felt a bit more vernacular to Sussex. Even just a Ploughman's lunch showcasing local breads and cheeses would have been great (and would probably have gone really well...

Food was great although I personally don’t like an automatic tip being applied of 12.5% but what let it down for us was that the accommodation was poor. VERY expensive and room was very small especially with two dogs. Nowhere to out anything as all the surfaces taken up with mini bar items, only one dog bed provided and hard wooden floors so one dog had to sleep on hard floor and only one mug for hot drinks when there were two of us and no milk provided. We had an early start the next day and sadly we didn’t notice the lack of equipment until the next morning and with no staff overnight we couldn’t even ask for another mug or milk. Also two small steps in the room are dangerous, these could perhaps be changed to slopes? Despite being told we’d get an upgrade if a bigger room available on arrival we weren’t offered one and the hotel said it was because we asked for an accessible room. Actually I asked for a room on the ground floor if there was one (not knowing the layout) but we had to go up stairs anyway and this could have still been offered giving us the option to accept or decline. Chances are with the room we had being so small I would have accepted an upgrade. There were rooms available as I checked on the day we arrived. It was very noisy in the room which we would accept being in a pub but this continued on after hours with the staff clearing up whilst playing loud music. Not value for money that’s for sure, felt we were very ripped off for the service we had and poor night’s sleep that...