The Devils Dyke — Restaurant in Mid Sussex

The view from The Devils Dyke pub is lovely. The restaurant itself is nice enough but that is all that was good.

We booked a table for 1.15pm for 11 people for a family birthday. When we arrived our waitress offered to get us drinks which took about 15 or 20 minutes while we looked at the menus. The drinks came and many were incorrect. We were then told, after we had our drinks, that the food would be a minimum 1 hour wait, which would be 1 hour after the starters should we want to order them (which also may have a 1 hour wait we were told). We were told this after we had our drinks and had settled at the table so we would be less likely to find somewhere else. We had three ladies in their 80s in our group so our main concern was getting them lunch as quickly as possible so we had no choice but to stay.

We then went to order food and 7 of the 11 of us were told that they had run out of the food that we tried to order (at 1.30pm on a Saturday) so we had to find alternative options. It would have been good if she had told us in advance what was unavailable on the menu as opposed to individually disappoint us as we called out our order and we had to find an alternative on the spot.

We ordered starters, including a baked Camembert which arrived almost solid so we had to the waitress to put it in the microwave to which she did with a terrible attitude. She whipped it from our table with a huge sigh and then almost threw it back at us when she returned. We were made to feel very embarrassed.

When the food finally arrived, I asked for mayonnaise and a jug of water for the table. The jug of water came about 25 minutes later when I had already finished my dinner and the mayonnaise didn't come at all so I had a very dry streak sandwich and chips.

We had to call the waitress over to ask for more drinks. I asked for a pint of London Pride. She took the order, came back 10 minutes later to tell me they run out of London Pride. I ordered another beer and it arrived 10 minutes later.

Our plates weren't cleared at all so we had to sit around dirty plates for the remainder of our experience.

When discussing if everyone enjoyed their meals, some of the feedback was that the risotto was completely tasteless, the roast chicken was very dry and the beef and mushroom pie tasted about a week old.

Overall, really disappointed with the experience. We felt as though the pub doesn't feel it needs to make an effort as it's location will always bring customers. They need to rethink the quality of their food, ask the staff to be more customer service orientated and stock up a bit more of the offerings...

I called The Devil’s Dyke on 07/08/2025 and spoke to Rhiannon. I explained that I planned to propose to my girlfriend on Saturday 9th August 2025 at sunset (20:30) just outside The Devil’s Dyke on the hills. I further explained that I planned to come into the Pub after, but I could not book a table past 20:30 online. Rhiannon congratulated me and reassured me that a window table would be reserved in my name, held until closing, and a bottle of prosecco would be put out on the table for us. This immediately put my mind at ease and made me feel so welcomed, even though I hadn’t even set foot through the door yet.

Saturday came around, as planned I proposed on the hills at sunset (she said YES!😮‍💨) we stuck around to watch the rest of the sunset/take photos etc. Then we headed over to The Devil’s Dyke at around 20:55. I was aware that the kitchen closed at 21:00 so was concerned we may have missed our window to eat. We walked in, and immediately were greeted by Rhiannon. She was so warm and kind in congratulating us and showing genuine interest, she then led us to the reserved window table (stunning views 😍) with a bottle of Prosecco on ice, and reassured us that the kitchen had stayed open for us. We were both so grateful and it made us feel even more comfortable and welcome.

We ordered our food (Steak and Salmon Fishcakes) and I cannot praise the chefs, Archie & Stu, enough. Also, our servers??? James and Chelsey, so attentive, so kind. At one point Chelsey told us that the back-of-house team had all wished us congratulations, and that they had been so excited for our engagement that it had “kept them all going for the day”. Again, the overall standard of the food and service was top quality 👌🏼 We decided straight away that this would be the place we would come back to every single time we visited Brighton.

I went to settle the bill and was informed by Chelsey that The Devil’s Dyke had gifted the bottle of Prosecco to us as an engagement gift. What a kind gesture 🥹

I would recommend this place to absolutely anybody. The service and food, as mentioned, is top notch. But outside of that, the views, decor and overall vibe is immaculate.

Thank you to all members of staff, front of house and back of house for making us feel so loved and valued. We will...

We were 2 couples and a child. We ordered and we waited and waited and waited, then after approx 30 min we started to ask where our food is. To mention, was not a busy time...the pub was less than half with costumers. After the staff was passing from one to another the responsibility of bringing our food, finally a guy came and apologised and said in few moments will bring it to us. Gone another 10 minutes and finally ... came !!!...He came with 2 menus from 4 we ordered. I needed to stand up to run after him and I told him are missing 2 menus. He looked in his system and he said indeed...and he apologised and gone to kitchen telling me we will have it in minutes. Gone another 20 minutes and nothing and nobody came to tell us if we will have it or not. So annoying...especially they ask the money before but not after so we already paid in advanced...otherwise we was paying for what we had and gone we were. After another 20 min came the other 2 menus, the other couple finished a long time ago. When he brought the last 2 menus, we asked for dessert we ordered as we were sure will take a while and indeed so it was. We finished to eat and dessert came after approx 40 minutes we asked for. In total we were there for 3 and half hours. I'm writing this long review wasting my time doing it only to tell my horrible experience and the last drop was that in one of the desert we found a small piece of sharp plastic as you can see in the picture. By the way...after we finished our food until the end when we left, nobody came to collect the empty plates so we had to put them on next table to make space and to serve the desert. Avoid avoid avoid! Was for first and last time we gone here! Another 2 groups was moaning while we were getting out and same problems...poor very poor service and the waiting time is unbelievable long. Probably I'll get an automatic reply from owner with "we are sorry and apologize for the experience...etc...please contact us..." no!... I contacted your people while we were there and we got the poorest service ever. You have to review yourself and your services and to hire competent and enough number of staff if you want clients to come back. I'll never go again! Maybe is a good place but my experience says...