The best restaurants in Hartfield Wealden South East

Welcomed warmly, served well and food excellent. Menu interesting, with a good mix of local and not so local dishes. Venison liver on the specials board a real treat.

Beautiful restaurant, food is delicious, staff are lovely, really nice, excellent pub, lovely menu, would definitely recommend for a Sunday dinner

To our family, the brasserie was the highlight of our visit to Ashdown Park hotel. It was comfortable, family friendly, and a convenient and relaxing place to spend lunch or an early dinner with our young son after swimming in the afternoon. The staff Dominikia and Ana were super friendly and helpful, they made us feel special and are a credit to the hotel. There's a good choice of food (chef was excellent too) and it's good value for money. We were there every day for a week and hope to return!

Welcoming and helpful. We came to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We found good cooking and attentive waiting, making a very pleasant atmosphere. We had the five courses and enjoyed them all. The wild garlic was delicious with the creme fraiche. Both the tartare options were excellent, the Cornish mackerel worked very well with the saffron and mussel chowder. The leek terrine dish, while tasty, was not a total success as the leeks were very slightly underdone; their texture did not quite work with the goat's cheese and truffle dressing. The panna cotta and rhubarb dish was perfect. We also enjoyed both the red and the white wine, the excellent Bacchus from Winklestone. A memorable evening for our celebration, thank you to all.

Our dinner was average the service was good and the food was poor. I feel if it was not for the location the pub would be struggling. Limited menu and expensive at central London prices. Poor value would not repeat. In contrast the Dorset Arms at Withyham which I visited the day before offered much better food at realistic prices.

Tried the Hay Waggon, which is under new ownership. Great barbecue with seafood kebabs and amazing local rump steak. Homemade ice creams are to die for. All served up in a wonderful garden

Had a wonderful lunch here last Tuesday. It was super busy but the staff were charming and very efficient and made us and our dog feel very welcome. We chose the butternut soup which was very hot and spicy! Definitely the best I have ever tasted! The menu is extensive so I will make sure to go again soon to try something else or even treat myself to their afternoon teas which I have heard are delicious.

Unfortunately, this dinner was a disappointment from start to finish. I would strongly recommend that the restaurant implement a staff training day, as the service was shocking, especially given the price point. For £17.95, I was served an elderflower fizz that was reminiscent of a Wetherspoons cocktail—no garnish, too much sugar syrup, served in a gin bowl with excessive ice and just a straw and stirrer. It took ages to arrive after we had to order at the bar, due to a lack of staff taking orders at the table. The barman who appeared to be working solo was clearly flustered and evidently required either help or supervision, as the drink quality, presentation, and wait time was just not good enough for the price. This was just the start of a series of disappointments. My partner and I were then shown to our table, which was in an empty second room. Whilst this may seem romantic, we found it rather strange, especially considering the other room was nearly full. It seemed like the seating should have been split more evenly. We were greeted by another waitress who seemed pleasant but was unfortunately uninterested and lacked knowledge of the dishes. When we asked for recommendations, she responded with, "I don’t know. It depends on your palate." Typically, I would have expected more enthusiasm and knowledge about the menu, but this was not the case. After selecting our dishes and a bottle of red wine, we waited. The food arrived fairly quickly, but the wine was nowhere to be seen. It’s standard for drinks to be served before the food, so this felt odd. When our starter was cleared, we reminded the waitress about the wine. She looked at us blankly before bringing over the wine list and asking which bottle we had ordered, as she had forgotten. When our main courses arrived, the wine still hadn’t come. Despite having pointed out the Cabernet Sauvignon twice, we were then informed it was out of stock and asked to choose another. I would have expected the waitress to know about the shortage, but we accepted the mistake and asked for two glasses of Pinot Noir, as we were already onto the main course. Having worked in hospitality myself, it is common knowledge that if an issue arises it must be rectified with a matter of urgency. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case here. It wasn’t until we had finished our main courses that the wine finally arrived—without an apology or explanation. Throughout the meal, we were also not checked up on - another standard practice of hospitality, which made it even more difficult to address the issue of the wine. When the bill came, I asked the manager to remove the wine charges. Whilst he agreed, I would have expected him to be aware of the situation and offer compensation without me having to request it. As for the food, it was fine but nothing memorable. I had the linguine, and my partner had the lamb. Both were enjoyable enough, but given the £30-40 price point for the main courses, the overall experience didn’t meet expectations. We didn’t bother staying for dessert due to our frustration with the service. What was meant to be a special, romantic meal ended up being a major letdown and waste of money.

I have already reviewed this in the main hotel site. The drawing rooms are lovely, comfortable chairs, beautiful view, BUT the food and wine by the glass were truly awful. Very poor quality and very expensive. Never again.

An unplanned stop for lunch. The pub and gardens were clean. Food was amazing. Staff friendly and knowledgeable

A lovely little find for cake 🍰 and coffee ☕️ stop and lovely to sit outside in the sunshine ☀️ Staff both in the farm shop and tearoom were friendly. Peach and pistachio cake was delicious and flat white coffee was in a decent size cup at last! Sadly no wifi and missing opportunities to upsell, as we went and ordered another coffee ourselves but would have been nice when our dirty cups were cleared- unsure if there was waiting service. Farm shop has a fantastic range of ciders, mustards, jams, sweet and biscuit tins, array of fruits🍋‍🟩 🍌🍊🍎🍓-ideal if you want a unique gift - lovely touch! Set back off the road and loads of parking!