The Ship Inn at Itchenor — Restaurant in Chichester

Went for dinner with family during covid. Staff were warm and friendly, let us move our booking an hour later non problem. Quite tasty food, in particular the smoked haddock barley starter was delicious.

A few dishes were not to standard though, the gluten free fish and chips were quite bland and 'chips' were basically just lightly cooked roast potatoes, and not many on plate. We waited over 40 mins for the food to arrive which was frustrating but staff apologised. The waiters also got our drinks order wrong - we ordered a pale ale from the bar but then changed the order before it came but still recieved the original order. Staff apologised.

I had the 'seared' tuna steak. As the dish arrived it wasnt seared at all, but cooked completely through and i would say overcooked. The tuna was tough and borderline dry if there werent so many sauces ontop. The flavours were excellent but the description was misleading, the waiter told me after that it was fully baked in the oven and then seared in a pan, which is not what 'seared tuna steak' is. I raised this issue with the staff and they offered to make this again. After waiting 40 mins for food and it being almost 9.30pm i declined and instead got the dish removed from the bill which was a kind gesture.

In terms of desserts, they ran out of the chocolate ginger parfait and we got a brownie instead which was fine but nothing particularly special. The Eton mess was simple but tasty, however no 'burnt lemon dust' as described in menu, which was also misleading and dissappointing.

When it came to the bill, there were also mistakes on there, they tried to charge us for 3 beers when we only got 1 pint and a half. We than waited over 15 minutes for a new receipt as there was a problem with the receipt machine delaying our departure even further.

Overall the pub is very cosy, stylish yet traditional. Close to the port. The staff were quick, friendly and polite. They also had great covid measures in place. Just dissappointed by the standard of some of the dishes, including innacurate descriptions in the menus provided as well as mistakes in our order and...

We called ahead to check the pub did vegan food and would be open at the time we needed to eat. As we have two one year olds, it's important for us to plan ahead, and we were on a day trip quite far from home. We were told they were open and had vegan options, so we rocked up, got everyone out of the car, settled in... Then we tried to order and were told that the kitchen wasn't open for another hour. After deliberating we decided to wait as it would be so much hassle. We double checked with staff that it really would be an hour - no more - explaining that we had babies and people in our party who needed to eat at particular times. The staff did not apologise for the misinformation on the phone. They also were quite reticent about vegan options - the fourth person I asked was able to help me but it took being quite persistent. We put our order into the app as advised and then were told we couldn't order until 6. Then at 6, a staff member told another group the kitchen wouldn't open til 6.30. We had waited nearly an hour so we asked again if they could help us feed our children. They said they now couldn't tell us what time the kitchen was open. They didn't really apologise or ask if there was any way they could help. We are so disappointed and quite upset about this experience. We have had to feed our children rice cakes and bananas for dinner. Another family in the same position shared some strawberries with us! I would say this business is really struggling to cope with demand and worse not managing to be informed and honest about the challenges. Worst of all was the lack of concern shown by staff. I really would not recommend families run the risk of visiting...

The high star ratings seem to be very different from our experience at The Ship Inn. As a family of 2 adults and 2 kids was a disappointment and I will not be returning. The food was average at best, kind but not very attentive staff and it was expensive. We booked, were kindly welcomed and seated but from then on the service went downhill requiring us to go and ask for salt, pepper, sauces, water, etc. It wasn't busy and there were plenty of staff standing at the bar which makes it more frustrating. Our order was no starters but 1 small bread + olives to share. Mains of 1 pasta, 1 salad and 2 steak dishes. No dessert. 2 glasses of wine and 4 cokes. This was £95 with no service charge. I left a tip as I feel it's more a lack of training and management oversight than individual apathy. The main issue however was the lack of quality of the food vs the price. The bread was like a value tesco ciabatta, the salad was incredibly oily, the pasta was overcooked with a tasteless sauce and the steak dishes were no better than you could knock up at home in 15 minutes. All this for £100+ is why we all left feeling it was an expensive...