Tag: Eastbourne

I have to credit this rather lovely pub in Eastbourne with some really engaging service on Friday evening. The 2020 Hike Norfolk trip to Eastbourne had to be suspended given the national pandemic, but we had 40 people signed up to go and the Marine were ready to cater for that number. To thank them for their assistance with that, I thought that I’d turn up with the 6 or 7 people from this year’s event that I thought would come along on the Friday evening. Given I didn’t know how many people there would be wanting to go for a pub meal on the Friday evening, I decided to risk just turning up.

With Ross, Dave and Steve with me, we turned up to the pub at their opening time of 18:00 and to my great concern, there were already about 20 people standing outside the pub. This really wasn’t ideal at all if it meant that the pub would be full. We reassured ourselves that at least we’d get a table and everyone else could always walk to McDonald’s. It transpired though that this was just another pre-booked group and they were being catered for in the conservatory area.

What the pub allowed us to do was really very kind. It primarily involved moving all their furniture around (and I think it’s fair to say that I had this situation sorted….) to suit our needs. It then transpired that there were 14 people all wanting food, which isn’t quite what I expected. However, the pub catered for that whilst remaining friendly and pretending that this wasn’t a bit annoying. I have to say, if I ran a pub again, I’d likely be surprised to see a 14 strong party turn up without a booking. But, these are challenging times and I imagine the money was useful.

The beer selection was adequate, with London Pride and Harvey’s Bitter available as the only two choices, so I had half a pint of each. They were well kept and presented a useful option, with a regional nod given the Harvey’s which is from nearby Lewes. The beers tasted as they should and they weren’t served too cold, as that always annoys me (I mean relatively, there are other things that annoy me more, like loud people in libraries).

The food menu and there was a specials list as well.

I had the pie last time I came here which was excellent, but I decided not to risk the steak one which was their offering this time as I worry there might be fatty meat (I’m a bit picky). Instead, I went for the fish and chips which was reasonably priced and neatly presented. And this was really rather excellent, with a crispy batter which had a depth of flavour, fish which flaked away and no greasiness to the whole arrangement. This was well towards the higher end of the quality range that I’ve experienced.

Overall, this was an exceptionally well run pub with the staff having excellent customer service skills. They were helpful even when some of our party presented a 10% off voucher and then tried to pay at the bar despite being asked not to. Not that I’m one for gossip or tittle tattle. Although, to be fair, we were a very well behaved group (well, I was) and weren’t loud, so they didn’t have to deal with any noise issues. They did have to deal with Dave getting shots, but he’s very social and endeared himself to them anyway.

I would absolutely book here again if I return to Eastbourne, because this high level of customer service for large groups is rare. For the perfect visit, being able to work out who ordered what is something pubs are doing better, and it was a bit muddled up here. I’d also ideally like some more craft beer options, but I appreciated that their real ales were well-kept. Anyway, it’s easy to find fault and I thought that the pub did a great job with a lot of food all being ordered at once. Very lovely and I’m grateful for their assistance in getting us a suitable section of the pub with nearly no notice.

The Eagle in Eastbourne appears to be one of the few pubs left in the town that I haven’t visited and I was intrigued to see why it seems to have lost its entry in the Good Beer Guide which it had for a decade. The pub was formerly owned by the Kemptown Brewery before later on being taken over by Whitbread and turned into a Hogshead. Rebranded as a Beer Engine pub it was renovated in 2009 when it was owned by Enterprise Inns.

The beer selection wasn’t overly exciting, it was limited to Harvey’s Bitter and the Butcombe Bitter. The latter was well-kept and tasted as it should, but the choice of ales here isn’t anything really of note. CAMRA also issue a warning note that the pub charges disproportionately for half a pint, something which I don’t like. It’s also hard to ignore that the beer prices here are set at London prices, they’re just perhaps too high for Eastbourne and I can see why they’re losing customers to places such as Wetherspoons. There’s nothing here which justifies being in the Good Beer Guide, so it seems right that it was taken out. The service was though excellent, a really engaging and conversational member of staff, so there was nothing wrong with the welcome.

It was all very clean and open inside the pub, although it wasn’t particularly busy despite it being lunchtime.

I quite like seeing pool tables in pubs, or ideally bar billiards tables, but this perhaps doesn’t quite fit here. There isn’t a vast amount of seating in the pub as there is, so they’ve lost a few tables that could be placed here. It all looks a bit crammed in and this review from a few months ago is pretty damning:

“Really shocked to make my first visit now I have relocated for work to be told that I have sat on a table for 6 (to watch the football match) and will need to move if a larger party come in. How to make someone feel welcome – not.”

I’d agree, that is a dreadful attitude from the pub. I accept that secretly a pub will want a customer group that fits exactly the table size that they have, but this often doesn’t happen for all manner of reasons. I feel for that person, who came here to find a new local pub as he had moved into town and was made completely unwelcome. And what choice does he have given that the pub has got so many large tables and so few smaller tables?

I felt welcome in the pub and the staff member was friendly, with everything being clean and organised. The problem here is that although nothing particularly is wrong, the pub doesn’t offer me anything interesting to write about. It’s really all quite bland, despite it being clear that huge efforts are being made with the pub’s appearance.

I extended my trip to Eastbourne at the last minute, so the price of the accommodation options were rather more decadent than I would ideally like. However, the Glastonbury Hotel was reasonably priced, although a quick glance of the reviews showed that they were all over the place in terms of what guests thought about the place. However, they weren’t bad enough to stop me booking, although I was unsure of the quality of the experience that I had ahead.

The pre-arrival e-mail explained that I mustn’t smoke, bring alcohol into the hotel, be excessively loud, break anything in the room, check in after 21:00 and so on. I understand that they’ve clearly had problems with rule breakers, but inconsiderate guests will do those things anyway. Hotels are really meant to be places that someone looks forwards to going to, a list of warnings isn’t a great start.

However, the check-in at reception was friendly and personable, so all was well. The bar area had a lot of chairs crammed in, but it wasn’t entirely clear when and if it was actually open. The hotel also has a snooker club underneath it, but there was no mention of that to guests, a puzzling omission of information. The locking system for the room door was also explained to me, something which numerous previous reviews have touched on.

Given I had booked the cheapest room, I was surprised to be given a room with such a lovely view of the coast (the cheapest rooms normally get a view of the car park and air conditioning units). The balcony stretched along the front of all of the rooms on that floor, which I didn’t overly like, but there’s something very authentic about a seaside stay when it’s possible to hear the waves crashing onto the beach.

The room was also fine, with the bathroom looking like it has just been modernised. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the room was spotless, but it didn’t give me any concerns in terms of the cleanliness. Everything was functional and there were no noise issues either internally or externally during my stay. The lock on the room was fiddly, it needs to be turned on the reverse and it sometimes wouldn’t turn, so a slight faff. The hotel would perhaps be wise to replace all of the locks, maybe even going as far as switching to use key cards rather than physical keys. The water in the hotel also seems to be either cold or scalding hot, of which never are really ideal.

The hotel corridors were a complete maze and there was a lot of paper signage to try and get guests to their rooms. I must admit to needing a few attempts to remember where the staircase was that I needed to get to my room, as there are several going off to various other parts of the building. There are fire doors in some inconvenient places when using the stairs, although the hotel doesn’t have much choice in that. There’s definitely still a feeling of the 1960s with the hotel corridors, all rather dated. However, it’ll cost a fortune to modernise all of this, and even if they do that, then I likely wouldn’t booked here as it would be too expensive. Personally, I suspect that they’re probably best to leave it, just improve the signage a little (and the fire signage definitely needs looking at).

I do wonder as well what the history of this building was, I’ve been fascinated before about what hotels used to be like. When the Queen’s Hotel was constructed in Eastbourne in the 1880s there were just a couple of bathrooms in the entire building and a limited number of toilets were located in a different wing. Guests would be used to trundling throughout the hotel in the early twentieth century to use the facilities, causing no end of issues over recent decades when trying to cram en-suites into rooms in these Victorian hotels.

And the views in the evening, definitely rather pleasant.

I liked this hotel, despite its obvious flaws. I got the impression that the owners are trying to steadily improve it, whilst trying to cater for coach parties and the budget end of the market in the meantime. It’s likely an exciting challenge, clearly they’ve already gone some way in terms of the modernisation as my bathroom was modern and relatively new. The public areas need a lot of improvement, they seem very underused and that ground floor area near reception would make an ideal craft beer bar……