The Dorset, Lewes

A large pub/hotel with an emphasis on food especially seafood dishes. Still ok for a pint though with Harvey's Sussex Best and Porter plus Westons Old Rosie cider available yesterday. Fairly upmarket though with that hotel feel. The bar is centrally located on entering, a number of areas to choose from inside. A large inglenook fireplace with chopped logs indicates a roaring fire may be an attraction, but not yesterday, it was very mild. Plenty of outside seating to the rear with the usual wooden bench tables. A small snug bar by the entrance gives some character, but to be honest this place wasn't "pubby" enough for me but I'm sure it will appeal to its target clientele. A very well kept pint though and served to the brim.

You can't really get away from Harvey's in Lewes, and the Dorset serves a decent pint in comfortable if unremarkable surroundings. You need to be a great pub to be a good pub in Lewes and this place probably just hangs on thanks to it's food offering.

I found this pub to be very food orientated and I'm always suspicious of pubs that advertise an a la carte menu, especially when it is only on a Friday and Saturday night. My wife and I decided that we should eat before we started our crawl of Lewes and I will report that our sandwiches were a bit on the pricey side for what they were and I did start to get very irritated by the bong coming out of a speaker at the side of the bar that lets the staff know that there is food ready to pick up. The pub consists of a small public bar with a toad-in-the-hole table which was probably the nicest part of the pub and a rather bland L-shaped main bar area that stretches around to a large fireplace that segregates a few more tables in the far corner. There is also a dining type area at the rear and plenty of seating out the back which overlooks a car park. The wife did argue that it was very clean and the staff didn't stop working even when there were no customers, so 10/10 for effort. Best, Star of Eastbourne, Old Ale and Armada were all available from the Harveys Brewery along with Old Rosie and Westons for the cider drinkers. I didn't spot any TV and the music was so low that I wondered why they had bothered putting it on. The staff were nice enough, but I think that there are better places to drink in the area.

Offers half-a-dozen rooms and, to be honest, The Dorset does have the feel of a hotel bar about it. Service was pretty slow on my visit, too, mainly due to tourists unfamiliar with the routine and food orders. There's positives as well: beer is Harveys and pretty good. Plenty of outside seating on the sunny side of a quiet street a minute or two from Cliffe High Street (and the brewery).