The Windmill Brewers Fayre — Restaurant in Hastings

We were a party of 10 which, whilst quite a big party, 10 is not unusually large or requiring of special warning. I'd booked the day previously for 5pm and arrived on time. We were shown to our table which wasn't set up for us yet. It was wiped down and all was ok, so far. We booked 4 children at the soft play but on arrival discovered only two of them were suitable for the height restrictions (they are 4 and 5 years old, you might get away with a 6 year old if they're not tall but this play area, if the height rules are being followed, is not for children over about 6 years). We weren't warned of this on the phone and it's the only reason we went here so to discover it wasn't suitable was disappointing. However, it seems the rules aren't followed at all at this soft play, even when I complained that older children (10 years+) were behaving roughly, climbing up the netting, swinging off it and jumping down on to the areas where small children were playing, unzipping the barriers and climbing through to the outer areas used for maintenance. No parents watching them and staff not enforcing their own rules.

The menu is currently heavily reduced in size, we also weren't warned of this when booking. We ordered food and drinks totally approx £100. The children's fruity fizz drinks were advertised as coming with fresh fruit. None was served. I asked about it and was told some fresh strawberries would be brought over. I don't know where these strawberries came from but considering its prime strawberry season here and they're for sale on virtually every lay-by in the area something better than the insipid, damp looking slimy slices we were offered could have been easily found. We discovered, after she'd glugged it down, that one of the children's drinks was past it's use by date. Apologies offered but no replacement drink was given. The children's starters were served and they were fine. After having arrived at 5pm we were finally served our main meals at about 6.30pm. Most of the children's meals were cold, so cold the corn on the cobs and some of the peas were still frozen. These were sent back and replaced by ones that had been blasted in the microwave until they were dry and inedible. No sauces or condiments were offered. They had to be asked for and then more asked for when only 3 measly portions of ketchup were brought out, bear in mind we're a party of 10, how far can 3 blobs of ketchup be stretched? A member of staff was sent over to apologise and asked one of us to speak to the manager before we left as they were aware the service hadn't been great. A refund of £25 was offered. Too little too late in my opinion. For an establishment of this size this place is very poorly run and won't have the pleasure of our...

Where do I start.

I originally booked a table online for 1815 and then wanted to change the time after personal commitments changed so wanted to change to 1730 so I phoned and they couldn’t find my booking so made another one. One of the party was on a walking stick so still sat us away from the main area and nearer the soft play after I asked to be close to entrance as possible. We were told our table numbers and then told to order at the bar not a problem but when you had a queue and the bar only had 2 workers on the bar and others standing around. I wouldn’t mind but the restaurant wasn’t busy.

Now to the fun bit. We ordered a couple mixed grills ne being medium rare and one well done a kids steak medium and a few other bits. The starters came quite quickly and not a complaint about these. However then comes the mains and the kids steak had to be sent back twice as it was well well done and could bounce off the wall if you threw it. One of the mixed grill was medium rare and again that was well well done and then took it away and brought me another steak that was even worse so that went back and they decided to bring my plate back with no steak and was told it would be 3-5 minutes so my other food got cold so they took the whole lot and apparently they gave me a whole new dinner however this time the peas had changed colour and the chips were burnt as it had been reheated and the eggs were how I left them so it wasn’t a complete new dinner I took 2 mouthfuls and it tasted horrible so didn’t eat it. I was given a refund on my meal however they should have done the kids meal as that went back and a few other things went back. Even the mushy peas on my partners fish and chips was rock hard. I think they need to sack the chef and get someone who gives a dam about the food. And as a qualified chef I would be ashamed of how that service went. That is one place I will not ever go to again with the family for dinner. Shame on you brewers fayre it was horrible. Least everyone else had desserts I didn’t want anything after...

We were staying in the premier inn next door so thought it would be easiest to eat here. Wish we hadn’t.

There was a lot of food under the table from previous diners and the table didn’t look that clean. Not a great start.

We then waited an hour for the kids starters only to be served our main meals. We said immediately to the person serving who said she’d find out what happened. We started eating the mains or they would have gone cold but she never returned.

Mains were pretty poor quality. My husband had scampi and said it was tasteless and the worst scampi he’d ever had. It was over £10 so We would have expected something a bit better. The other mains were ok but nothing special.

Someone came and started clearing the plates while one person was still eating. Perhaps it’s just me but I thought that was rather rude. We said that we were still missing the starters and the previous person hadn’t come back and she went to find out. To her credit she returned with them (said she found them ‘left on a side’) but they were pretty pathetic looking and tiny portions. I think getting your starters after your mains deserves some sort of apology but I guess my opinion differs to theirs.

Then desert. Well I ordered the Eton mess which was mostly air, had perhaps two scoops of ice cream, one vanilla and one strawberry, but sort of hacked up as if it was in the bottom of a tub, looked horrible. Maybe one spoon of cream, nothing I’d describe as frozen strawberry yoghurt, in total I’d say one strawberry cut into a few small pieces and NO meringue. That cost £5.29!!!! I feel totally ripped off.

We left in disgust. Lesson learned, I will never eat in a Brewers...