John Harvey Tavern — Restaurant in Lewes

We were a party of 5 people and we pre booked selecting from the Christmas menu so the restaurant knew our order in advance. The front of house got the date of the booking wrong twice and we had twice to give our pre-orders. No- one had ordered a starter. Nonetheless we then had to wait at least 40 minutes for the main course to arrive. When it did, two of the advertised items from the Christmas dinner, pigs in blankets and stuffing, didn’t appear. The standard of the meal was about what you’d expect from from one of the budget carveries, everything smothered in a thick gravy. As the plates were being cleared, I asked the waiter if our desserts would be long, explaining that we were under time pressure, and he replied that they were then being plated up. After a further twenty minutes I asked a member of staff what was happening with them and said that we’d been told that they were almost ready twenty minutes ago. I added that we’d been sat for ninety minutes and so far received one course, despite the kitchen knowing our order in advance, and I felt this wasn’t good enough. After some minutes he reappeared and said that they had just started to prepare them, which typified the muddle and confusion we’d experienced. At this point we expressed our dissatisfaction and said that we’d have to forgo the dessert due to time constraints. It was agreed that we would pay for drinks and mains, but at no stage were we offered any reduction or comping. Upon examining the bill it appeared that we’d been overcharged for the mains but we were told that the price given for the mains was in error and that we’d been charged a higher price than appeared on the bill. No apology for this error on their part was given, nor indeed for any of the muddle or non- appearance of...

This was our first trip into Lewes & being unfamiliar with the area we decided to go by some google recommendations & found this pub was highly rated. I honestly do not know how. We should have known from the moment we ordered as the greeting was far from welcoming, the man behind the bar made it perfectly clear he didn’t want to be there, in fact at one moment he let out some lovely expletives just because the phone was ringing! He did not even bother to tell me how much our order came to & proceeded to just point the card machine in my direction. I let this slide, working in retail my entire life I know what it is to have a bad day but I’m afraid it went from bad to worse. We waited nearly an hour for our food to arrive, a problem that was obviously wide spread as I heard another customer questioning where their food was. When it finally did arrive to say we were disappointed is a total understatement. I ordered Gammon…well this pub is clearly not aware that packed, processed ham is not the same as gammon because that is what turned up on my plate. I’m not exaggerating when I say the ham I currently have in my fridge at home from my local supermarket is better quality. As for the Vegan Lasagne, I have never seen a more crispy, dried out cube placed on a dinner plate…not forgetting the stale, cold ciabatta with some lurpack garlic butter spread over it as an accompaniment. I have always resisted leaving reviews such as this because I am aware every place can have a bad day but this was one of the worst pub/food experiences of my life & I’m afraid I wouldn’t want anyone else’s trip into Lewes to be spoilt by a trip...

I have felt obliged to contact you as I was in your establishment on Saturday 16th February for a friends birthday lunch. There were 3 of us and it was very busy but we found a table upstairs. We were told to order drinks downstairs and order food with waitress upstairs. We waited 20minutes then decided to go back downstairs to order the food as we were not being seen to. My friend ordered macaroni which came after some time and was very mediocre. More problematic was the fact myself and the 3rd friend did not have our burgers. Another 10 mins later my friend was given her burger - it was completely burnt. When we managed to catch the waitress we mentioned this to her and she did not seem apologetic. She went off to ask if it could be chnaged. This should have been done without question! I however STILL had no burger. When they brought my friends back it was mageinally less burnt. My friend with the macaroni was finished long before the other starter to eat and I was still left without any burger. 10 mins later again I was given mine which again was still on burnt side. It was a disgraceful meal. I worked in the restaurant trade for years and I have to say this was shocking. No apology for the delay. No checking if we needed anything else. We left due to the business without finishing and because this had wasted so much time of our birthday day in Lewes. My friend was sitting having finished her meal literally an hour before...