Tottington Manor Hotel

Situated in a picturesque location with beautiful views, the accommodation offers comfortable beds, luxurious decor, and exceptional staff service, ensuring a restful and enjoyable stay.

We visited this restaurant with friends. I'm an avid Malbec lover but to be honest the bottle we ordered wasn't fantastic but reasonably priced as far as restaurant prices go. The starter was not fantastic either to be honest, I'm trying to find something positive to say about it. I had the beetroot and goats cheese salad. There were very few pieces of beetroot and three or four whipped, piped blobs of goats cheese and some tapenade which I couldn't even taste. My main was the seafood board which on the menu sounded delicious and quite huge but in reality was very disappointing. The seafood stew literally contained about three muscles in their shells a couple of clams and a couple of bits of chorizo, but no other fish that I could find and was served in a tiny bowl with no finger bowl or anywhere to put empty shells. There were two King prawns with their shells on which were lovely, a piece of sourdough which looks like the pre-sliced stuff you can get from the supermarket and some chunky chips which again were tasteless. The tempura hake was not what I would call tempura. It was thick and greasy, I could've rung it out to be honest! So I took the fish out of the batter and ate that. It just was very average to be honest, bland in taste uninspiring in presentation. I didn't bother with dessert and was pleased I didn't as two of our friends did and they just didn't look appetising at all. Even the coffee wasn't good. It's a shame because on paper the menu reads well. The staff were perfectly pleasant, but one of them clearly didn't even know which meat one of our friends had ordered when she delivered it to the table, they need a little more training.

Plenty of parking, warm welcome and from that high it was downhill all the way. Seduced by the Olive Lounge for our lunchtime dining experience, imagine our surprise when we are greeted by 4 x 2-seater sofas crammed into a room plus four chairs and two diners. Our sofa had lost most of its stuffing so it was like sitting on the oversized coffee table that held us captive on said uncomfortable sofa. I ordered a glass of Ridgeview Bloomsbury (very nice) whilst the other half went for low alcohol beer which the server kindly pointed out was very low alcohol and NOT no alcohol. We also ordered bread and olives. The focaccia was ok, the three types of butter were ok although some balsamic and oil would have been fine too. The olives were mediocre and overly presented in this two bowl server yet not a cocktail stick to be seen. It meant messy fingers! I ordered the Sussex charcuterie board which for £20 would have been passable except for the limp rocket and the sad celery. The scone was delicious and the sausage roll a treat just far too tiny. Imagine an attempt at an upmarket ploughman’s. He had the seafood board which looked tastier. The flies were the big issue and I found the whole experience challenging batting them away. The ladies loo had issues with broken door locks, unmarked washing options and had an overall feeling of being unkempt. Overall nothing had surpassed expectations and to be presented for a of £92 just about topped off our uninspiring visit. There was no amazing food, no views of the Downs to knock your socks off and no superlative comfort.