The Five Bells in Lewes

Lovely birthday meal for our 4 year old. Staff really went out of their way and were all brilliant. Lovely food with play area too. Thank you!

Lovely old pub, great service, outstanding food.

Thought me and my partner would go for a drive out of brighton tonight and stumbled across this lovely place!!! As soon as we walked in we was greeted with a lovely welcome by all staff!! 🥰 even treated my dog to yummy biscuits 😋 Food was absolutely delicious!!! 😋 tastes like proper home cooked food!! 100% 10/10 We shall be back again that's for sure!! Thank you so much

We dropped in for a late lunch, having driven past s few times. Wonderful warm greeting and friendly, helpful, professional service. Good home cooked pub lunch. We will stop again!

Lovely people and I wish them all the success.

What an outstanding pub, a really traditional feel, low oak beams, very welcoming bar staff, lovely outside seating, even had Toads and Bar Billiards, only downer was the condition of the Bar billiards table and the rip in the cloth... :(

A dog friendly pub, sure, but not with the necessary hygiene....

A great family friendly pub - they serve breakfast every morning and we ate with the kids. Everyone loved their food, especially the pancakes. There is an indoor kids play area which is brilliant ⭐️

Watched one of the Euros24 england matches here. Staff were very accommodating by finding us a place to watch. Food was good although the steaks I ordered were a little tough and the medium rare came well done however was replaced quickly and kindly by the staff. Lovely place and people were friendly. Recommended.

Just been to the Thursday night steak night. Superb steaks cooked to perfection. Superb service from very friendly staff. Great atmosphere. Well done to the tonight’s team. Clive and sue.😊

Staff seemed overwhelmed, Several food choices unavailable. What food there was was delicious though.

Excellent. The tattooed lady was excellent. The food was excellent. Garden seating was excellent. All in all a great place to visit. Just watch the exit. Blind corner and they won't slow down. DOH!!

Went for a meal early evening yesterday with friends, given menu's at the bar to be told no chicken burger, no sea bass... bearing in mind a very small selection of food on offer so ordered our food to then be told no cous cous to go with vegetarian option..again not great.. drinks arrived and we also asked for bottled water, only us in the pub so you would have expected the water to have appeared relatively quickly, waited and still no water so asked again..water arrived after the food. The vegetarian tart my friend had was stone cold in places and warm in others, the waitress said was probably because it was sitting on the salad ☹..it was supposed to be hot..awful experience.. I had read the reviews beforehand and thought they were on the whole positive..can honestly say we won't be going back...

Very poor service... We arrived before 2.00 .. and were told there was a party arriving at 2.00 and they had to be serviced before us... At 2.15 they are still not here.. won't be rushing back.. all we wanted was an sandwich..

Lovely pub with a great garden mel is the perfect hostess

Lovely stop for lunch, bit quiet but food was good and service was excellent

Perfect English country pub in a picturesque area!

Nice pub, nice staff, food was lovely. Only thing id say is the chairs were horrifically uncomfortable (the white ones in the side room that have a circular back) and the pump was labeled stowford press cloudy which i was looking forward to but the pint pulled was their normal stowford, so either someone's put a wrong barrel on or someone has put the wrong label on

Popped in here for an hour to meet my cousin for a drink and have a catch up. Nice cozy old pub with character. Service from the lady in duty was great. It's a dog friendly place 😀 didn't eat here but it looks like it would be good.

Basic foods were off. Bring back Faulty Towers . Not the most of spruced of eateries.

Delicious lunch at The Five Bells today 😋

Just had a lovely breakfast, worth a visit if your nearby. Nice relaxed atmosphere with attentive staff

Was passing by and stopped off for English Breakfast, was 5 stars and well worth it and will revisit.

I am looking forward to returning to The Five Bells with my partner for a lovely meal and a nice drink 🥂🍾 The Five Bells is a Traditional place with original oak low beems located in a very nice setting & extremely clean with great views. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful i highly recommend The Five Bells!! A Definite 5 Stars Establishment All Round ★★★★★ Ps Check out some of the pictures i have taken i will add more on my next visit soon. 📸

Top top quality Sunday roast Very nice beer garden in the sun.

Lovely evening spent with my Daughter her friend and 2 grandchildren. The Grandchildren had a kids meal each, burger and chips and gammon, egg and chips, which included a drink each and a scoop of ice cream for £8 each, which is amazing value. Daughters friend had sweet potato fries and ice cream as she wasnt too hungry, my daughter tried to tackle a 8oz steak, chips and all the trimmings, unsuccessfully...though only for having to leave room for her icecream! The quality was amazing! I had the steak and ale pie with Mash, with a few ciders, which I cannot fault, again amazing! We were served by a lady and a younger male, the lady, I assume is the landlady, who was very kind and attentive and pointed the grandkids in the direction of the childrens area, which they enjoyed, and the male server, who was extremely polite and attentive throughout our meal, seeing that everything came out as expected, we don't get out too often, but when we do are grateful for this high level of service, look forward to returning in the future. Thankyou from our little group!

Just called in by chance for a light bite - lovely food - lovely service - felt like being in a traditional pub with welcoming fire and cosy

Absolutely gorgeous breakfast, nice and relaxed atmosphere. Staff were so friendly and cheerful, especially for a Sunday morning. Worth a visit.

Lovely pub with great service and incredible food. Highly recommend.

Lunchtime Tuesday was very quiet! Many items were unavailable from menu including soup, salmon and pie! Very dry ciabatta with scrape mustard and OK ham.Very poor value at £9.50! Ham, egg and chips was good.

Kid friendly, cosy pub. Loved teaching kids how to play toads and billiards. Non alcoholic selection is good too!

Went in late afternoon for a meal. It was quiet and the staff were lovely and attentive. Absolutely going back soon.

My Mum and I love The Five Bells. The minute you walk through the door you are greeted with a friendly face and a smile. The staff are all attentive and polite. The atmosphere is warm and cosy and the food is great. Highly recommend. A huge thank you to all the team for wonderful service. See you again soon.

Was given not what I ordered and wasn’t compensated , small portions , very expensive, not worth it!!

Ordered "pulled beef" burgers but received a regular beef patty. Food took longer than expected to arrive and wasn't great. Soup was good.

Was a brilliant experience. Service was great from the moment we walked in, to when we left. Food was lovely and Mel was fantastic!

Absolutely smashing place. Such great food, chips were fabulous! Excellent music, such a friendly and welcoming place. I will be returning and would highly recommend!

Really lovely pub, the food was excellent and the staff were attentive and friendly

Hugely disappointed, booked in for a family Christmas Eve dinner, 17 of us 4 children and 13 adults, we are all so much looking forward to it, and after reading reviews online we thought we would be in for a nice treat. Where to start, we entered the pub and were given 2 options on where to sit we choose top end of bar side, but would have been nice to have had tables together, so as a family we moved tables around to be able to sit together and socialise better, bit disappointing tables weren’t already together for us. Menus were then put on our tables, we went to the bar to order drinks but we were all left confused as to if we ordered our food at the bar or if someone came to take our orders, as no one mentioned either way, so we all decided to ordered at the bar which resulted in us paying for food before we were served (no major deal I guess) first red flag, they were aware they had a large booking (our family) for Christmas Eve but my dad ordered the fish and chips peas and my son wanted kids sausage mash and peas to be then told there were no peas, ok again no absolute major deal but a disappointment no the less… food came out, rather good timing apart from 3 meals that’s took around another 15 mins compared to everyone else’s, but then problem after problems, majority of adults ordered roast dinner (2 beef, 3 chicken, 7 crispy belly pork) well the crispy belly pork certainly wasn’t crispy it was chewy and had clearly been steamed in a bag and not crisped in an oven no salt on the top nothing, my brother sadly also had a nipple on his crispy belly pork which was very off putting, we had 2 elderly relatives with us who had the pork and both of them were sadly hugely disappointed, couldn't even cut through it, the beef was so chewy that it was completely inedible, the potato’s were undercooked as also was the veg, We had to send back my sons tomato’s pasta as the pasta was still hard and undercooked. Most of us didn’t eat our meals and those who did were just very hungry after waiting all day for this meal out. My dad throughly enjoyed his fish and chips despite having no peas. We obviously shared our disappointment with the food with the server who tried his best to rectify the issues and refunded all those who didn’t eat their dinners, we were offered desserts but by this point everyone wanted to leave, I myself fancied a dessert I had seen on the menu from before ordering food which was the banoffee pie to then be told they had no banoffee pie, sadly the only dessert I liked on the menu so I choose ice cream along with the 4 kids who all choose vanilla ice cream, to then be told they don’t have enough vanilla ice cream and could maybe do the 4 kids so I went for honeycomb instead, when the kids ice cream came it was barely even a scoop each. My question is why when you know you have a table of 17 booked do you not have the pub stocked with the food on the menu. Very disappointed

Fabulous lunch today, we had the 3 course Christmas menu and it was delicious. The service could have been a little more attentive which is why it was only a 4 but wouldn't stop us coming back or raving to our friends. Thank you Mel and the team

Superb meal and delicious wine. Great value for money and the service excellent. Highly recommend 😃

First time we've been down here since moving to Hastings. Greeted, food and drinks were excellent, service of staff friendly.

Amazing food, wonderful service. Friendly staff. Will definitely go again

Mel made us very welcome and looked after us really well in this, her first week after taking over the pub. The food was delicious, reasonably priced and the service was excellent! Cheers!

I know they had problems with the flooded cellar but this was a disappointing visit. I think it's unlikely we'll return.

Great food. Excellent service. A bit quiet at lunchtime. Really enjoyed the visit and will come again!!

Really enjoyed our pie and chips only slightly let down by under cooked veg. Very good crumble and cheesecake. We'll be back soon.

Haven't been here for some years but it was well worth the visit. We chose the roast lunch and it was excellent. Didn't have starters or puddings the mains were plenty enough. Harvey's ale's a bonus. All in all good value and service. Nice pub as well.

Do you suffer a weak jawline? I can recommend the beef, you’ll be chewing it for hours and hours! Do you like shrivelled potatoes or hardened parsnips? Look no further my friend, they have them!! If you’re afraid of frostbite - have no fear, the food has been slightly warmed! Walk in on a lovely sunny Sunday at 16.00, empty restaurant wasn’t a good sign. I should’ve paid attention to my instincts…

called in after lunchtime a bit quiet but excellent service and food will definitely go back

Very friendly staff and food from the lunch menu was excellent .

We recently dined at a local restaurant where we savoured their Curry Cauliflower and Ribeye Steak. The ribeye was particularly noteworthy, being incredibly juicy and superbly cooked to perfection, elevating the entire dining experience. The ambience of the restaurant was welcoming, marked by a pleasant atmosphere and complemented by the presence of friendly and accommodating staff. Every element combined to create a memorable culinary experience that we would happily recommend.

Stopped here for a midweek dinner. Food was good and not overpriced, but took ages for it to be served. Staff explained only one chef and he was struggling with a lot of mains, I assume for a group of about 10 I could see. Regardless, it shouldn't take about 20 minutes for a sticky toffee pudding that is premade and just needs warming up and a dollop of ice cream on the side. Inside is cosy but had that sticky tables feel (literally). The interior is showing signs of aging, which is a shame, as it could be really lovely. Ditto the garden; lovely space and clearly there once was a well cared for garden border to it, which is now just let go and full of weeds.

Excellent food. Steaks cooked to perfection Service was very efficient, we were a party of 28 and everyone got their food in a timely manner and was all hot. Thank you. Would definitely visit again

Stopped off after a visit to Borde Hill gardens and enjoyed a really good Sunday Roast. All delicous and well cooked. The crispy carrot and parsnip skins in the Yorkshire pudding were novel, tasty, crunchy and a great idea to cut waste from the veg preparation. Good selection of real ales and other drinks and welcoming and friendly staff

Visited last week, the atmosphere is fine and the food was good, the service overall was disappointing. Once the food plates has been cleared, we were completely ignored by the staff. We were considering getting drinks, but nobody came over to ask and after an hour we decided to leave. The service is pretty terrible considering other places are better.

Really disappointing spot of lunch. Opted for the BLT Ciabatta and it was probably the worst i've ever had. Incredibly crispy. Seemed stale and then had been heated up in the oven. Bacon was also very sparse. When it's £10.50 for a sandwich, you expect the bread to at least be fresh and a little more giving than just lettuce and tomato.

Delicious Sunday lunch, wonderful service and friendly staff, oldey worlde cosy pub n gardens. Definitely will return

Took hours to get our food game frosted pretty much

Had scampi & chips but run out of peas. Burgers were good too for kids. Pub looks nice n cosy inside but choose to eat outside so the kids could run around.

Attentive service and great tasting food. Cannot recommend enough.

We visited from Tomkins Farm Alpaca Camp and was pleasantly surprised. The staff were very welcoming, and had various specials on the menu. We had the fish & chips and then the sea bass special. We both thought it tasted great. Warm friendly experience and was worth leaving a good tip.

The food was brilliant and the atmosphere was amazing and a beautiful garden. The service was amazing and the food was great the staff where brilliant and extremely helpful. A huge round of applause to the back of house staff.

What a gem. The food is superb. And the service impeccable. The menu is simple but delicious. Lovely old English pub. Decor is inviting. We sat outside and enjoyed the warm summers day. Could hear the piano being played. Inside there is a strange pool type game I have never seen before. Stunning fireplace and little nooks to lounge in.

We had a lovely lunch, very good value for money. Highly recommend 👌

Just had a lovely lunch in the garden at The 5 Bells, a great find, and rare a pub serves food on a Monday around here ! Great choice of ales, lagers and cider. Very friendly people and nice locals too Don't drive past, pop in. Thanks all

When we arrived, it was made out to us that they were extremely busy and were squeezing us in (the pub was roughly 1/3 full and no reserved signs on tables). It was myself, my partner and our daughter. We ordered two sandwiches, a bowl of chips, two juices and a coffee. The juices arrived relatively quickly, but the coffee arrived after 30 minutes and asking three times, and when it did arrive, it was quite similar to a weak instant coffee. After 40 minutes and no sign of food, we overheard a waitress telling another table that there was still going to be a wait for food, even though they had been in the pub half an hour before us, and no explanation to us until I asked at the bar about our food and was told they were just plating out food up. 15 minutes later, one sandwich and a bowl of chips arrived. The waitress then said she'd forgotten to tell us that they'd run out of ingredients for the other sandwich - this was over an hour of waiting!! The sandwich that did arrive was missing it's chips and was very average; certainly not worth waiting over an hour for. Definitely would avoid!!!

Absolutely feel let down, asked at the bar if we can sit anywhere for food, the lady said yes and gave me the menus we sat and decided what we wanted, I went to order and in that 5 mins food was now not available it’s 2:41 on a Saturday I would avoid at all costs

Beer was good and served quick. Lots of glasses and plates left out, however these were collected in time.

Was nice and had a good lunch with my friend.

Went for a chilled catch up lunch with friends, such a nice relaxed atmosphere - the two young barmaids working were so polite and welcoming. The garden is well kept and even though on a busy road, you wouldn't notice it. Food was nice, we all enjoyed our food for the price. Would definitely recommend as we ended up spending a good few hours here and really enjoyed ourselves. I can imagine it would get busy on weekends so best to book! Thanks again to the lovely team!

Overpriced meal at £17 for a fishcake main which turned out to be 2 fishcakes. The meal was also missing the vegetables as described on the menu. Most of my friends dishes were also not as described.

Great. Hardly anyone in so three stars. Four stars for food because they had no samphire for the fish dish. I had the cod cajun style, with Choritzo, which was great. Service and beer excellent. Good value for the quality.

The food was nice and the staff lovely. But the pub could do with some serious improvements from the inside is looking a bit tired and the outside furniture falling apart. The garden also need sorting out. This has a lot of potential to be a great pub.

Excellent service all the staff were very friendly and helpful. Ordered the mixed grill great value for the money. Will definitely go back.

Lovely pub, great food and very friendly. Will definitely visit again!

Sadly, tonight's celebratory meal with friends was a disaster. After ordering in the empty restaurant, everyone got annoyed as we had to wait for over an hour until we received food and it wasn't worth the wait... Firstly the steak, which was ordered rare came out medium to well done... When ordering the most expensive thing on the menu, this shouldn't be done. It had to be sent back, it wasn't slightly off, it was too dry. Then as the vegetables that were supposed to come with the steaks (which were obviously forgotten by the kitchen) were to follow.. the steak eaters tried to eat slowly to wait for their full meal, they came out 10/15 minutes later... The mushrooms were obviously burnt, then left cold, they had a chewy outside tough skin and then charcoal taste in the centre... This left such a bad taste in your mouth, it ruined the rest of the meal. Upon receiving the bill I politely mentioned how bad it all was. The waitress was lovely, amazing and understanding but said she would need to speak to a manager (completely understandable). This manager agreed that on a meal which cost over £130, they would discount it by £2.50... yes... £2.50 ...Wow.. Awful place

Terrible roast, cold, gammon was fatty/ watery and marbled - looked old. A few sparse veg. Watery gravy and overpriced at £17. Beef was £18 same poor quality. Ended up giving to the dogs as inedible.

Pleasant enough atmosphere and the food is fine, pub grub, not fine dining. However on the evening we went there were only four tables taken but the service was really very slow. Hopefully a one off as it’s very conveniently located for us.

Mediocre food. V expensive for what you get. Also a long wait and medium angry staff. Nice chips though

Lovely pub. Terrible food. Everything bland and from a packet. Overpriced. Would come back for a pint

Great pub with lovely landlady.

Coming down from London and and planning on taking the family out to eat on the Saturday, being vegetarian, we checked that the items on the menu were available, as have had experience elsewhere of items being out of stock! We were assured all was well and booked for 5.30pm. Arrived, ordered drinks, the waiter came and we ordered the vegetarian pies..."sorry Sir sold out" (this being a Bank Holiday weekend, I don't hold out much hope for any other pie lovers being satisfied!) so we substituted 3 x vegetarian sausage and mash and 1 x fish and chips. After a long wait - we were told "sorry but only 5 sausages left" At this point (approx 6.15!) one of our party said I'll take the vegetarian burger then, as we were all getting totally fed up and 'hangry' with the whole thing! Anyway - time ticked on...at 7.00pm my wife went to see where the food was and was told abruptly without apology "oh your order wasn't put through to the kitchen, so in shock, she came back and we waited 15 more minutes then in total exasperation we paid for our drinks, no apology or excuse given so we left!! Needless to say I don't recommend this place to eat. The Management has recently changed and the service is even worse than it used to be - never again!!

Evertime we have a meal, enjoyed, value for money, friendly bar staff

More like 3 bells. Staff not very friendly and slow serve. Also, had to keep asking for cutlery, or napkins or whatever. Pub itself looked nice, just sad it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Really tasty steak night,& a further drop in for an excellent glass of Sauvignon blanc! Oh, and a pt, of Harvey's of course. New favourite pub!

We have today enjoyed a Sunday lunch with friends at the 5 Bells public house in Chailey. The manager and staff attentive to our needs, and we will go back. Thank you

Nice venue, lovely staff but out of the 9 of us out for dinner, 3 people ended up with the meat string still attached to their food and another meal the chips were undercooked and the scampi overcooked and it took a long time. 3 stars because the staff were very apologetic and handled the situation well. The vegan and vegetarian meals were also very good.

Great pub, friendly staff, great food and beers

Outstanding!!! One of the best Sunday roasts I’ve ever had. Everything from the olives and then a gorgeous starter combination of garlic mushrooms on toast and the daily soup special with soft yet crusty stone baked bread, then the roast which was just unbelievable. Beautiful pink roast beef, plentiful thick tasty gravy and perfectly done vegetables and sides. Shame I’m not local but if I return I will be coming back here. All topped off by great service with a smile and a lounge in front of the fire as we finished with a few more drinks. Perfect Sunday. Thank you

Not a great experience. My wife is a vegetarian of 25 years and ate meat here for the first time in all that time when she was served a chicken pie rather than a butternut and bean pie. We were then told that we didn’t have to pay for her meal. That was it. Wow! I had the pork roast with a large piece of string served with it and the waiting staff were chaotic. Sorry Five Bells but won’t be returning. David

Lovely jubbly and thanks again 😊

Opened on Saturday 14th January under new management after long period of closure. A Revived Inns pub, hopefully its future is now secure. Large olde world pub with good range of cask ales. Informal & formal dining area, menu will no doubt develop over the coming weeks. I've given it 4 stars as its only just reopened, but if the opening night was anything to go by it'll be a great pub.

Love the new owners and lovely to see the pub reopened

Fabulous gastro food and a friendly service make this pub an excellent choice

Food, Service & Ambience… loved it.. been before but this time far better, paid attention to allergen warnings

Had an absolutely first class burger with the best triple cooked chips, purple slaw and side salad here this evening. Very impressed!

I simply cannot fault this place. Lovely ambience, fantastic menu for all and good food. Great service and really do highly recommend this place. 👌

Lovely pub. Sat in the delightful shaded side garden in the sunshine with friends and enjoyed a great lunch. Beautifully presented and delicious food. We had Crayfish and avocado sandwich with salad, chips and homemade coleslaw, homemade burgers with marbled cheese and garlic, salad and chips followed by chocolate fondue with fruit and marshmallows, really good cheesecake and coffee. We'll worth a visit. We'll be back!

Really nice pub! Historic building with beams, prompt and friendly service, sunny gardens / outside space and decent selection of food and drinks. I didn't have a dessert, but they probably let it down slightly. Nowhere near enough chocolate in the fondue and the brownie wasn't soft or moist. That said, I would return to try the other food options.