The Earl Of March — Restaurant in Chichester

I've been here 3 times now for a Christmas do where we have the set Christmas menu. The first year the food was ok and the service was poor. The second year the food was nice; still pretentious but better (I didn't leave anything that time) and the service was ok. I would put that at a 3 star visit - nice enough but not memorable in any way. This Christmas several of us decided we won't be coming back.

I love good food, but I really don't like pretentious, and unfortunately that's what I feel this is. My starter this year was only alright taste wise (I did give half of it to my husband as I was pretty underwhelmed). One friend had the soup which arrived with two thin slivers of toast/croutons laid very artistically against the bowl. If you like a bit of bread with your soup you will be disappointed. Other friends had goats cheese with rhubarb. A very striking dish arrived with pink (a beautifully vibrant piece of rhubarb) and grey food on it. Yes, grey. There were two small quinnelled blobs of what looked like grey metallic window putty on the plate. Our friends asked what it was and were told it was goat cheese with charcoal mixed in. Why the hell would you intentionally make a food grey? It was apparently not bad taste wise, but the look was so off putting that they didn't finish. At least they've stopped using the foams they were so fond of the last couple of years which looked like someone had sneezed on the plate, so that's a step up.

My main of turkey would have been ok if it had just been a couple of slices of turkey rather than the shaped and rolled thing we got, wrapped in some other thing (still don't know what that was as it wasn't mentioned on the menu). The giant roast potato was extremely crispy, but tasted to me like it had been boiled earlier and reheated before being fried. My husband's chips however actually were delicious, it's just a shame they were small in number. Gravy (sorry, jus) was a tiny splash on the plate. Now I get that this looks much better than covering the plate with liquid, but perhaps a jug on the table would be good so that the massive roast potato could actually have a bit of gravy on it past the first few bites.

My pudding was crumble which I've had each time I've been as the other desserts have not appealed. My taste in puddings is not their fault obviously, but it does show that the pudding choices haven't changed much year on year aside from flavour (pretty much Christmas pudding, something chocolate - likely a brownie type thing - crumble or cheese board). It's nice enough taste wise (again nothing spectacular, but it was nice), but it's very sloppy. That's two years out of three that it's been pretty liquid so I guess that's their style. I could be wrong but the crumble appears to be added after cooking. My husband's Christmas pudding literally made us laugh as it was about the width and depth of a small matchbox and only a little longer. When compared to the brownie which was actually a decent portion it was just laughable. The brownie was evidently very nice.

Overall, every year I have felt like it's very much style over substance. Snot-like foam splashes and grey cheese notwithstanding, the food is often beautifully presented but this seems to be at the cost of a decent meal.

Oh, and although there were side plates and knives, suggesting that there should be bread on the table, none was served (it has been the previous 2 years). I really wish it had been as after our 3 course meal we were still hungry. I should point out here I'm not a huge eater and don't enjoy massive plates of food, there just really wasn't much in the way of substance on your plate. I suppose leaving half my starter, about a third of my main (that massive potato with no gravy got dry very fast, and the oddly flavoured wrapping on the turkey roll did me in) and some of my crumble soup wouldn't have helped.

Service was ok this year. Nothing amazing, but miles ahead of my...

Warning to all potential customers: Even if you are a genuine paying guest, you can still receive a parking fine — and the pub will do nothing to help you.

I visited The Earl of March as a legitimate customer. I parked on the premises and later received a Parking Charge Notice from Civil Enforcement Ltd. I appealed with a receipt from the pub — clear proof of my visit — but the appeal was rejected without any explanation.

Worse still, the company did not include a POPLA appeal code in the rejection, which is a clear breach of BPA rules. I only received it later after requesting it again. They falsely claimed it had already been sent by email, which it had not.

This entire situation has revealed a completely broken and unaccountable system:

The pub hired Creative Car Park to manage the parking.

Creative Car Park then subcontracted the enforcement to Civil Enforcement Ltd, possibly through another company like “Seavill” or “Sealy.”

There is no way to reach any of these companies. My husband was given a phone number for Creative Car Park — no one answers, and no responses are received.

Many other customers are experiencing the exact same situation — they receive unjust fines, submit receipts, and their appeals are automatically rejected. There is no oversight or fairness.

Today, my husband visited the pub one more time in good faith, simply to ask if the pub could write a short statement explaining they had tried to contact the parking company, or at least clarify the arrangement — something we could include with our official complaints and appeals.

But instead of cooperating, the owner (Adam) responded with aggression, threatened to call the police, and blamed the customers — saying it was “our fault” for getting fined. My husband remained calm and polite the entire time. He only wanted to resolve the matter reasonably.

We never asked the pub to pay the fine — we only asked for a basic statement of support to submit with our complaints.

This level of hostility and irresponsibility is shocking. The pub refuses to engage with the situation, even though it's their car park and their customers being targeted.

It is unacceptable that a paying customer can be treated this way, and that a business is comfortable allowing its guests to be fined unfairly by private companies operating in the shadows.

We will never return — and I strongly encourage others to stay away until this system is fixed and accountability...

We’re staying locally on a short break and decided to have dinner at The Earl of March. We ordered two fish and chips, one Chinese steak, and a duck terrine. My mum sent the terrine back as she didn’t like the texture/ taste - she’s had terrines before and this wasn’t what she expected. However, the rest of the food we did have was very good, and the young waiter serving us was lovely.

When I went to pay, I noticed the terrine was still on the bill. I politely asked for it to be removed. The woman I believe was the manager told me they couldn’t take it off because they’d “had to waste the food” and then bizarrely suggested we “agree to disagree and go halves.” Even after that, she didn’t actually remove half the price until I asked again for the second time. So I ended up paying for half of the dish we took back.

Then, shockingly, a man from the kitchen (who I believe was the owner) came out and verbally attacked us, raising his voice and acting aggressively towards us simply because we’d asked not to pay for something we’d returned. One of the comments he made was that “the whole thing has to be thrown away I can’t even give the other half to someone else” (meaning another customer). When we left he then proceeded to come outside and continued making untoward comments. Honestly, I have never experienced anything like this in a restaurant it was shocking.

What had been a lovely evening turned into an awful experience. Good food means nothing when customers are treated this way. We will not be returning and would strongly advise...