The Dolphin — Restaurant in Eastbourne

Had a party in the function room, the space was absolutely perfect - just some things to consider before booking.

At the time of booking I was told that I could bring my own food in, that the tables could be removed from the back, and that we would have the back room and the garden to ourselves.

A couple of weeks before the party they rang me and said that I couldn’t bring my own food in and had to use their buffet or no food at all. We arrived on the night of the party and nobody was available to ask what could be done with the extra tables chairs; someone eventually came but we found that only a small amount of chairs could be removed and that was that so we had to do a bit of table/chair Tetris ourselves.

The garden wasn’t closed off, people were constantly walking through the party from the main pub which made a lot of guests feel uncomfortable. We asked a member of the bar staff what was going on with that, she didn’t know what to do - which is not her fault at all, fair play to her she hadn’t been there long, but I do think someone should have left some kind of instruction as to what was going on.

Lastly, I spent £190 on buffet, granted it was a good amount of food for the money, but 70% of it was left uneaten, as there was no allergy advice with it, and it was so stale, cold, and thoroughly unpleasant, everyone was put off. I did my best to figure out what was what and tell people what was veggie friendly but with it being dark in there and no allergy stickers or flags, a lot of people didn’t want to touch it.

It’s a good space, a really good space for a small party; but management/organisation is almost...

Went in there for something to eat during lunch hour and was shocked at the state of the food. The waitress was nice and asked if we liked our meal, to which I replied "it's okay". As I had to complain about my Diet Coke I didn't want to seem picky so proceeded to eat. The Diet Coke was flat and so I asked if I could exchange it. I ordered the halloumi burger and substituted ordinary fries for the sweet potato version, and my friend ordered the sausage and mash that came with red cabbage on the side. There meal had lumpy mash covered with gravy and pre-prepared sausages that were subsequently re-cooked before serving.

I didn't like the look of my meal when it arrived, and also didn't like that the fries were luke warm, which meant that after 5 minutes were cold. As I only use fresh ingredients at home I can tell when something has been stored frozen and then re-heated. The sweet potato fries were tasteless because of this.

The burger itself wasn't a burger and shouldn't be adversised as such. The halloumi came in a cold doughy panini bum with vinegar tasting red and green pieces of pepper which definitely tasted stored instead of being prepared fresh. I love halloumi and have never had to complain about a dish so easy to put together. The halloumi was barely cooked and very soggy in the middle and was cold on arrival.

A few hours after eating this meal I was violently ill with nausea and sickness. This was the first and last time we shall eat at...

On Sunday 5/05 early evening I had a table of six at around 4:20pm, table 15. We all had such a bad experience waiting for our food and such bad service.

Four of us ordered fish and chips, one humous and one salad, this took over an hour to come, two came out after an hour then the next twenty minutes later another throw came out after they had finished their meal. We kept asking how long and were told that they didn't know where the food was and the lady was new.

The service was awful and they were rude when we asking for an update on our food. The lady even said she only had one pair of hands when she bought the second to last dish and still waited for the last meal even though it was not busy. Overall it took the last person to be served 1hour & a half ! I have email the company but no reply to resolve the issue. Terrible experience, definitely...