The Cove in Rother

Very nice food at normal pub prices. Friendly service. Parking limited but adequate, more on the roads nearby. We'll be returning regularly.

It's wonderful to find such a lovely restaurant. Such a warm welcome, great food, terrific service and good value for money.

Fantastic food and really amazing service! Highly recommend!

Nice pub, cosy and a nice atmosphere. Very friendly staff.

Amazing pub for locals and tourists alike... Wonderful food which seems to change seasonally, drinks to suit all palates and such a cool aesthetic! One of my favourite pubs in the area, will continue to return whenever I visit Sussex.

My husband had very fond memories of this pub from 20 years ago and, as we were in the area, we popped in for a drink. Oh dear, what a mistake.... The drinks weren't great; the place had no friendly vibes, and there was no response from the staff in response to our goodbye 'thank you' (even though there was only one other couple drinking in the pub). We didn't eat there, however the menu appeared somewhat unusual and very expensive. Cheese "custard", and very little for a non-meat eater. The menu list advertising their event nights, which, strangely, was stuck on the back of the toilet doors, was uninspiring. I hadn't said anything as I didn't want to ruin his reminiscing; however, on the way back to the car, he commented that it was all a bit grim and, even though I'd never been there before, I couldn't disagree.

We booked a Sunday meal at this restaurant and it was excellent would go again

Locally (and well-) sourced ingredients put together by a skilful, imaginative hand in the kitchen. We tried the rare roast beef, the Welsh rarebit, the burger and the cheeseboard. All perfectly executed. Even the chips were perfect! Staff are friendly and efficient too.

The Cove is a fabulous pub in a great location. Warm and welcoming pub with a good selection of food and local beers. Slightly slow on the food service, so we grabbed some bar snacks too.

This pub is the cutest. The decor was very welcoming especially with the fire on! Me & my mum came for lunch with my two small dogs and had the nicest time. Had the first king prawn cocktail of the season and it didn’t disappoint! Was served by Mike he was very knowledgeable and seemed to love working there which made the experience even better. Will definitely be coming back!

I stayed a night at the Cove and had the best stay ever. My room had everything to make you as comfortable as possible. The restaurant/bar attached to the accommodation is equally amazing. The beautiful surroundings, i.e., beautiful rolling hills down to the ocean make you feel thst you are in nature. It is a must!

Would have given 5 stars, but they added 12.5 % service on top of our bill without any notification! There was nothing about it written on the bottom of their menu or anywhere else. The food was great 👍 Steak cooked to perfection, triple cooked chips were to die for! Servers could have been a bit more knowledgeable about how to make customers comfortable. Overall, it was a nice evening but spoiled by the extra money added to the bill.

We visited here by recommendation, but unfortunately the food was relatively overpriced, with a 12.5% service charge. My steak arrived around 35 minutes later (even though it was not very busy) and it was cold. Sadly, I won't be visiting again in the future.

Lovely village pub, we were staying at a local AirBNB and host recommend. Really lovely food and host :) Has some lovely gin from Hastings too.

Really great place with amazing food at fair prices. Would definitely go again if we are in the county!

Really good all round experience.....

Gem of a find. Excellent food . Excellent service … we came here 3 nights in a row .. and each meal has been an amazing experience!Silvian was a fabulous host !!compliments to the chef !!!

A wonderful night, lots of veggie options. Great pils too. Thank you xx

Beautiful food , lovely staff and comfortable surroundings. Next I need to try the Sunday Roast 😋

We had stopped for a drink day before and food looked so good decided to book for a roast which was excellent, the staff really friendly and helpful 🙂

Top grub! Lovely pub, would go again. Till the BRAKE OF DAWN 🍻

Had the pizza from the little Italian van on a Tuesday night. Absolutely delicious. What a gem. Hard to find good pizza. This is a great pizza.

The Cove came recommended as a pit stop on the Hastings to Rye walk and exceeded our expectations. High quality food served in a fun location with a really good drinks menu.

Had a nice drink, we sat outside. We did want to eat, but food service finished at 17.00 on the Sunday we visited.

We had a delicious lunch, great friendly staff.

Loved every minute of it. Great staff. Super attentive. Loved the beer garden - go, go, go!

At last I made it to this lovely place for lunch and was very happy with everything, the food was delicious, staff friendly and very attractive restaurant.

Banging food, great people, beautiful location. Highly recommended!

This is a lovely pub to go to on a summers day as it has a lovely garden which gets the afternoon sun. It also serves good beer and good food and the staff are very friendly too. All in all most definitely recommended.

Best food for miles around. Excellent service, very friendly staff. Sat outside in the sun and had a fantastic burger and chorizo and cider starter. Bit expensive but worth paying extra for the quality of ingredients, service and venue.

A new gem I've found out of town but only 10 minutes. The beer was tasty, and the Guinness was tasty . I didn't eat as it was fully booked, so food must be good, but the olives were epic, massive, and delicious crisps were expensive but definitely recommended by me 💯

An unsuspecting hidden gem! We visited from London after day at Camber sands and we are so delighted we stumbled across the Cove. Fantastic beer selection but the real star is the food. A compact but carefully thought about menu.. from the delicious king prawns to the creamy burrata.. to delicious beef and pulled pork burgers. Simple food done really really well, and so deserving of all the attention it’s getting!.. Just go!

We had a really lovely time. The place is loved, food is delicious and service perfect!

The Cove is worth travelling for a great dining experience. Great food, service and atmosphere. Genuine and individual.

Nice place with cosy outside areas.

Cozy pub with good food and outside areas

Not had the food but looks nice. Staff always friendly and venue very cozy. Great local

Went for Sunday roast and it was lovely.

Great food and service. An asset to Hastings

Absolutely delicious food and drink. Not cheap but everything is very well thought out and executed. A real treat!

Fantastic lunch today. Service, food and on a sunny day, sitting in the garden, absolutely lovely.

Pan-continental bistro dining, pub style. Think steaks well handled, competent pasta, and a selection of traditional starters and desserts. Sizeable garden for dining during the summer. Warm service.

Really nice pub in the middle of a very small village. Very friendly staff and good beer, which was definitely welcome after walking to here from Hastings along the coast path. We didn't eat there, but have seen excellent reviews.

They’d lost our booking but luckily we found a spare table. Some of the staff were very friendly but manager in floral shirt seemed a little stressed. Great ‘no alcohol’ beer and tasty mezze with falafel, aubergine, pitta bread and hummus. The tables outside can be hot on a summer’s day as several have no parasol so arrive early for a good choice.

Loved it! Delicious lunch and Pimms. Great service. We will be back. Thanks 😋

Recently refurbished, somewhat expensive but a lovely place to while away some time. Disability access is not great nor is getting to the toilet. Friendly knowledgeable staff in an inviting plsce

couldn’t recommend this place enough! we visited today for the first time and loved everything about this place. the service staff are great and super friendly, the atmosphere is amazing as is the interior decoration, their wines are delicious and their food… oh my god! it’s so yummy. this is the best restaurant experience we’ve had for a while and we will definitely be back!

First time at a lovely local gem we found, the cove in Fairlight. Lovely and simply decorated and welcoming staff. Plenty of parking. Menu different to most other local places around the area, but that's a good thing. We had welsh rarebit with a lovely well cooked poached egg and caramelised marmalade chutney, was delicious. Mains was fried sutton hoo chicken in bread crumbs with a pickled coleslaw and crispy potatoes, again delicious. Our puds were also nice, a ganache, and strawberry fool. Would suggest to any thinking of trying it to go for it, you won't be disappointed.

Great laid back atmosphere. Eclectic decor. Very friendly and efficient staff. Food menu quite short but everything we had was very good. Lots of drinks options, including on tap ales. Dog friendly too. Highly recommend and will return.

A great gastro pub named after the local nudist beach 🍽🍑⛱ 👌

Excellent food and very friendly staff, had a lovely meal with our family here. And our little fury friend came with us too.

Super schön, tolles Personal. The food is also really good.

Great place to sit and chill, just had drinks this time but will be back to eat

Gem of a find in Fairlight. Warm welcome and friendly, efficient service. Attractive decor inside and lovely beachy feel outside in sunshine. Great, varied menu and 3 delicious courses. Dog friendly. Highly enjoyable lunch all round. Will make a beeline for this place on next trip.

Sat outside and had a cider which was very nice. Didn't get to order food as it was too busy (must be good then).

Great Restaurant with Vegetarian Options. Very welcoming and friendly. Cozy Interior.

Fabulous place to unwind and relax and let the staff do all the work for you and your family highly recommended

Uh-mazing! I visited The Cove on Friday and the food was top notch. I had a sprouting broccoli and gnocchi dish which ticked all my boxes firmly, and finished with a sticky toffee pudding made by divine intervention. I'm a chef myself and I've eaten a lifetime worth of sticky toffee puddings but this one was just unreal. Additionally, the staff were all super attentive and really know how to mix a drink. I took a punt and went for a 'Paloma' which I'd never heard of or drunk before and I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I went back for more cocktails and pudding on Sunday! 10/10, already coming back.

Really lovely pub with effortlessly laid back vibe. Great well informed selection of wine and beers, I particularly liked the interesting skin-on orange Salamander wine which I have never had before. The food was absolutely delicious - super fresh high quality seasonal ingredients, expertly cooked and beautifully composed on the plate. A total destination location - will definitely visit again! The staff were also very friendly and welcoming, some real charming characters in there and very knowledgable about everything on the menu

A great find! We walked from St Leonard’s and had this pub booked as our end of Hike lunch and we were not disappointed. All of the food was delicious and fresh and they had a great selection of drinks. The pub gets busy, so you will need to book. The staff were all super friendly, they could be a bit more attentive - one guy forgot our water and also got our wine order wrong. All good and we’d certainly recommend visiting! 💖

“We had the Chime of our life” The pub it’s self I had a lot of memories growing up in Fairlight so to see the changes/updates were great to see and they have done a good job. The nights stay on the other hand wasn’t as expected considering the price paid… The apartment was nice and spacious, the downsides were a wind chime that ruined our nights sleep, although it was the next door neighbours it was ridiculous and we happened to stay on a windy night. The room was pretty dusty and had a few cobwebs in, the bathroom smelt of raw sewage all the time, the shower was amazing to start with but then ran freezing cold. We didn’t use the 2nd bedroom with the bunk beds but it was pretty unusable without any blinds or curtains. To end on a positive the staff were friendly and food was great.

Brilliant food, nicely balanced. Great staff too, would definitely recommend trying if you are in the area

Excellent service. The food is absolutely faultless. Would highly recommend

Absolutely a gem of a place , called in for a quick drink on a dog walk as friends of ours live nearby will definitely be back for grub next time

Very over priced. 15 pounds for a mushroom on a bun? No salad.. fish stew £21 is fish in salty water, again nothing extra added, and then 12.5 “discretionary “ tip automatically added, sorry just too expensive.

Beautiful establishment friendly service

Best public house this side of the Mississippi, will be back!

Appaling service. Everyone was struggling to get food. We had to wait over an hour for ours. No apology from the staff and then they charged us for a drink we didn't order and felt they should add a service charge. Food was mostly decent; however people next to us complained theirs was cold when it finally arrived. Won't be returning

Just moved to Fairlight and have visited The Cove twice. The food is delicious, great customer service and a lovely atmosphere. What more could you want from your new local! 🙌

What a surprise to find this lovely place on our Hastings - Rye. Great food and service !

Decent food. Can get noisy if busy.

Went last night with my wife and a friend of ours. Excellent food, service, atmosphere. The place was alive with contented people enjoying theirselves in relaxed, comfortable style. The Cove was full but not crowded. Had a lovely time and can't recommend highly enough.

The Cove in Fairlight is warm and welcoming on a Sunday afternoon, and I arrived with high expectations, but unfortunately the food arrived cold, the roast potatoes were best described as baked boiled potatoes and £16 for a child's portion of a roast dinner, more than the price of an adult roast in most places, left me flabbergasted.

Absolutely discussed All starter were served with bread and no gluten free option available. Our main course was Fish Stew. That consisted of coloured water with 8 muscle, 2 rings of squid, 1small scallop, 2 king prawns and 1 small mouthful of white fish including the skin and this was charged at £21.00 For desert everything was with wheat. The only thing available was vanilla ice cream. That did not taste of vanilla, it was grainy and tasted synthetic. My husband had sticky toffee pudding with a blob of this ice cream on top with a teaspoon of sauce. The prices are exorbitant. We will not be frequenting your pub again.

Warm, welcoming and friendly. Great food and a real fire. They were very busy and it took a little while for the food to arrive but well worth the wait and there was no rush to get us out afterwards. Would definitely go back.

Lovely place with great atmosphere.

Have been twice and I really want to like the place, as it's a beautiful pub, with some interesting food options, but our experiences have been mixed. Went for lunch, and ordered at the bar and had to take our own cutlery and condiments out (which was a bit tricky as I was taking a couple of drinks out too). Wouldn't have minded so much but was charged a 12.5% service charge at the bar. It just seems a bit much to charge this in advance, without at least showing me the bill first or mentioning that you're adding it. I don't think it's normal for service to be added when paying in advance and when you're doing half the service yourself. However, the food was quite nice, so we went back a second time recently when in the area. This time I paid £7 for a 440ml can of alcohol free IPA. It felt a bit ridiculous to pay more than the standard price of a pint, for a can which is smaller than a pint, and with no alcohol. I appreciate that craft beer is expensive, but this just seemed higher than what I'd pay at similar pubs in Hastings.

Good food and drink, nice service

Great atmosphere. Great food selection. Lovely roaring fire.

Highly recommended! Great menu with the dishes well executed. Lovely team

Good friendly service - great food. Thankyou

We used the Cove years a go when Ray and Lyn ran it. Must admit we did miss it when it shut down. Anyway went for a drink, deco was excellent, beer good and staff very friendly and chatty. Will be going again very soon.

Excellent unpretentious pub with fantastic food and attentive without being overbearing service. Also utterly banging decaf espresso (sad I know!!) but when youve given up caffeine and alcohol, it’s the little things! Worth every good review going - thanks for taking care of us, will be back :)

Fantastic found quite by chance,very friendly welcoming front of staff,the most delicious food,highly recommend*****

Amazing food probably the best burger my wife has had and the fish of the day was simply delicious. the staff where fantastic and they where happy for our dogs to sit with us. We will definitely come back again well done 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Attended with two other couples (table of 6) and had a really lovely evening. Really lovely setting and the food was all absolutely outstanding, couldn't fault a thing and enjoyed all of it. All the staff were very welcoming and friendly, service was a little bit slow at times but no real issue, I think maybe an extra pair of hands would've completely solved the issue at their busiest moments. All in all, a lovely pub and top tier food, wouldn't hesitate to go back again.

Great friendly pub with something different on the menu not just the pub usuals

Just popped in for a quick drink. Great looking restaurant. Warm and friendly atmosphere. Staff were really nice and menu looked cracking. Definitely heading back there for a meal!

Found this place whilst walking near by. Great place for a relaxing drink on a very hot day. Looks good as a food venue too.

Great food and service- will definitely be going back.

Had the loveliest dinner at the pub. Can’t recommend enough. The steak I had was definitely the best I had in a very long time,the pub itself is filled with beautiful small details and the vibe was so cozy and friendly. The staff went the extra mile to make it memorable for us.

Good beer and food, friendly service and a very pleasant spot.

Amazing!!! Can’t recommend enough! Owners are lovely and great to see a happy work place for the staff. The food was delicious, can’t find fault! Will recommend to anyone in the area!!!

The best pub! Amazing staff, atmosphere and absolutely delicious food! I would recommend to anyone and we will definitely be back again soon!

Great pub, fabulous asset for the village. Another great night out at The Cove The Cove goes from strength to strength!

Certainly the best food I've had since I moved to East Sussex. Really fresh good quality food. Friendly lovely staff who aim to please. Looking forward to my next visit.

I visited The Cove on a warm Friday night in May, and what a great job they’ve done of reinvigorating the pub, it’s impressive inside and out. The staff were welcoming, friendly and accommodating. There’s a great selection of beers on the bar, always good to see Brewing Brothers, alongside other considered choices. The wine list was decent too. The menu was slim but inviting, the local venison tartare was a sensation as was the venison burger. The meal was great except for one unexpected issue. The restaurant is ‘dog friendly’, which needn’t be an issue. However, at one end of the restaurant was some tiny thing with ‘small dog syndrome’ that frequently yapped and barked loudly whenever another dog entered, or moved from their seated place. It was the kind of yap that pierces the soul, never mind the eardrums. This went on for over an hour with neither the dog owners nor the staff doing anything about it (other than staff looking embarrassed). On top of this, there was a large table in the middle of the restaurant with a few larger dogs. The restaurant floor was clearly giving the dogs sore bottoms, as the owners were allowing them to sit on the restaurant chairs, or on their laps, as they ate. Thankfully I had my back to the general restaurant area so didn’t have to watch in disbelief. The quality of the Cove food and drink is excellent, and has a price tag to match. However, if I want to have dinner surrounded by dogs sat on chairs, yapping away uncontrollably with their owners not seeming to care, I’ll order a take away to eat in the nearest kennels. Unfortunately my defining memory of The Cove is of dogs putting a downer what should’ve been a really lovely experience. Otherwise would’ve been a 4+ star evening.

Very welcoming and friendly staff. Food was delicious. Not being a fan of fennel, they were happy to serve one of our starters with the fennel removed without any bother. We were so full up after a starter and main we took our desert home with us ! Which was also delicious. It's not cheap but we would go again for a special occasion.

Very disappointed at the refreshments provided at the wake. Not all as ordered by us and promised. Presentation was awful - requests for special dietry requirements promised but not delivered. Menu items advised to us not produced and those items not being available were met with a shrug. I was embarrassed for my guests. I will not forget this insensitivity.

Rather expensive Further post Aug 22 This was just my initial impression. After the first visit, I have been back on 4 or so occasions, and I'm afraid my impressions have only got worse. Its a real shame not to have a proper locals pub in the village with beer well kept and not flat, and at a reasonable price, and decent pub grub at reasonable prices, with proper service from staff who know how to pour pints and know about the products. Early days for The Cove, but when your sunshine summer day trippers have gone and winter draws in? Good luck.