The Crown Inn — Restaurant in Horsham

Gastro Pub at the gates of Knepp Estate at Dial Post near Horsham

Idyllic location of Olde World pub with very big village green out front. Limited parking on premises but lots on lane outside

Inside is "New Style Parlour" all very nice and cosy in winter. Small conservatory at front looked a nice touch to extend to smallish front bar.

Only Two Ales offered. Staff made attempt to plug bottled or Camden Town Brewery beer from the CHILLED pump with almost zero uptake. Ugh. Which makes one wonder if they would do better offering a third Real Ale.

Anyway Longman Best Bitter 4% at £5.20 a pint or Microbus Guest Ale a Goldmark Brewery from Arundel only a short hop away from the pub. A fine session ale. India Pale Ale dry hopped 4% at £5.20

It was well received and full of flavour - a fine Sussex Brewery

Both were very well cellared and presented in peak condition no wonder we consumed over 20 pints as a group of these two.

Ok so let's get to a comment. We were not especially welcomed even though we had booked ahead. Grumpy behind the bar saying if they knew we were 17 we could not have eaten inside and were treated rather briskly on service. We felt embarrassed and as if we were a Care Home Outing!!

In the end we walked across the lane to drink our beer outside on the village green. Even then there was moaning from staff we cannot eat our sandwich on the green. In the end the Manageress relented. Afteral we had spent on beer, and on food.

We felt somewhat unwanted and almost apologised for bringing trade. They were certainly not very busy at all as you see from photo.

Shame because this surely would not be the normal approach to customers. Perhaps let us say...

Been to Crown Inn several times and always had nice experience. Not tonight, food was lovely as usual but experience was unpleasant and embarrassing. First time visit with GroupOn voucher and I wouldn't recommend it! When booking table a few nights ago, there was a clue. The booking was made but I was initially told I would have to phone back the following day. This evening, the pub was not busy, there were 2 inexperienced young staff on duty and a senior member of staff, to whom we handed the Groupon voucher. There was no explanation about how the voucher worked and I expected a separate 2 course menu for Groupon customers. When handed the normal menu I asked the young girl what we did and she didn't know...she thought maybe we got 25% off what we order. So my partner and I decided to order what we wanted, which consisted of a £3.50 nibble; 2 main course totalling £20 and a dessert £6. (Our Groupon voucher allowed us to order starters/mains up to £39). So, our bill came - we had been charged for drinks we had already paid for at the bar, a drink we hadn't ordered or got, a glass of wine we ordered but didn't receive and the dessert (which wasn't included with our voucher). In the end this bill was scrapped, but the man (in charge) was very rude to me. He had a very bad attitude and manner for someone working in the service industry and I was left feeling embarrassed by the whole experience. Sadly I will not be returning to The Crown, with or without a Groupon voucher, there are so many good pubs in the area - why would I go back to one which left me with a sour taste in my...

As I had enjoyed my last visit here, I booked for me and my family for lunch as part of my 60th birthday celebrations. As this was a party of 9, they asked us to phone our order through on the previous day, but we could not choose from the specials because the Chef couldn't guarantee that he would have the portions available (couldn't they have held them back for us?).

We did ask on the day if we could change our menu options, but the chef refused saying that he had already "prepared" the meals and that a change was not possible. I'm not sure what "preparation" went into the meals and I think this was a little unreasonable.

When the meals arrived, none were hot. I ordered the "Butchers" Steak. This was served as a a thin piece of steak (slightly thicker than a minute steak) which had then been sliced into strips - WHY? This was served with "fries" which had clearly cooked from frozen.

My Daughter and Son-In-Law ordered Ham, Egg & Chips. The "Ham" appeared to be the cheapest, thinly sliced, square "packet" ham, Although this was described as "SK Hutchins Ham", a reputable local butchers that I would be surprised if they put their name to meat of this quality!

Many of the other meals appeared to be shop-bought and not prepared on site.

This was a very disappointing experience and I certainly won't be going back or recommending the restaurant to any...