The Bell - Ticehurst

Good food in a relaxed, quirky enviornment. We stayed in the Pour L'Amour lodge; very comfortable & with the added bonus of a private outside log burner.

Excellent meal with great service.

Sorry to say very disappointed. I had a meal at the bell shortly after it had reopened and the service was terrible and the food mediocre. I gave feedback then, but never got a response, so much for all the blurb on the website. However, given the recent awards we decided to give it a go again, thinking it may have improved. I was out to celebrate an event with two friends. When we got sat down the young female waitress bombarded us with questions about drinks and orders before we had even looked at the menus, so we asked her to give us a few minutes and bring the wine list. She brought this and then disappeared and it took a while to eventually attract her attention to get our order taken. We were intrigued to know what 'lovers chips' were so asked her and she came up with some ridiculous answer about them being a brand, and then seemed very confused if they were bought in or made on the premises. We ordered some chips and two side salads which arrived after we had finished our main courses. The waitress had disappeared again. These were brought by an older Irish guy who was very nice, thought they had been ordered later, but then when we explained they were ordered all at the same time made them complimentary, which was good, the chips were very nice. My crispy kedgeree turned out to be two stodgy rice cakes, tasking mildly of fish, not at all like kedgeree and I would not order these again. The menu could do with being less on the pretention and greater on the reality. The nice Irish guy returned again and gave us complimentary puddings, which was nice and appreciated. Meanwhile they were coping with the fire alarms going off all the time and a flood from one of the up stairs bedroom. The young serving staff are all over the place and could do with a a strong manager overseeing their activities. This was the same as my experience when I originally visited. Nice physical surroundings and outside fantastic garden and landscaping, but can't recommend to eat there.

This was the third visit I have made to this pub, and it is a fantastic quirky pub with great service. The food has always been good which is why we return. Returning this time with food allergens I was very disappointed by the lack of choice in the menu, especially as I had notified in advance when booking the table. This contrasted with my experience of a restaurant visited on the Friday where I was directed to the choices I could make on the menu the moment I was seated. My experience in general has been that good Restaurants are responsive and adaptable to accommodating allergens so I was very surprised by the lack of choice at the Bell as it's such a respected establishment.

Not a very good experience unfortunately. We booked a table for 7pm and were near a table of four adults with four young children. The children were noisy, crying, continuously getting up moving around or playing on their IPads with the sound on. Children just being children but not what we were looking forward to in a relaxing dining experience. When we left at 8.45, they were still there. The restaurant area is adjacent to the bar area which was also quite noisy with Friday evening drinkers. The menu was not that extensive and my fried haddock was coated in very thick batter and my "chips" were really thick chunks of potato that were more suited for door stops. My starter of whitebait however was very nice. All in all not really worth the money they charged.
We won't be going back.

Quirky bar and restaurant. Nice food although limited menu. Friendly and helpful staff.

Great village pub with interesting decor, good food and friendly service.

Lovely, quirky, welcoming and cosy pub/restaurant. Lovely food and excellent friendly service

The steak was the best I've ever had! The service was attentive and friendly. Very happy!

In one word excellent
The food, service and staff made it a very pleasurable experience