The Camber Castle — Restaurant in Rother

Having driven around for a few hours trying to find a pub with space to eat at, I discovered The Camber Castle with room aplenty. I didn't take long to find out why. Tired, hungry and with rain starting to fall, I made a dash for the entrance, not realising I'd gone in the exit thanks to a one way system. The room didn't look like much of a restaurant or pub and more like a disco hall and I had doubts they'd serve food.

Anyway I'd made an easy mistake. I was met with hostility from a punter, who told me, gesturing with an empty pint glass to go in the other way. I left and returned in the entrance a metre or 2 from where I'd arrived. I hadn't had a chance to ask whether they served food or whether they had space to seat my family of five before the same angry punter told me to use the hand sanitiser, which I hadn't seen, as it was tucked to the right hand inside the entrance on a table I wouldn't have seen unless the external walls had been made of glass. This wouldn't be a problem but for the attitude I was given - I just needed to ask a question and leave to get my family from the car. A member of bar staff stepped up to the bar and explained the rules rather abruptly. At this point I'd quite forgotten I just wanted to ask whether there was room for my family. I said I don't appreciate being spoken to the way his customer or he had spoken to me and he said he didn't appreciate the way I was speaking to him.

Rude staff defending a rude customer probably cost The Camber Castle 5 customers, but I consider it a near miss.

Edit, part 1: Corrcted 'landlord' in original post with 'A member of bar staff' as this was an incorrect assumption on my part (my apologies). Edit, part 2: Following a reply to this review from the owner, I feel I should clarify that I take the restrictions and requirements around COVID-19 very seriously and that there is no way I would deliberately defy an establishment's processes, which by necessity vary by establishment based on layout, risk assessment and capabilities. This was only the second restaurant I'd been in since lockdown begun, so perhaps a spirit of cooperation would have been warranted.

I'd suggest also that while instructions might well have been written on the doors, they were wide open and not the most obvious, especially when dashing though the rain, keeping 2 metres from the few customers packing up outside. I feel that the staff and the customer who addressed me had failed to acknowlege that I'd probably made a mistake and managed to alienate a potential customer by taking entirely the wrong attitude.

Manners...

I’ll be honest we did not try the food so can’t rate that, but we did pop in for drinks and received possibly the worst customer service experience i’ve ever received, and I live in South London where nobody has any manners! But the lady who served us in the Camber castle, was just rediculously rude. She definitely should not be in a job where she has to work with customers face to face. On arrival to this venue, we walked in front door where the member of staff in question was directly infront of us, she didn’t greet us or even say hello, she just stared at us in silence asif to say “what?” . After about ten seconds of us just looking at eachother, I realised we weren’t going to be greeted, so I asked if we could come in for a drink. She pointed to a room for us to go in, we found a table & we ordered our drinks from this female staff member at the bar. She again did not say a word to us, just stood at bar looking at us waiting for us to order. She took our orders and shuved them across the bar in silence. Cokes were given in a can, not offered a glass or anything. Just had the coke cans slammed down on the bar. She at no point said please or thank you or asked if we wanted a glass. She just had really stand off ish energy, and a really grumpy look, asif we were an inconvenience to her. We also ordered a cup of tea which was bought over to table and put down and she walked off AGAIN without a word. This lady was actually just rude. Im not a snobI dont expect much, but a hello? Or how can I help you? Or thank you? Or would you like a glass? That’s the minimum you expect from ordering drinks in a bar. She did not greet us at the door. Or say goodbye when we left. Or acknowledge us at all, other than shuv drinks at us. She was very frendly to the table of men nearby who appeared to be locals. Ofcourse it’s important to have good relationships with locals, but we were visiting and were planning on staying for a few drinks, maybe even a meal later on, and planned to visit a few times as nice break from holiday park. They missed out on alot of potential business from us, from being so rude. Really wouldn’t recommend going here unless you want to be treated like you’re an idiot. I will say however. The venue was clean! Not sure why they were all going into toilets together but lets assume that it was...

The Camber Castle, friendly staff on arrival, the food is very good and generally fast with generous portions, the Sunday roast for the most hearty eater will struggle with if your early, as the day goes on when busy the roast is still a good fill, the drinks are very reasonably priced with a good selection for non drinkers. Dogs are welcome within the main bar but not the restaurant but is still a bonus in the hot weather, the staff when serving food are so friendly and can’t do enough to make your visit an enjoyable one. Parking is ample but can get busy in both large car parks, truly a must to visit while staying in Camber. The is also a restaurant called Knights open above on Friday/Saturday night only a great atmosphere and a must to try. Overall you won’t be disappointed what ever time of the day you visit, just to note food stops serving at 9pm Sunday...