Wingrove House, Polegate

Yes will concur with Steve below that this is the restaurant for the Wingrove hotel. It is open to non residents and you can come here just for a drink, especially as it has a really pleasant outside patio garden that affords pleasant views of the village church across the Tye. But it is table service only therefore technically not a bar that should be on here. But not a concern as amazingly this small village has four proper pubs to visit. We ate lunch here and then only had time to do one of the village pubs. So I asked our waiter if he was local and which of the four he would recommend. He suggested the George so off we toddled..

Wingrove House advertises itself as a brasserie, lounge bar and hotel, but I would omit the word ‘bar’ from the description as I was informed by the guy who seemed to be in charge that the bar was removed at some point last year. Non-residents of the hotel are still more than welcome and alcohol is still consumed in the lounge, but it is table service only and the Peroni, that is the only draught option, is poured in a back room somewhere. To the right of the entrance is some sort of internet room that I mistook for check in and the Lounge is located to the left. The seating consists of low tables and sofas and there is a log burner that was churning out some heat. The walls are adorned with deer heads and other antlered animal skulls that won’t be to everyone’s taste, but they are in keeping with the colonial style of the building exterior. There is plenty of literature to be found casually strewn around the furniture and I did notice a published book called Wingrove House that is about the history of the building. The front doors open up onto a veranda where there is some outside seating and I imagine this being very pleasant in the summer months. The large car park is for customer use only, but they had no problem with us leaving our car there for a couple of hours whilst we sampled Alfriston’s three other drinking establishments. The location is nice, but there was a five minute wait for the drinks to be delivered and another five minute wait for someone to appear to take payment. This maybe fine if you’re a resident of the hotel and in no rush to be anywhere, but some of us have better things to do with our time. I also found the layout to be confusing and I didn’t know who was an employee and who was a customer. We both needed the toilet during our visit and decided to pee elsewhere as we couldn’t find it or someone to ask about its location. The service was friendly and this maybe a nice place to eat and sleep, but its not really designed as a place to pop in and have a drink so as such I cannot see myself making a return visit.