The Lion

The setting between a typical pub area and the restaurant space is beautifully done, the building is well taken care of, the atmosphere is inviting. This is unfortunately were fun ended for us. The kitchen has to do some serious homework. 2 Stars for not leaving hungry.
We’ve ordered starters which were baked mushrooms in a cheese sauce and salmon/​prawn rolls. The mushrooms were served in a bland cheese/​cream mix, surrounded by lettuce leaves without any seasoning or dressing (useless). Boring for 5 pounds. It was worse with the salmon «cornets»: It was a tablespoon an incredibly bad prawn cocktail rolled in two slices of smoked salmon that had the ugly «brown» part still on it on both sides. Same silly, useless, loveless lettuce /​citrus arrangement with no spice or dressing. For 6 quit? Come on!
The white wine that I ordered never came with my starter, so I switched to a glass of red to drink with the lamb (not going into details — just fine)
Now came the lemon sole and a lamb shoulder. Incredible amount of lamb in lots of sauce. A real man’s portion, even when you removed lots of gooey parts and the ugly skin (not crunchy, to be polite). Vegetables and potatoes were incredibly bland and tasteless. Serving any meal with FROZEN parsley — on both the lamb and the potatoes — is silly and cheap, and it doesn’t serve any function except giving it the look of the 1960s.
The lemon sole died an unjust death. It was served on the wrong side, it was not properly cleaned (part of the intestines very visibly still in there, yuck!) and the «better side» didn’t have the skin anymore: Did it burn in the pan so the chef removed it? A pale, cooked through (dead) fish. What’s more, they put a (useless, again) slice of orange on top for «décor» which was obviously used before to produce Zest. You can’t, can’t do that!
The lemon sole was 16 quit and the lamb was similarly priced (don’t remember exactly) — so a pretty steep price for the country side already, and for any price, the preparation was unacceptable. The lamb was, ok, didn’t leave hungry. We can’t recommend the place to eat at all. Disappointed!

A very credible pub with a great restaurant in the competitive Pagham village.
I have been going to the Lion since oooh… the early 1990’s. A lot of different people have handled the place in that time and obviously, certain peaks and troughs go with that.
Personally, I feel that it is currently being run extremely well. The bar side of things is fab and the food is tremendous. The prices are a little higher than can be found elsewhere in the vicinity, but I feel that the quality justifies the difference.
The Lion is particularly nice on really cold winters evenings with a roaring fire, or on a blazing hot Sussex day while having a cool drink in the large front patio.
Low wood beam ceilings and beautiful fireplace give clues as to the age of the Lion and it definitely gives a great vibe to the place.
All round, a great asset to Pagham and as ever… it really depends on who is at the helm!