Hand & Sceptre

Unfortunately Hit or Miss!
I have been here to eat many times and used to recommend for it’s wonderful food in a lovely setting. However what was once a reliable option is now hit or miss depending on who serves you. I have had very helpful friendly and attentive staff but most recently I had the experience of a Sunday lunch for 6 with wrong orders and side orders missing. Whether this was the waiter or the kitchens fault was irrelevant, it was how poorly it was dealt with that angered me. The chef who bought out some of our food went to find our waiter who then came over and said rather aggressively «what’s missing? nothing» with no pause for us to answer. We did finally get everything we ordered bought at random times to the table which resulted in one order of a bacon burger being a burger for the main and a side plate of bacon for dessert.
Having failed quite spectacularly at our mains you would hope he’d be concerned about getting the puddings right. When I asked for the brownie without ice cream he rolled his eyes at me and my cup of tea, that was meant to come as part of the mini dessert of a brownie and hot drink, came after the brownie had already been eaten.
Really very disappointed.

So within the span of a day, my review of The Hand & Sceptre has changed dramatically. Last night, alarms went off in the hotel and outside causing my wife and I to evacuate the building at 2 or 3 in the morning. As us and the other tenants waited outside wondering what was going on, we realized we all were left on our own. No night watch. No employee. No security. Nothing. We also realized the alarms are not monitored, because the police never arrived. If this had been an actual emergency (we never found out what happened), we would have either been left to fend for ourselves, or if it had been a fire, someone would have been badly hurt or killed. Even worse, when one of the tenants called the police, they didn’t believe him at first!
Eventually, after waiting for over half an hour outside in the cold weather, an employee came to the hotel and turned the alarms off saying that the police contacted him. Once again, if this were an actual emergency, we would have been in trouble. Thanks Kent/​Sussex PD. No explanation was given.
This morning, only one employee was showing their face. The waitress. As my wife and I sat down for our breakfast, we looked around to see that there was no one to answer for what happened last night. We ended up having to hunt the waitress down just to take our order. Two orders of the Eggs Royale (Poached egg on top of spinach with smoked salmon on a toasted English muffin). She said that the menu was incorrect. They didn’t have salmon and were out of English muffins… in England. :O
She never offered us an alternative nor an apology. Instead, my wife ended up getting them to improvise and put ham instead of salmon and use an alternative to the muffin. The waitress said we would be charged extra. After last night, my wife informed her that we would not. They agreed.
Even now as I sit in our room, we have not had a phone call, a message, a visit, nothing to explain what happened last night. No compensation whatsoever. I flew from New Orleans, LA to England and I specifically wanted to stay at the Hand & Sceptre because of how well my experience was the first time. Needless to say, I will NEVER be back to this place and will be sure to inform my friends and colleagues the same.

My business partner and I wanted to take a staff member of ours to lunch here for a birthday treat as it is close to our business. Upon arrival we were greeted and shown our table, nice atmosphere and interior.
We ordered our food and drinks, 2 of us opting for the gammon, 1 for salad and the last for a burger. The gammon was close to £15 in price. When the food arrived the disappointment at the size of the gammon was hard to hide. 3 thin slices of ham that would have been more suitable as a starter turned up. When we mentioned this to the manager we were told, that’s the standard size This was just as my burger turned up, half the price yet easily twice as much food. The attitude of the manageress was lousy to say the least. I would not return to this establishment having had a bad experience over 2 years ago. It seems things have not improved!

Sunday lunch for four — two older teens and parents. Very disappointing. Inattentive staff. Very slow service. Less than impressive food for prices that were close to those at the far superior George & Dragon in Speldhurst. Incredibly for a «come in and relax on Sunday» positioning, no real ale. Only to pumps-​one being cleaned one not on. Feeble. We all went for Sunday roast option — various meats between us — and they all looked pretty much the same. One gravy fits all? Tepid food served at a very slow pace. They weren’t full (with good reason it seems) so no excuse for poor service and staff who don’t know the menu or the bar options.
I did raise this and no one was interested. I did write to the company and got no reply. If you do plan to go, be prepared to pay more than you would want to, for food that doesn;t live up to the price, served by disinterested staff over a very long period. And no, don’t expect anyone managing the place to give a damn.

I recently visited this refurbished pub for the first time under its new management and was greatly impressed. Very efficient and caring staff made me feel welcome right away, and the tables are nicely spaced to enable a bit of private conversation. Comfortable chairs, and the rotisserie with a tempting pork loin is a good feature. I found it a bit too dark however and reading the menu by a tealight and my key torch was a bit of a challenge! Well worth it though and I had a superb steak. The menu offers a good choice of grills, salads, pasta/​pizza, spit roasts etc and there is a special Steak Night on a Thursday. Level access, clean disabled loo and plenty of onsite parking. Recommended, give it a try.