The Green Man — Restaurant in Mid Sussex

First off, Horsted Keynes village is a good half mile from (and some way above) the station on the Bluebell Railway. Off the beaten track and just far enough from the station to work up an appetite! There is a daytime bus, but frequent, it's not.

We visited (by car) on a Monday lunch time.

This is a nice village pub, fairly quiet when we visited. With friendly staff and very good food. Music was being played (a Springsteen album, if I'm not mistaken), though quiet and not in the least intrusive.

Food is served between noon and 2:30pm and again between 6 and 9pm

Three real ales (session, strong, falling over) were on offer, though we stuck with a pot of tea.

Dogs with well behaved owners are welcome.

There's parking for around a dozen cars, but road parking looked not to be a problem.

On a fine day, the outdoor seating (on the lawn in front of the pub) is a good option. Although on the road through the village (if it's even a "B road", it's not a busy one), Horsted Keynes is pretty quiet and most of the time, what you hear is birdsong. Inside the pub, there are no steps to 'the facilities', which were clean and well presented.

My friend opted for a burger and chips (under £12) ... which just doesn't do justice to what arrived. The burger was home made, large and succulent, with a couple of rashers of decent back bacon. First rate and the chips were of a quality not seen for many moons. The meal served with coleslaw.

I went for sea bass (just under £16), a decent properly cooked fillet (too many places overcook fish ... not here), served on top of a tasty risotto with a generous number of juicy king prawns. All served piping hot and made for a very nice meal indeed.

Given how good the main courses were, I just had to try the apple and blackberry pie, served with custard (also offered were ice cream or cream ... tempted!) and worth the guilt.

Several were eating and it has to be said the fish and chips and chicken salad looked every bit as good as our choice.

I'm looking forward to visiting again. There's a lot of menu...

Nice pint of Harveys, but... Friendly and incompetent staff and one of the worst designed, worst prepared, worst served and worst quality, meals I've ever had in a pub. As part of a larger party, we had been asked to and ordered in advance to ensure we could eat together and go on to our next group activity. However split over three tables, despite any prep to the order, each table was obviously cooked and served as a completely separate table, not sequentially as a party booking. First table had finished eating before food for third table eventually served. Offered mustard, this never came. In any case it wouldn't have saved the dried out inedible pie. Nobody took the trouble to ask, post service, if meal was being enjoyed, which it wasn't. Despite pushing plate to centre of table with offensive meal on it, and having this looked at twice by passing staff, none investigated this obvious clue to a problem. Yes, I believe restaurant staff should be observant and pro-active. On paying, was not asked if I had enjoyed my meal, just had money taken. The meal itself was pie, veg, and chips. The veg and chips had been put on the plate, covered in gravy, and the pie put on top. Result a pool of wet, soggy chips. Veg actually ok. The only dry thing on the plate was the pie. The cut slice of a larger pie was over-cooked, or kept hot over-long, filling dried around the edges, and the base pastry set like concrete. Well under half of the inside tables were occupied, plus a table in use outside in the sun. If the service I received was indicative, in a busy summer with the many outside table across the green I imagine the place would grind to a complete halt. I do not recommend this pub, and cannot see how the current staff and methods could ever be satisfactory. I am not vindictive, just want potential diners to know about...

We arrived with a reserved booking. The women that served us was extremely abrupt and kept “huffing” when we asked questions. She seemed stressed taking our order (7 of us) and never once held a polite conversation with us. When the starters arrived, items were missing so we had to ask. When the mains came out no new cutlery had been replaced so we had to ask and wait for that, making our food go warm. Again items were missing so we had to ask, each time the women would bring one item to the table so it felt as if we were constantly reminding her to get what we had previously asked for. Every time she brought something, it got slammed on the table. At no time were we asked if everything was ok. Three dinners out of the seven were just warm! At approximately 10pm the women came up to us whilst we were still drinking and asked us if we could leave as they were going to shut the pub up as they wanted to take stock of what they had sold in the day to see what they had got left. This was extremely rude of her. We wasn’t asked if we wanted coffees or desserts at any time. When we left we noticed two locals with dogs under their tables still sitting there drinking as if they hadn't been asked to leave. The rude women stood behind the bar thanking us. We have been to this pub before and had such a lovely meal with family who actually live in the village. This experience was just awful and one we won’t be...