Ship Inn — Restaurant in Mid Sussex

start on a positive, since the have done the place up the decor is very nice and there is plenty of outside seating, which is great since there aren't many places to sit outside in East Grinstead. After looking at a few places for lunch we decided to try here, really wish we had chosen one of the other places to be honest! We ordered the bruschetta, small chicken caesar salad and the large cheese ploughman's to share. Where to start? When the food was brought out, she put down the "brushcetta" and I almost had to laugh, I put a picture on here, it was 3 slices of garlic bread with 2 slices of tomato on each with melted cheese on top? Not bruschetta. And for £5.25 a bit of an insult really.. Next out was the ploughman's and caesar salad. The caesar salad was £6 for a small, and it really was tiny. And not what I would class as a caesar salad. And the cherry on top, the ploughman's. At £13 for a large one, you can only choose 2 types of cheese, doesn't come with any crackers or anything (I mean, how expensive are crackers to put on there?) just a baguette. We went for cheddar and stilton, which was a massive portion of both, you couldn't possibly eat the much of it! Why not do more types of cheeses with smaller chunks? The pickle and coleslaw were straight out of a tub, most of the plate was taken up by salad.

I'm not a food snob in any way but I can honestly say it was one of the worst meals I have ever had, all tasted like it was from Iceland (which very conveniently happens to be located across the road, save yourselves the money and just pop in there!) Nobody came to check to food was okay, when we ordered staff were very unfriendly, not even a smile.

Nice for a drink outside but that's about as...

We booked 2 areas about 6 months in advance for a birthday party with one lovely lady who I believe has since left, she told told us we had two areas plus the outside and control of the music of that side of the side pub all night. When we got there we did not have the two areas we booked only one, neither did we have any control of the music which was demonstrated to us when we viewed the place originally, it cost us nearly £600 and they did not deliver what was expected, and they clearly don't have any form of handovers between previous or new staff because no one knew what was previously agreed.

One of the most important things to me was the music (I specifically asked about this, as I wanted people to be able to dance - They pushed the tables out of the way, so they got half the message), and I was assured when we viewed the pub that was possible, it wasn't at all - all they could do was turn it off. We would have clarified earlier on if we had any idea that things like this would have happened but how were we to know.

The food was good though I'm not sure they delivered on 40 peoples worth of food, it seemed a bit on the light side, but thankfully my guests still enjoyed their time though I think they could have still done better. They were also extremely rushed off their feet and kept bringing in drinks into our area not having a clue who they were for which caused some issues between guests who picked up other peoples drinks. This seemed a bit stupid when they knew they had such a large group booking as well. Overall It was alright, but things could have been improved. The venue is nice, but they need to do better if they want to run larger events like this...

On reflection, and based on the owners response I'm rewording this review to be more fair and providing context. Rating changed from 2 to 3 stars. I ate at the Ship Inn last night with a friend, the staff were great although it was clear a few were still learning their roles, but no complaints. I felt the meal that we had could have been better. I'm convivial and always say "thanks that was great" as I did that evening, the reality is that the burger I had was a little disappointing . I got a burger with a fairly stale brioche bun, a nice, but single patty, and iceberg lettuce mixed with a burger sauce that was similar to the dressing on a Big Mac.(to be clear this burger WAS NOT rancid. however a Big Mac is) There were some nice fries, maybe worth £3 with the meal. I felt ultimately there was not enough "value" gained from the meal given it was £15. The Ship Inn has changed hands and is a very different experience to the last time I went, the atmosphere was nice, the renovation very impressive. The previous owners used to offer basic food and a menu would be considered 'value', the new owners are clearly focussed on providing a more upmarket experience and I hope they can take this revised review as constructive. Wishing you the best of success, especially the hard working staff front of house and in...