William the Conqueror — Restaurant in Rother

Disappointment comes to mind...

We had just finished the nature walk at the end of a short getaway to Rye and William the Conqueror had good reviews, so thought we'd try our luck without a reservation. Luckily, they did have a few seats available and we were sat rather quickly and that's as good as it got. The waiter said he'll come back to clean the table and to get our drinks order, he did not come back or clean the table, which was visibly dirty from the last person, nor was there any cutlery set out, like all the others tables. After a while of sitting and waiting, while 3 bar associates stood behind the bar chatting a away with each other, finally someone else came to take our order, she seemed friendly. When our starters arrived, the table next to us asked for clean cutlery, as theirs was visibly dirty. The waitress also noticed we had none and brought some back with her. She didn't bother to set it out but just put it on the table, which still hasn't been cleaned. The whitebait at the top of the basket was fine, nothing special but at the bottom it was crushed, split and just in bits. I assume from a heavy handed chef who just shoved it in. When our mains arrived a different waitress brought them over and as she placed my wife's down, she accidentally spilled a lot of my chips, onto my wife, the table and herself, including down her top. She found this comical and it was slightly. She apologised and promised to get me more chips... We did not see her again. Which I didn't complain about as they were dry and overcooked anyway but I don't like that she said she'd bring some more and then didn't even bother. None of the staff came to check how our food was, or even asked after we had finished how everything was, just if we wanted a dessert. We declined, politely asked for the bill, checked there was no tip included and got the heck out of there! Such a disappointing end to a nice...

Super pub, ticks all the boxes in Rye Harbour. Not knowing the area we booked a table x 2 for the first night of our three-night stay nearby. The team were SO welcoming and kind when, due to illness at short notice while we were there, we had to cancel our table booking. The team quickly sorted out a Fish & Chip takeaway for me to take back to our accommodation and I promised that, if we could, we'd return on the Sunday - our last night there. The takeaway was superb too.

We did return and had a super supper in the garden (it's quite unusual to find a pub serving food up to 7.00 pm on a Sunday, too). I chose the garlicky, grilled prawns for a starters and my husband chose the grilled haloumi cheese. For mains I chose the Moussaka, which was delicious and came with a crunchy Greek salad with a good slice of Feta cheese and lashings of olive oil. My husband chose the Chicken Souvlaki and said that was delicious too. When we're next in the area, and as we were visiting friends the chances of that are high, we'll return to this pub. A big thank you to the William Conqueror Team.

Recommend booking if you want to dine inside. I've ticked the £20 to £30 pp spend box because we had mains and starters but mains were well under £20 each.

Though a bit tired the service and good deserve a 5* review here and any pub you want to go back to deserves...

What was once a good pub has been reduced to a bit of a joke now. A truly pathetic range of beers and the food has not improved one bit. There are however a number of additional tables outdoors. Not so nice for the residents of the tiny village....There was one other pub in the village that went to the wall with the Covid 19 situation, leaving the venerable old William The Conqueror as the only choice. You'd be better off bringing a sandwich and a six-pack for a picnic. Avoid. Horrible. Last year: Some time on....well, the food is not so great these days. If you like chicken, avoid the chicken shish / skewers, something very odd about it, maybe it was frozen chunks? Not good. And as for the 'Greek' salad, leave out the vinegar guys, not very Greek. Fantastic location but seriously let down by the very indifferent food on offer. Too bad.

First visit, a few years ago: Very nice pub, good range of beers, lovely staff. Just an idea for the burgers: forget the 'beef burger' approach, just use plain, good quality beef. You have the excellent grill facility, good bun, choice of extras, perfect coleslaw, chips ok, and use a proper plate! And you will have outstanding burgers. Go on, you can do it! One of my favourite pubs,...