White Rock Hotel, Hastings

Very average looking/feeling hotel bar with no character, but on the sea front with a small terrace on the main road. 4 good quality real ales.

The White Rock Hotel is a large hotel on the seafront at Hastings and as such there is plenty of café style seating with views of the sea on the terrace out the front. The bar area is to the right of the entrance and it had a modern feel with the tables uniformly set out at exact distances and the three other people in the bar when I visited on Monday evening last week were all using their laptops. I walked up to the bar and noted my observations and then had a wander around to see if I could find anything interesting, which didn’t take long, and then I found myself back at the bar. I think that over five minutes had passed before I saw any kind of staff member and then I was asked “are you waiting sir” – No, I like to walk into random hotels so that I can stand at the bar and scratch my balls! To be fair the service was friendly when it finally arrived and I had a pint of Harvey’s Kiss which slipped down nicely. The other three ales on were Sussex Extra Stout, Pale Ale and Original all from the Dark Star Brewery and apart from the Guinness all of the draught products were of the premium type. I’d be very happy if I was staying at a hotel and found this to be the bar, but I wouldn’t actively seek this place out when there are proper pubs in the area.