The Sportsman Pub in Mid Sussex

A regular - always warm and friendly. Thanks to lottie and Tom

Nice pub with a great garden in a great location. Plenty of parking but do find drinks a little pricey even when considering the location.

Understaffed bar on Sunday. But the Silly Moo Cider was lovely when I finally got to order. I had Roast Pork Sunday Lunch which was very filling. Great beer garden over the quiet road. But people were throwing down their trash which was annoying to me and a huge chore for the staff. Loved the attitude to dogs. Second visit, was much better this time without the Pizza van.

Fantastic pub, great location and the food was good. Really good pub garden

We arrived too late for food on a Sunday, but the lovely lady behind the bar offered to ask the kitchen to cook my little boy a chicken roast; and they obliged. We were so grateful for this as he was really hungry, the staff were absolutely charming and the roast had been cooked with care despite them already having closed the kitchen. Would highly recommend this fantastic pub! Thanks guys x

Lovely pub with a great garden. I've been here on and over for many years. Didn't eat so can't comment on the food but still has the nice dining pods put in during Convid. The garden is a great size with lots of benches. They are also part of the overnight camper van scheme so if you eat a meal you can park up in their car park overnight. A good selection of ales.

A friendly welcome, not too long to wait for food & drink. Limited menu, but tasty, hard-working staff. Great gardens and the pods to eat in are amazing.

A bit expensive but it's great local pub

Treasure trove of a pub. Small interior supplemented by large gardens and a number of shepherd's huts/log cabins. Tasty food. Good range of beer, and a wine menu that is way better than your average pub. And you can park your motor home overnight.

Pleasantly surprised by the food offering here. The pub is not fussy, or over the top, but they have a wide range of drinks, and focus on a smaller menu with seasonal specials which were excellent. Good wine list too.

Fantastic food, next time I'm back in the UK I'm coming here again. The pub is lovely, the staff are very friendly but the menu is absolutely superb... I didn't actually come back to the UK to visit this place but we certainly made certain we went there again and it was just as good as the first time. The menu changes and the daily specials are worth checking

Five of us went there for lunch & couldn't fault our experience. The choice on the usual & specials menus was very good & the service was excellent. We were a rather awkward group; some of us requesting alternatives to the printed menu! Our waitress was exceptionally helpful & went out of her way to discuss this with the chef & honour our requests. We will definitely be back again.

Amazing food in one of the pods! One of the best country pub meals I've ever had! 10/10. Dogs welcome too! I would definitely return and recommend a visit.

Lovely pub and beer garden. Drinks were expensive. I ordered a pims and was very disappointed to see that it was a tin of pims that I was served. Just under £15 for a pint of lager and a Pims - for that price I would of expected the pims to be made for me and not from a tin which cost £2 in shops to buy.

Yes I liked it here their little food pods are so sweet. Good pint of bitter and they love dogs. So really great.

Excellent ale house, delicious food great ambience. 10 out of 10.

We booked one of the pods last night for a birthday celebration. The menu was disappointing. Not a lot of choice. We all ended up eating ham and chips and burgers. Not what we were expecting for a Saturday night. No fresh veg the usual chips and more chips. The service was good also the food we did have. There is a 10% service charge which we were not aware of until I noticed it at the bottom of the menu which put over £20 on our expensive meal of well over £200 . Not a pub we will return to. Which is annoying as it is close to home and has character and efficient staff.

Cosy atmosphere, open fireplaces, friendly staff, food was delicious, our table ordered roast beef, roast pork and roast lamb

amazing meal in one of the pods! One of the nicest country pub meals I’ve had! 10/10. Dog friendly too! Would definitely go again and would recommend a visit

Lovely staff and service. Food is well presented.

Fantastic food, very friendly and helpful staff. There's also heated cabins in the garden that look great so you can have your own peaceful area. Highly recommended. Loads of parking too 😀

Gorgeous pub, wonderful atmosphere, beautifully decorated for Christmas at the moment, log fires, warm welcome friendly staff, delicious food, plenty of parking space. What more can I say.

The food and staff were excellent definetly go again

Fabulous pub! Delicious Sunday lunch and the service was efficient and friendly. Lovely atmosphere with a roaring fire and a busy buzz but not so loud that you can't hold a conversation. Very dog friendly too. We'll be back!

Overall food was pretty good. Cauli cheese very wet. Roasties not very crispy. Appeared quite steamed in appearance and taste.

Excellent Sunday lunch. Huge portion sizes. Open roaring fire. Very dog friendly and we got to meet a lot of other pooches. Welcoming service from the staff, the pub hasn’t got the most charming interior but it more than makes up for it with the food. My pint of real ale tasted a bit off, I think it was past its best. Will definitely be back!

Service is always brilliant here & food is pretty decent. Nice not to have to fight for a table or sit on top of each other - a great place to have a good conversation with friends or family over a nice meal.

The food was less than mediocre (we have been here several times before so regretfully we knew what to expect) Thankfully we were there for the entertainment (Mark A Wright) which was brilliant and saved the day.

Really lovely pub with cosy dining area and huge garden. Small dining pods for eating outside too. A great menu to choose from with very generous portions. Daily specials available. Sunday roasts here are delicious with a vegetarian nut roast available too. A dog friendly pub. The staff are very friendly and the service is excellent.

Flying visit on a Friday evening for food. Cracking Lamb steak and great choice of desserts. Great pint(s) of Real Ale. Would love to visit again next time we're in this neck of the woods. 10 out of 10.

Fabulous pub. Excellent food and service. If you want a delicious generous portion roast.. you will not be disappointed.

The cabins outside are brilliant for our family birthday lunch.

Lovely pub nice beer good parking for motorhomes unfortunately our meal took one and a half hours to arrive eggs on the gammon were hard, tuna steak a little over with three bits of tenderstem broccoli a bit pricey. We didn't complain because we had been travelling most of the day and were very hungry. So wanted this to be a good experience 😕.

Clean and fresh. Great location. Berr good. Food good.

Shared a pod with family -8 of us. Food was decent -everyone enjoyed their choice. Service was excellent -all we had to do was ring a bell in the pod and the waiter appeared -great system!!

First visit to this pub - all round excellent - roast dinners are amazing

Another lovely lunch in a pod with amazing food and service. Our pups loved it too, thank you, we absolutely love coming to you x

Had lunch and dinner last Saturday. Really good!

Traditionally loved this pub, but had a bad, almost laughable experience with very slow service a few months back and stopped going, and decided to try again for Sunday roast. The service was absolutely terrible and exceeded our previous bad experience in that department. Without exaggeration, we waited one hour and ten minutes for our food, being told they were 'cooking fresh Yorkshire puds.' The food was dried out and limp by the time we got it, meat couldn't even be cut and had to be put in a bag to take home to the dogs. The Yorkshire puds were burnt. This is a fine place for a drink if you don't have to deal with any wait staff and if you don't order food, which used to be marvellous but now is not. Hate leaving this poor review and hope things will improve.

Great pub , good food and a massive garden that's good for the kids

Guessing they have new chef. Not impressed

Asked for a risotto and sime beers. The food was absolutely amazing! I don't remember exactly the name of the risotto. It had tiger prawns on it. Definitely recommend it!

Really excellent food and a couple of lovely discrete pods for family gatherings or private meetings. I highly recommend their burger as a thing of beauty and deliciousness 😋

Good food and friendly service, nice beer.

Interesting place with ample parking, a decent range of beers, and friendly service.

I felt i needed to write this due to the level of customer service we received on this occasion compared to other visits. I visited pub with my family on the way back home from day out. We ordered some food, after over a hour and seeing other patrons receiving food on average 30-40 minutes we thought are food might not have been put through to the kitchen. We asked a member of waiting staff to check which then came back to say the food was being plated up. It then took another 30 minutes for the food to arrive which tells me it was not being plated up. After receiving our food we asked the waiting staff if our order had been forgotten. We just received the comment we have been very busy, to which at this time the pub garden was empty, very frustrating being lied to but most of all not receiving any apologies from pub staff for there mistake. We will think twice before coming back after this experience.

Lunch with family member. Good service, excellent menu choice, tasty food. Good idea to book in advance. The best smelling gents loos I've visited, superb!

Lovely pub,nice inside with two big gardens.

Really nice food and a lovely open seating area to enjoy the lovely weather. Staff were all lovely and the food was absolutely delicious. A little on the pricy side but the quality spoke for itself so you won't be disappointed. Would recommend.

Such a beautiful local country pub with always a great selection of beer and a great selection of food. All of the food that I've had here, including Sunday lunch is the best around 😋 Staff are amazing and always happy to help and make you feel really welcome ! Keep up the good work 👍 Hats off to the chefs 💫

Food was amazing...limited menu to be fair but what we had was spectacular. The only issue was we did have to wait quite some time for our food to come out. We were sat outside and had to move tables three times to keep in the sun as it was getting pretty nippy. Very dog friendly..

We visited last Sunday for a surprise 80th Birthday party with 8 people. It has a large car park, which is a plus. We were seated straight away on one big table & took our drinks order. The menu is well laid out and has an impressive selection, but not too much which is great. Most of us ordered roasts and one had the ploughman’s. Yes, you will wait for your food but don’t panic, it’s worth it. It’s a busy pub, especially in the summer with lots of outdoor seating and over-the-road seating too! This pub is busy for a reason. My God, the food is exceptional! When it arrived (all at once: good work guys) it was piping hot, and I don’t think I’ve ever had so much meat in a Sunday roast. The missus loved her huge ploughman’s and we carried on gasping at the size of each roast that was put down in front of us. We plumped for dessert, I don’t know where we put it though. All we needed then was eight reclining chairs outside under an awning and we’d have fell asleep. Thank you so much for making us feel welcome. Five stars from us all! As Arnie would say, “We’ll be back”…

Very nice pub but drinks are expensive

Had a really delicious fish and chips lunch. Friendly service and bright and clean interior. Stumbled upon this pub on a road trip and would go back. Just been back after a four year gap and delighted to say the pub is just as nice as ever; had scampi and chips and my guest had the the pasta dish of the day which really hot the spot. Still five star rating and lovely waitress who served us today.

We called in on the off chance to grab some dinner having not been there for years. New to us were the shepherds huts, what a great addition. Great service, great food and the sun was out. Will definitely be back.

Not great. We were in huts at the back of the main building. Noisy and not very comfortable. Food and service was fine, however.

Great pub with excellent food. Nice outdoor seating. They also have pods for colder weather.

Go here often, lovely staff and very dog-friendly. 10/10 would look at dog board of fame again

Had dinner at the place with my partner. It's lovely pub great food with great customer service. We loved the fact that there is two log fires and when we went it was a chilly night so was great eating chatting in a very warm and welcoming pub.

Top food, really attentive staff and the size of the roasts are unreal!

Great local pub, nice food and great garden

Nice outdoor space to enjoy a local Harvey's ale.

Popped in to see a friend, 1st time I'd been here and I was actually really surprised at the level of customer service from the bar staff. Such wonderful, charismatic humans. They have private pods you can book for extra privacy, they are warm, private, play great "background" music. They even have a doggy wall of fame! I loved this pub and am looking forward to trying food next time.

Nice pub, closed at 10pm , so will try during the day next time

Great service and food. Will definitely going back.

It took ages for the food to arrive despite the restaurant being nearly empty, my burger was over cooked, though one of the guests liked it this way, nice fries but I felt really cold. I don't think that I will go back.

Wow what a lovely meal. We were staying at the Travelodge down the road and wanted somewhere to walk to for dinner. The receptionist recommended this place and glad she did. The service was really quick and friendly. There was a good choice on the menu and a lovely range of drinks. I had the vegan burger which was absolutely delicious! There was a lovely atmosphere about the place and had a real log fire. Couldn't ask for more!

Had the vegan burger, which was really good, as were the accompanying fries and slaw. Very friendly and warm welcome, offered water and treats, as well as fuss, for my dog. Cosy open fire.

Excellent food, good value, friendly staff

We rocked up after a muddy bike ride and they were incredibly accomodating as it was raining outside. Very cosy inside too, and whilst I didn't have it, the Sunday lunch option looked amazing.

Great buzz. Lovely atmosphere. Twenty of us readily accommodated eating from the menu - three courses and more, drinks brought to the table. Friendly, attentive but not hovering.

We had a wonderful meal here at the Sportsman. We chose to have one of the little outside huts which were decorated beautifully for Christmas. The waitress was wonderful. Couldn't do enough for us! She was friendly and fun and helpful. The food was outstanding. Just exceptional. The inside of the pub was also lovely, decorated and had a roaring fire. Loved it!

The food was great and they have pods where families or groups can sit and eat together privately. Excellent facilities 👌🏽👌🏽

There are certain pubs and restaurants I generally wonder how are still in business, this is not the case here! This place has character and charm, we reserved a pod to enjoy our first experience here nd it was everything we could have wanted and more, the service was faultless and it only their 2nd shift. pricing was on point too. Now, the food, we both ordered the burger, mine beef and my partners vegan, honestly this has to he in my top 3 burgers and I love a burger 🍔. We will he back and we'll be bringing others with us!

First time and a delightful pub. Friendly staff and really enjoyed my meal.. Will be back!!!

Went to The Spotsman on a whim. A very comfortable experience with excellent staff sadly let down by the cooking. The menu itself promises a great experience and I plumped for the overnight slow roasted lamb, the result was sadly less than ideal. While the meat was soft and obviously slow roasted it lacked distinct flavour - a sad end for this poor animal. Roasted potatoes were fluffy on the inside but lack a crisp outside. Yorkshire puddings were burnt on the outside but had a soft inside. Gravy was watery and had a vegetable forward flavour with carrots as the primary taste, perhaps focused purely on being a veggie friendly sauce suitable for all. Generally, I found the service good and the feel inside very homely but the failings in the food mean I won't return. What a shame as the pods outside look quite funky!

Update, October 2022. Very well looked after by Steph and the team, dining in one of 'The Pods' added a nice cosy ambience to the meal. Menu choice remains superb. Sadly, the Pub has had to limit its opening hours at the moment due to staff shortages, check the website! Fantastic overnight park-up accompanied by a very nice meal in the evening. Pub was easy to find with parking at the side and 'overflow' parking adjacent. Friendly greeting on arrival and a very comprehensive menu, more like a restaurant than a pub. All of the Staff went out of their way to make everyone's experience very positive. Very quiet overnight and woke up to a frosty start and views of sunrise over the fields. Idyllic. We were tempted to stay for breakfast but had to make tracks so the breakfast will have to wait for our next visit!

We hosted my friends gender reveal at the sportsman pub at the weekend & cannot recommend them enough! Wow.. the food was incredible, the staff… absolutely faultless! We had the best time due to the professionalism & fabulous etiquette of the pub. Thank you once again for making the day perfect & run so smoothly. If anyone is looking for a beautiful venue with amazing staff & fabulous food I would recommend the sportsman every time x

We just popped in for a sandwich, these may have been available but we did not notice them on the menu. Instead we opted for two starters to share - Whitebait and Calamari, salads and chips. The food was asbsolutly fine, but on a personal note, I found the spice on the Whitebait to be a little too strong for my taste - not the pub's fault, just my tastebuds. Yes, we would go there again.

Very nice place to relax and have dinner after a long day at Hickstead show ground. The atmosphere was pleasant, the staff were top class and the food was excellent. The service was relaxed no rush. If you are in a hurry, go elsewhere. But for a relaxing meal, good food, good prices, this is the place to go

Fantastic spot for lunch. Lovely freshly made food, brilliant location. And their cheesy chips are the BEST

Friendly helpful professional staff and food was excellent.

Lovely dog friendly pub. Dogs allowed inside & outside. Has a nice garden area with shade if you want it & an outside bar you can order your food & drinks from. The food was delicious, we had the chilli squid, whitebait, scampi, chips & salad and the Sussex burger, chips & salad.

Excellent staff and a large seating area. Beers were good and so was the company.

Food was good quality with decent portions, however the service has left a lot to be desired. Wait times over over 1hr for two traditional roasts and a drink at a cost of almost £60 and even still charged 10% service for a table of two for the pleasure of waiting so long. I wouldn’t recommend unless the service improves dramatically or you fancy a long wait!

Table booked in advance. Almost empty when we arrived. Food took an hour despite not being busy. Had to enquire/complain several times only to be met with shrugs and excuses. No accountability or apologies. Staff seemed to be mostly milling about and/or smoking. A sign was put up on the bar as we left warning of a 30 minute wait for food. V disappointed.

I could take my dog in garden, lovely place

First time eating at this particular pub. The food came out and tasted ok/good. 24-30 hours later me and a friend were both extremely Ill (food poisoning I’m guessing). I would highly recommend not eating here. I have never had this issues anywhere in this country before. Avoid

We visited with friends on a Thursday evening a few weeks ago and found the service and food excellent. Thank you

Campen auf dem Parkplatz ist erlaubt.

Great food and friendly helpful staff

Nice little pin, nice garden (over the road) and very nice food.

A lovely country pub with loads of seating inside and out. Very friendly staff and really good food.Goid music as well. We stayed overnight in our camper in the extensive carpark.

Lovely spur of the moment lunch..highly recommend the cheese ploughman's it's fab. But be warned it's massive!! Staff friendly and service was quick.

A friendly welcome and the food was delicious, I highly recommend a visit

Good food and beer Staff were.......let's say "some seemed like they didn't want to be there"

My wife and I dined here. I have to say this was one of the best meals I have had anywhere. I am not normally a fan of overpriced desserts but the daily crumble was superb and my main was too. The staff were truly delightful. Top marks to all of you. We will return.

Amazing place Great food, great value , amazing staff. Making you feel at home Great country establishment making you feel at home and homely

Great place and really friendly staff and locals.

Good country pub. Nice beer garden.