The Garden Room — Restaurant in Eastbourne

We arrived at the restaurant to find that our party of 9 had been split into 2 tables of 6 admittedly a few of our party were unable to come but on telling this to the head waiter we were still told to sit at these tables. Half our party unfortunately were delayed in the very heavy traffic due to the rail strike that was on that day. (It had taken us an hour just to get there from Willingdon!) The rest of the restaurant was pretty much empty and we asked several times to move to the bigger round table behind us but were ignored. Time was ticking on and still the rest of our party had not arrived, the head waiter kept hassling us to order our food. We kept explaining that it wasn't their fault they were late and could we wait a bit to be told that we had to get our orders in by 2pm. Considering the restaurant was mainly empty you would think that they could have done with custom from 9 diners!! When the rest of the party finally arrived my cousin insisted that we all move to one table as we wouldn't have been able to chat to everyone and my sister who lives in Australia hadn't been back here for 5 years. The head waiter grumbled and was obviously extremely put out by this and very grudgingly allowed us to move. The table had not been set up properly but instead of the 3 waiters and head waiter helping us we had to get cutlery, napkins etc ourselves and pour our own wine!! The food was wonderful thankfully and the bill very high which they would've missed out on if they'd had their way!! But we really should say that we did not like the attitude of the head waiter and he really should not be chewing gum...

We had a lovely relaxing evening at the Mirabelle. The food was okay /good but not amazing. A little way to go before it gets a Michelin star. On that note I will say that the pricing is a tad pretentious and expensive for what it was. The wine list was good and extensive with some great wines but again mark up on lower priced wines was excessive. The service was amazing, as was the relaxed and exclusive atmosphere in the place, however it was not busy when we were there. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal and the service we had, it was wonderful but to be honest, the food could have been better, given the price. The wine we had was good but £53 a bottle was about £15 overpriced.

I think that this is a marvelous and quite classy restaurant, perhaps given more to the taste of an older clientele but lovely nevertheless. However it does price itself a little too high for the quality of the food.

You can have a wonderful set 3 course meal at Le Gavroche in London - 3 Michelin Stars and London prices for about the same price as we paid for the same at the Mirabelle. Set 3 course dinner for 2 with wine, coffee and petit four cost us about £186. Nice, but not nice enough for the money.

Mirabelle, don't pretend to be what you are not. Bring your prices down, and the quality of your food up and you will be absolutely fabulous.

As my school report card always said, "could...

It was a pleasant surprise when I found out we could have 3 course lunch menu at The Grand Hotel’s The Garden Restaurant during our trip to Eastbourne. It was a welcome treat, dining with excellent food at such a historic hotel.

We had the Chicken liver parfait and the Goats cheese tart to start, personally I preferred the tart over the parfait but both dishes were beautifully presented.

Then, for the main course, we had the Grilled Salmon over Spinach and Prawn Risotto alongside a Rib-eye Steak (which you can upgrade to for a reasonable supplement).

Finally, we finished up with some sweet and tasty desserts. This easily was our best meal in Eastbourne for a reasonable price of £35 per person for a 3 course set meal over lunch.

I strongly recommend a visit to The Garden Restaurant if you ever find yourself in Eastbourne,...