The New Inn, Winchelsea

We visited The New Inn in lovely Winchelsea on Saturday 23rd August at about 1pm after a good walk we were all looking forward to a nice pint and some good pub food. We ordered some pints of Hooky described as a golden ale ideal on a sunny day after a long walk, the lighting is dim where the beer pumps are and the beer looked copper coloured we then moved to our seat by the window and the beer looked the same it soon became clear that this was not a golden ale. One of our party had a great thirst and finished his pint fairly quickly and then brought himself a pint of Hydes Bitter and proceeded to tell the rest of our group that this is exactly the same beer as the supposed Hooky golden ale that the rest of us were still drinking.
I would describe the beer as ok.
The beer was £3.95p per pint.
When i pointed this fact out to the staff at the bar the reply was "yeah". no explanation or apologies were given.
Snacks we brought some ordinary Cheese & Onion crisps to eat cost £1 a packet while we perused the bar menu.
The food, i ordered the Sausages and Mash described as with a red onion gravy. The gravy had never seen any type of onion , the sausages ( cheap packet type) were blackened and very peppery the mash was very dense with no flavour at all which could be cut into slices.
Opinion the meal was very poor especially for £9.95p and considering that just down the road there is a butchery selling Venison and Wild Boar sausages you would expect to be in for a decent meal.
All meals were clearly microwaved and steaming when served and appeared to be low cost ingredients from a freezer.
The staff seemed to take forever to select the correct cost tabs on the till when paying.
We were all disappointed with the beer and food.
We often try new country pubs and we would not consider visiting the New Inn again unless we heard from a reliable source that it had dramatically improved.
Review by Goodalepublover.

24 Aug 2014 18:23