Griffin Inn — Restaurant in Wealden

We've been going to The Griffin as a family for over 15 years and sadly this was by far the worst experience to date.

We're probably partially to blame for deciding to go and sit in the garden on a beautiful late summers day to enjoy the fabulous view (which is what makes the place so special). It turns out if you sit in the garden you get completely forgotten!

We ordered at the bar as you'd expect. The menu online said the four person Griffin Sunday Roast platter was £85. Going to order it's then changed to £92. I asked for an extra Yorkshire pudding which I didn't feel was a difficult request given the price difference.

The "food" turned up on a silver tray all slopped together like a sad school dinner. There was not enough meat for 4 people by any stretch of the imagination. 2 meagre slices of Beef, 2 think and incredibly fatty slices of Pork half a breast of chicken and half a leg. 4 horribly undercooked Yorkshire puddings and quite frankly the worst roast potatoes we've ever experienced.

When asked about the food quantity and how they thought we would share it between 4 people (as is advertised) I received a shrug saying they'd run out of roasts. That really pissed me off as when we arrived at 2.30pm we were going to order at that point but the bar tender said there was no hurry as they serve roasts all day and don't stop service till 9pm!

I would not rate the meal above 1* however my Niece had the Cauliflower steak and despite it being basically a char grilled lump broken off the stem (no care and attention made to making it look like a digestable veggie steak) she enjoyed her meal! Fortunately the dog was hungry!

We spent over £250 for 6 of us on drinks and food so I don't think it's too much to ask that there is some attention paid at least once in the afternoon to see if plates needed clearing or anyone wanted desert etc.

Very sub par. I assume the service inside is better but can't assume the slop dish of the Griffin Roast platter would be...

We recently dined at the local pub, booking a table for 11 outside. The setting was lovely, with amazing views and a beautiful garden, making it an inviting place to relax.

Unfortunately, the evening didn't start well, as it took 20 minutes just to get drinks at the bar and repeat with subsequent drinks. Once seated, we struggled to get menus, as the staff could only find three. Additionally, plates and glasses from our table and others weren’t being cleared, adding to the disarray.

The outside kitchen and bar were closed, with the staff citing exhaustion from a busy afternoon. This meant not all menu items were available. When our food finally arrived, albeit with a 40-minute gap between the first and last dishes, the quality was excellent—no complaints there. However, the delay was frustrating, especially with something as simple as cheesy chips arriving last.

After our meal, we ordered dessert and tea but were told there would be a 15-minute wait as another table was being served. We eventually got our dessert, but the tea never came. After waiting 45 minutes and asking twice, we decided to call it a night. Cold from being outside as the evening drew in and disappointment, we requested a refund for the drinks and left after an exhausting three-hour dinner.

While the food was fantastic and the setting beautiful, the service issues, long waits, and lack of table clearing overshadowed the experience. I hope they can address these concerns, as the kitchen clearly...

We were celebrating the Eve ofour Golden Wedding Anniversary. We had some friends hoping us for a drink and then 4 of us going in for a meal. Choice of food for the restaurant was exactly the same. Not very good. The food itself my friend who was a chef didn’t particularly like the menu so had 2 starters. I had pasta as that was the only thing I liked and it was dreadful. My husband chose plaice and said he had never seen such a pathetic plaice portion wise. Very thin. Our other friend had cider battered cod that didn’t look particularly inviting. On the whole we were very very disappointed. The General Manager was dressed as though he was a handy man. Not enough staff on as lots of waiting around time. It would have been nice if we had been offered a free drink bearing in mind the occasion we were there. On our Golden Wedding day, the room we paid £165 for, did not include breakfast, so we decided to go elsewhere where kitchen was cleaner and food was cooked more professionally. We will never go there again. It’s a Young’s pub and if that’s the best they can do, I think it’s pretty poor. It used to have such a high standard and also being a mother of a chef, we hated to see how poorly it is run. So sad Youngs can’t afford to offer 2 free drinks for my husband when we were celebrating our Golden Wedding...