No 34 — Restaurant in Lewes

I was really looking forward to visiting this place, and as we happened to be in town today, we decided to stop by. However, from the moment we arrived, I was taken aback by the attitude of the staff, which unfortunately made us feel quite unwelcome.

When my partner inquired about the bread options, he received a rather curt response, simply stating that it was only served at lunch. A similar interaction occurred when we asked about sandwiches. The waitress responded quite abruptly that they were only available during lunch service. Upon checking the time, I realized it was just ten minutes until lunchtime, so I politely pointed this out. Instead of a more hospitable response, such as letting us know we could order a sandwich in a few minutes, the answer was simply, “Yes,” which felt unnecessarily rigid.

When our friends arrived, we were still hoping to have lunch. However, we had to wait quite a while, despite making eye contact with the waitress, before receiving menus. Even after they were brought over, it took an unusually long time for anyone to return and take our order. The place wasn’t particularly busy, yet the staff seemed disengaged, spending time near their station rather than attending to customers.

Ultimately, we felt ignored and unwelcome, which led us to decide to leave. Given our anticipation for this visit, it was a disappointing experience, and I sincerely hope this feedback helps improve future customer...

We visited the cafe Fri/20 Jun, just before noon, the location and street view of the cafe was inviting and so we entered the cafe and was seated in the window, which was fine, we asked to see the menu, which was very limited and the waitress/manager stated that they only provided filter coffee, which was surprising, since the cafe oozed quality food, and which was one of the draws to select this cafe. We ordered 2 baguette sandwiches and there was no flexibility surrounding different options and fillings, we ordered Mortadella ham and the price was £9.00, so we expected a nice sandwich. BTW, the food is prepared behind the counter and in customer sight, which provided transparency, maybe too much in this case, since I overheard the cook, say to the manager, ‘how many slices soon add to these sandwiches’ and she replied only two. When the food arrived, the baguette was shorter and smaller than my iPhone, it was okay tasty but very, very overpriced. When the manager presented the bill it was £29.25, we questioned the bill and she offered to remove the £4.00 service charge, which was very limited service, and when I rechecked the bill, the charge had not been removed. It is unfortunate that we can not recommend this cafe, the service and monuments very limited and the food charges can not...

Such mixed feelings about this place. Could be amazing, wine and atmosphere are really lovely. Service was odd and felt awkward. Food was tasty but some very small portion sizes, the website describes 3 main courses and the menu is set out in this way too. The fish main was great, not massive but enough...however cauliflower main was the same cost but about 5 small bits of cauliflower, definitely more of a side. We did raise this but the response was a bit strange. No one really discussed the menu with us and no one checked the food was OK. After the 'mains' we were then left and almost forgotten about. Multiple staff members focused on clearing/cleaning and sorting out whilst a room full of customers were essentially ignored. We had to try and get someone's attention to ask for desert and to order more wine.

We left feeling very mixed, such potential to be great here but the service really needs some work and the menu needs to be laid out differently/explained if these are meant to be small/sharing plates so people are not left feeling...