The Ram Inn

It was not a good start when arriving around 5 pm to The pub to find three people working on the bar, a huge pile of dirty glasses waiting to be processed and very few customers around. All of the staff appear to be young and didn’t take charge of anything. There was a reasonable weight while nothing much happened to check in. The rooms are quite small with low headroom on the upper floor and very limited storage. Towels, sheets and toiletries were all to a high standard and the bathroom was also well finished. The price point seems very high for what is being offered. There was no milk provided for the tea and coffee. Extra points for providing fresh coffee and both a café and an espresso machine. There is also a fridge in the room with a well stocked bar (but no milk). My main complaint is that breakfast STARTS at 9 am. The doors are locked until then and there was a queue of about 10 people all waiting to get in at 9 am and all a bit annoyed about it. As someone woken at 6:30 am by a food delivery van that was sitting with its engine running and refrigeration compressor fan whirring right outside my room, but not offloaded until well after seven-I was awake for several hours thinking about breakfast before I could go and get some thing to eat or even go and ask for some milk to make a cup of tea in my room. Several couples only had a continental breakfast because they couldn’t wait for a cooked breakfast because of the late start. Compressing everybody into starting at 9 o’clock also put pressure on the tables and they’re not enough tables in the breakfast room for everybody to sit down leading to one couple being pushed into another area. The waiting staff were a bit slow and disorganised and also suddenl were hit with requests for drinks and food. Breakfast itself was good with a range of high-quality ingredients, fresh fruit and good choice of hot breakfasts-however the timing was extremely inconvenient and delayed our ability to get going in the morning to do the things we had come on holiday to do. Whilst I appreciate it may be convenient for some people to have breakfast after 9 o’clock And being able to do it even up to 11 o’clock is good, the forced late start is clearly in the interests of the business and not of its customers. There are better places that are more responsive to their customers and better priced.

We visited The Ram Inn Friday 18th April. I checked my bank statement to find that they had charged me £29.19 for two pints of Harveys bitter and one large glass of sauvignon. I would have expected to pay something in the region of £18-19, maybe £20 at a push. These drink were ordered and paid for at the bar. I have contacted the pub to query their pricing but to date they have chosen to ignore me. My advice for anyone visiting the pub, if you are buying at the bar agree the price before you proceed because it seems to me they put a service charge on everything even when purchased at the bar in person. I for one will not be visiting the pub again and neither will my family.

This is overpriced and undermanaged. We arrived shortly before three and were told our room would not be ready until 3. Fair enough I suppose, and they gave us a free drink, but our room was not ready until around 3 40. And housekeeping had been pretty cursory - no coffee for machine, no milk, no spare loo roll etc. It is also outrageous that breakfast only starts at 9 although the high price is supposedly justified by including breakfast. And we hadn’t even been supplied with what we needed to make a morning coffee. At 8 30 there were no hotel staff in evidence so no one to pay for our dinner. (They take full payment for the room several days in advance) Dinner was quite good but nothing special and the menu was very much restaurant rather than gastropub. No pub basics! And also expensive. The one plus in the very inconveniently designed bedroom was an outstandingly comfortable bed. But when breakfast is served too late for any customer wanting to start their day before 10, however comfortable the bed, it is hard not to feel rather conned. We would definitely not return I’m afraid.

After reading some of the reviews, wasn’t sure about eating there but , My wife & myself popped in for my Birthday , after a wet walk with our dogs , fires alight , lovely pint of Harvey’s , the food was top notch, service was brilliant, not rushed , couldn’t fault it , will 100% be going back . Thank you .

Judging by many of the other reviews on this site, our own very disappointing experience of the Ram is not unusual. The pub came highly recommended by some foodie friends, who also stay there regularly, so we booked with confidence. Sadly, our room, Beanstalk, did not live up at all to the photos on the website and, if I had realized how very small it would be – my husband could barely stand in the very tight shower room – I would obviously have booked two rooms for our party of two adults, one tween and two dogs. However, at £270 for one room for one night, I rather thought we had paid enough for our accommodation! Towels and bed linen were of a very superior quality but the rest of the room exhibited extremely poor finishes? Plug sockets hung off the wall, the blinds did not work properly and the wind whistled through the latched door. There was not much in the way of sound-proofing and we did not sleep until the pub downstairs had emptied. Patently, we appreciate that this is a very ancient building but hanging two contemporary water colours of the South Downs above the bed doesn’t necessarily explain such elevated ‘boutique hotel’ prices! To be fair, the food, both at dinner and at breakfast the next day was generally good and not ridiculously priced. There is obviously some sort of distinction between locals/regulars and one-off residents such as ourselves and the January weekend we stayed, the pub was fairly full of parties of walkers and hikers. As mentioned elsewhere, the service is breathtakingly poor. The team of mainly young waiters, waitresses and bar staff all looked smart enough but there were very few smiles, nor anything which might be construed as a welcome when we arrived for our £400+ stay? Any questions about the village and local area were met with a blank stare and try as we might, we were unable to get any member of the team to engage with us at all, let alone in a cheerful or friendly way, during our entire stay. Surly was the name of the game, both in the evening and on the following morning and a desperate request for help, when we mislaid a wallet, again drew blank expressions and a mumbled: ‘Well, the cleaner hasn’t left anything on the bar….” I subsequently found the lost item under the (very uncomfortable) bench where we were sitting the night before. It would have been a very small gesture to have offered to help us look for it! We were not sure whether or not it was a question of shyness or lack of training but at these prices, you do not expect the staff to look as if they would rather be anywhere else but helping the paying customers in a generally friendly way! Upon our return home, I was assailed by a number of emails asking for feedback. I duly filled out one of these forms, asking for a Ram representative to contact me to discuss the our experience before I posted anything on a public platform such as this one. No response! Hence this review. In summary, a clearly excellent kitchen only occasionall

5 star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟. The food was excellent, staff so welcoming and friendly. I throughly enjoyed my first visit., we will definitely be back soon. The pub is set in such beautiful surroundings. Thank you so much for making us feel so welcome. Highly recommend. Thanks Louise