The Ark — Restaurant in Lewes

Four of us went to The Ark on Monday evening. The menu had reduced since we were last there-apparently two weeks earlier when we asked. Previously we had enjoyed a fantastic Sunday lunch, hence our eagerness to return with friends. As my husband can't eat fish, the only choices open to him was a burger or some of the expensive tapas dishes. He chose three tapas dishes, one of which was fried potatoes in a spicy sauce. The other three of us ordered the paella. The first dish of tapas, plus one plate of paella was served. We eventually had to start as it was such a long wait with no sign of the other two paellas coming. When they did finally arrive, maybe 10 minutes later, it was obviously a different batch to my bland tasting one, as the stock hadn't even been completely boiled down and there was a small watery puddle in each dish! The waitress then brought the second small tapas dish for my husband. On clearing his dish afterwards, she announced ( probably 45 mins after his ordering), that there were no potatoes, so he could choose another tapas dish instead, or have the spicy sauce on chips! He chose the latter but as we had paid upfront, we were never reimbursed for the £6 glorified small dish of chips!! A portion of chips was £3.50. On top of this, the waitress knowingly dropped food in my friend's glass of water ( he had previously had to go to the bar to get a dirty glass exchanged for a clean one), plus she dropped and left a mussel shell on his seat when he had gone to the loo. All of this, in addition to a pint, plus a juice totalling over £8 a round, made for a very expensive and disappointing meal. We were previously going to book to go with more friends in August but disappointingly won't be returning for either meals or drinks after...

Something changed in two weeks. My husband convinced me that the burger he had there a couple of weeks ago was one of the best he'd ever had. I wanted to go elsewhere. I wish I'd stood my ground... We went on Friday and I took two bites of mine. When it came out there was no bacon or cheese my husband asked twice when he was putting the order in. The burger and chips came out with a small pot of what I thought was garlic mayonnaise but it was watery white coleslaw..... That went untouched.... The burger tasted fried and was massively over processed unlike the burger my husband had a couple of weeks previously and were happy to pay £15 for. I think this burger might have come from Iceland or the same supplier as the bloke in the b&q car park. I was waiting for the barman to come over and ask if all was OK.... It didn't happen so my husband went to the bar to complain and ask what had happened to their food. The man said they had changed their supplier. No kidding, you've gone from the best to quite frankly worst in a matter of weeks and no change in the price to reflect the absolute rubbish you are now cooking. I wouldn't bother in future. Whilst hubby was at the bar he was going to be charged the full amount for basically two portions of chips. He gave the barman more than...

Met some friends here (party of 10 which had pre booked) for an evening meal so the company was lovely (the only upside to the evening). There was only one barman/waiter who was clearly flustered and under pressure (coming across as slightly rude at times)proceeded to tell us that there were only a limited amount of food left available (mainly burgers and fish) so basically we couldn't order from a full menu. When the food eventually arrived, one of the orders were wrong and one of my party was told they couldn't change their meal so had to make do with the wrong order! And subsequently there was no apology! I ordered a burger and chips. I paid £1 extra for cheese (on top of £12.95 for the meal) which was burnt onto the beef patty itself and the burger was very dry. The food was very expensive for the venue and location. Needless to say I won't be visiting...