The Pelham Arms — Restaurant in Lewes

My mother booked a table for six people at 3.45pm on a Sunday, as this was the only booking available when she tried to book a few days before. We thought it was a rather odd time to offer lunch, but as she was hosting three Spanish guests, it wasn't a problem as they are used to eating late. This turned out to be a major mistake. My mother took them to the Pelham Arms to experience a traditional English roast lunch as it was their first time in England. Much to her dismay, when ordering she was told there were only two roast chicken lunches left. So they ordered those, and some other dishes. Then the waiter came back to the table saying that the roast chicken was also finished, and there were no roasts left at all. The Spanish guests ended up eating burgers, which were fine but not at all what they wanted to eat, and my mother had fish and chips, which she said was dry and not remotely fresh.

We have two comments to make about this situation. Firstly, the Pelham Arms should NOT take bookings at 3.45 if they cannot make enough roast lunches to last the full Sunday shift. Secondly and most importantly, the waiter could NOT HAVE CARED LESS. Not only was he not apologetic, but he was actually insolent, nodding sarcastically when my mother complained. The Spaniards could not believe their eyes and felt embarrassed and extremely sorry for my mother, who is 81 and had organised the whole meal especially for them. We should have tried to reserve roasts, if that is possible. But it didn't occur to us that they would run out of absolutely everything despite taking bookings for 3.45pm. The pub could call the customers with late bookings and warn them that they had run out of everything. But, as I said, the staff couldn't have cared less so there is no chance they would think to do this.

I have worked in restaurants myself in the past, and the absolute least you would normally do would be to offer free puddings or drinks in an attempt to salvage the situation. Needless to say that didn't occur to the staff involved.

There are other things I could mention that do not do the staff any favours as they once again showed an inability to apologise, but I will stick to the main point here.

In short, the waiter in question and the pub management in general need to look carefully at their motivation for serving customers. Do they really care about people and their experience in their pub, or just the amount on their bill? Their attitude during the lunch indicated the latter. To my mother, that lunch was very important. But he didn't have the emotional capacity to understand that, or the empathy to care when it all started to go wrong for her.

We will never go to the Pelham Arms again, and after hearing about our experience, several of my mother's friends who are lifelong Lewes residents have said the same. After reading my review on the pub website (which needless to say they have not published), they called my mother to offer her a free meal, but she has no desire to go back there even for free food.

I hope the pub will take this account to heart and make more effort to understand their customers' needs in future. There is a clear need to focus hard on developing people skills...

The worst and most expensive pub food I've had in a long time. We had the beef burger which was truly awful and almost inedible. The very small bun was dry, hard and obviously old. The two small beef patties were also very dry, overcooked, chewy and hard and there was not much other filling except sauce. The server asked me if everything was ok, I told him what I thought and he just muttered something and walked off. And all that for £18.50, one of the most expensive burgers I've ever had. The chips were ok. My daughter had the chicken burger which rather than being golden brown was a dark brown colour as it was completely overcooked and tasted burnt. It was horrible. This was followed by a ramekin sized fruit crumble. The topping was very dry, tasted burnt, and like sand in the mouth. The filling was overly sweet and jam like. Served with average custard, and £8. So over £26 for two courses of awful food. We'll never be going back...

The perfect pub lunch experience. The pub: Broken up into lots of different sections. Some parts are carpeted with soft furnishings, others have wooden floor boards and furniture; some are near the bar for the pub vibe, others are in separate rooms for a more chilled experience. All are cosy.

The food: Outstanding. A very varied menu, from which we chose the deli meat sub. They were delicious, and generously portioned. The fries were also excellent - crispy glass-like outside, fluffy inside.

The drinks: A varied selection of beers from international, regional and local brands. I had the Gonzo pilsner, which is made by the brewery that originally started in the pubs cellar, and was very impressed. A still cider on the handpumps is also a welcome sight.

The staff: Very friendly, efficient and helpful. There were only two people behind the bar, and yet they managed to keep the place running smoothly. We didn't have to wait...