Ockenden Manor is a beautiful Elizabethan manor house situated Cuckfield village in West Sussex. It…read moreis a 22 room hotel set in 9 acres of stunning grounds, with views reaching out as far as the south downs. I cannot comment on the hotel itself but the restaurant is a great experience, being the only establishment to hold a Michelin star in Sussex. They offer the full al a carte menu plus a seven course tasting menu which we just couldn't refuse. This included such delights as foie gras, scollops, lamb and lemon tart, an apple and calvados sorbet as a pallet cleanser plus the cheese trolley and coffee with a selection of petite fours if you still have room! They also have a huge wine list and the staff are happy to offer recommendations. Be careful to check the price of these though as a glass of wine suggested to compliment the the foie gras put an extra £10 per head on the bill! The tasting menu is expensive but worth it for a special occasion or if you are just feeling flash! The restaurant is comfortable and unpretentious but I feel the whole experience can be slightly bettered at places such as Gravetye Manor which doesn't have a Michelin star.

Ockenden Manor - you are lucky you are getting 2*! This review is for the spa & the restaurant…read morecombined however not the hotel or rooms themselves as we didn't stay the night. My mum and I booked the sunrise spa morning package for my birthday treat a month before my birthday and were SO excited. The package includes a breakfast smoothie on arrival, full use of the spa facilities (sauna, outdoor hot tub, jacuzzi, steam room, pool etc), a 55 minute treatment (choice of 4 - pedicure, manicure, full body massage or facial) and 2 courses at their Michelin starred hotel restaurant - SOUNDS AMAZING! We arrived a few minutes after 9 (stupid traffic) and were greeted at reception, shown to some comfy sofas and asked to fill out a 2 sided sheet with personal details, health, what we were looking for from today etc. At the same time we were given the smoothie menu and told to pop back to order once we had finished filling in the forms - no problem. I went back to the reception desk however the lady who had greeted us was helping someone else so I spoke to a different lady. She took the forms but asked me to sit back down as the other lady deals with smoothies and would take our order... errr OK. So we waited 10 minutes but this lady was seriously busy. By this time it was nearly half 9 so we had missed 30 minutes in the pool and kids are allowed in the pool for an hour at 10am (NOT RELAXING). We got the attention of one of the members of staff and said we had been waiting a while and hadn't even ordered our smoothies and were rudely replied with "well it is busy and that's just how things happen". Mum got a bit pissed off at this point and pointed out how we had been treated so the lady took our smoothie order and showed us in to the changing rooms so we could change but said we would have to come back out of the spa in to reception to get our smoothies *sigh* AND the smoothies although refreshing were nothing special. By the time we got in the pool we had 10 minutes before the members brought in their young, screaming children. We stuck it out in the jacuzzi for a bit but after much splashing went up to their mezzanine area with loungers, magazines and coffee and tried to block their noise out. Our massages were at 11am so we went to reception 5 minutes before as requested. I can't fault the massage - it was lovely, relaxing, good pressure, lovely smelling oils - however they didn't consider any of the points I had made while filling out my form. After that we were a little more relaxed and went back for a swim before going to get changed for our lunch. When we went to get out (30 minutes before our table was booked for) we realised mum's robe with her locker key had been taken by mistake and immediately told a member of staff. He said he would look in to it and be right back.... all we really needed was a master key. Again we waited 5 minutes but no one returned. In the end I went to get mum a new towel so we could both go to reception and ask for help as we needed to get ready for lunch! The girl on reception had only one key handed in and although we knew it wasn't the right number asked us to try it. Again wasting a few more minutes we trudged back and forth between reception and the changing rooms. This time I asked why couldn't we use a master key so they went to find the reception manager who happened to be the rude lady from earlier. In the end we managed to throw our clothes on and rush over to the restaurant a few minutes late for our table and completely stressed - this was meant to be a stress free day! O and as we left we handed in our locker key & said goodbye & they completely ignored us.... It took us a while to find anyone to take us to the restaurant as no one was at reception and there were no clear signs for the restaurant. We were seated and shown the daily lunch time menu of which we could pick 2 courses. Argh again we had been given wrong info as we were told it could be any dish from the a la carte - one of the major reasons we had chosen this package. I said this to the waiter but he merely replied "no, just from the lunch menu" and walked off! There was nothing I fancied on the starters so we went straight for mains. There was butter on the table so I was looking forward to nibbling some nice warm bread however although every other person had been served bread we weren't offered any. The mains were both nice. Presented beautifully and my caramelised onion tart with root veg really was delicious. The portions however were pretty tiddily so I was still hungry and couldn't wait for dessert. My mum can't eat dairy so she asked for a dairy free one and kudos to them the chef provided a beautifully presented plate with the nicest passionfruit sorbet and caramelised bananas. I had the creme brulee which was served in a little ramekin with chocolate mousse on one side and a whiskey ice cream on the other - DELICIOUS! In all I was impressed by the food but not the service at the spa & restaurant!

For our first night in the UK, this was quite the nice spot to get beer and a traditional English…read moredinner. The steak and ale pie with English mustard was delicious. The draft beers were very tasty. The servers were nice and quick. I love that the UK has laws regarding allergies as one member of our party needed that information. The staff were quite accommodating.

I've been frequenting this place for years and it used to be a popular destination for heavy…read moremetalers (me included) as the dukebox had some great tunes available. Its gone all posh now but has still retained a certain amount of charm. Its a beautiful old building and there's so much space inside so ideal for large groups. They serve Dark Star beer which is a lovely bitter indeed. Its got an absolutely huge garden which is great for whiling away the summer weekends.

A superb venue, filled with history and character. From the birthplace of poets to hiding the…read moreCanadian D Day tanks in the forest during the war this hotel is both interesting and intriguing. The staff were excellent and the food spot on. You do have to forgive it for a few of its faults which I put down to the fact that it's an old building which used to be someones home. The rooms are small and the en suite bathrooms are literally just plasterboard cupboards added at a later date. The grounds, however, are stunning and overall this hotel is well worth the 4 stars I've given it...

Beautiful and unique venue with gardens, lake etc. Popular for weddings, with good reason. Good…read morefood, staff and bars. Rooms available. Only open when function taking place (it's not a pub/restaurant).

Wanted to give a detailed review of this place as it was my first-ever England trip and first hotel…read morethere. As earlier review said, beautiful grounds, real English-garden style, very old, interesting history, but for a first timer from America, you need to be aware of the following, especially the first item. The mgt acknowledged that the place was in a cellphone "blank spot" and were trying to remedy it, but no target date for that. The place had just come under new mgt (Sept 2017) and were appreciative of feedback like the below. None of this would be as bad for someone with a rental car, but I didn't rent a car as I didn't want to deal with the left-side driving my first time there, and was at the mercy of cabs. Anyway, if you LIKE remote and don't mind non-enabled cellphone while you're there, it's a great getaway. The whole area feels like it's back in time a couple hundred years...or more. - no cell phone service in this area, confirmed by worker there, cabbie couldn't ring me up till he got two miles or so back towards town. Place is remote enough from nearest town (East Grinstead) that pizza guys there won't deliver..had to go fetch one myself. - no clocks in room - no wifi network info in the info-book in rooms, you have to look and guess (I found the right one, didn't need a pw, others did), wifi speed was decent, better than Heathrow airport (which was intolerably slow, gave up) - someone maybe or maybe not available at front desk on weekends (no one answered either of the "for assistance" numbers posted at 1pm Sat) when I got there, key & sign-in sheet was laid out on counter - no way for outsiders to call a room directly, has to go through front desk and be manually transferred, so if there's no one at desk they you can't get a call in, and with no cell phone service...you get it - fire bell in room went off 10pm from cigarette/smoke detector in great hall / party next door, maybe that's good - no ice machines, or none that I was told about - restaurant is only open for scheduled things, like Sunday breakfast / brunch event - no bathtubs, corner showers only - clean, but rooms small, doors tight/close together (this was an old manor house, typical European sort of style) - beds are sort of low-height/low-budget type, not like the big/tall puffy things you get in the corporate hotels, more like a BnB