Hillside Inn, Crawley

Busy food pub - think its a vintage. Met by a server at the door. Tribute and one other real ale. Food average for the slightly expensive price. Good service.

The Hillside Inn dates from the 19th century when it was a coaching inn known as the King’s Head. The pub is set back from Balcombe Road by a large outside seating area that sits behind a waist high picket fence that runs along the boundary. To the left of the pub is a large car park that indicates that dry sales are high on the agenda. The interior consists of various seating areas and an L shaped bar that is bordered by flagstones. During my recent Friday evening visit all of the tables were taken by both diners and drinkers meaning that I had to stand by the inglenook to the left of the bar. During my visit I do not recall any music playing and I didn’t see any televisions, but I did spot an advertisement for free Wifi. This Vintage Inns pub has traditional closing times and opens at midday, except for Saturdays when it opens at 10am for the breakfast trade. There are lunch and dinner menus with mains, excluding steak dishes, priced from £7 - £10 and £8 - £13 respectively. On Sundays various roast dinners are available with prices starting at £9.99. The bar is stocked with standard keg alongside Peroni and Aspall’s Cider. I also counted three hand pumps that were drawing Brain’s Bread of Heaven and Rev. James alongside Sharp’s Doom Bar. Even though it was busy I found the staff to be polite and the general attitude of the other customers to be affable. The pubs on this side of Crawley leave a lot to be desired so it wasn’t difficult for the Hillside Inn to be the best I visited during my crawl of the area. I would have no problem returning here for another beer or two.