Afternoon Tea In West Sussex - Horsham

Came for an afternoon tea this weekend and was severely disappointed by the service and attitude towards our complaint. We came as a group of friends to South Lodge for afternoon tea. From the minute we arrived there was a lack of organisation, they didn’t seem to have the details on our booking (despite having this on my phone they asked if the table was for 3 people when it was for 5. We were then shown to a table outside, the table had lovely views and it was a warm sunny day so we were able to enjoy the view. We ordered drinks and they asked if we would like the afternoon tea to be brought out, we said yes.. it was then approximately 25 minutes before we saw our food and at this point we had to chase our drinks which still hadn’t arrived. From here on out the service was terrible. We were asked if we wanted our scones, after 10 minutes they brought out the Jam and cream, these then sat out in the warm weather for 25ish minutes before we again had to chase up the scones and ask for new cream as the ones brought out were suffering in the heat. We arrived at 1.30 and didn’t finish the afternoon tea until gone 4.30 as the service was so poor. We enjoyed the setting and the food was very nice but when you are paying a lot of money for an afternoon tea I do not expect to have such poor service. When the bill was brought we asked for the service to be removed as it had been so slow, to which they just replied “ok” no apology or explanation was given. We asked to speak to someone about the service and a manager came out who appeared to be rather standoffish about the whole situation, a lot of excuses were given about how they are busy and that they do bring the cream out before the scones (there was at least a 20 minute gap on a hot day! and how yes that’s normal if you don’t like the service you can remove it. I didn’t feel they took the issue seriously or that they particularly cared that we had complained which was incredibly disappointing. We left feeling very deflated and we will certainly not be returning.

I was given a voucher for afternoon tea for three as a birthday present. Unfortunately it expired before I was able to use it due to covid and me being out of the country for several months. Although the hotel noted that they had been flexible with vouchers during covid they refused to extend mine. In recognition that prices have increased significantly since the voucher expired (Dec 2022) we offered to pay an additional supplement but this was refused. Not only is this extremely disappointing but does not reflect well on the hotel if it wants to maintain a good reputation.

Had the most amazing afternoon tea . Excellent service and selection of sandwiches,cakes and scones and what you can't eat they will box up for you! A lovely venue and beautiful hotel and surroundings.

Simple elegance, attentive waiting staff, delicious food, excellent ambiance. This was the second visit in 8 months and we will definitely return in a flash. :

Booked Afternoon Tea to celebrate a long overdue special birthday, which had been rearranged several times due to ill health. I had been really looking forward to it particularly after previous lovely experiences there, where the menu was great and dietary requests were catered for. Overall, I had a great time catching up with close friends following the Christmas/New Years break, but on reflection, the food was not great and it certainly was not worth the £50 per head (including service charge) that you end up paying for. Firstly, I was very surprised that the Christmas menu was still running as our visit was outside of the Christmas period and the website had been updated to remove the festive food. From a marketing perspective, it is misleading. From a customer perspective, it just felt like we ate leftovers that needed using up. Secondly, I had listed dietary requests on my booking. Rather than receive alternative options, we were given double turkey sandwiches (to subsitute not having the salmon), and the cheese removed from the beetroot and goats cheese sandwich (which made it taste very dry and bland). On previous visits, my mother in law's dietary requests were much more sensitively handled, with a completely separate plate of sandwiches and pastries with lots of different flavours and fillings. For a premium experience, you would expect the latter particularly if your requests were on the booking. I wrote to South Lodge privately to explain my concerns and sadly the response I received completely missed the point and only made my feelings around the whole experience worse. I replied privately to explain that I felt that they did not acknowledge my complaint seriously and that I don't feel inclined to visit if that is the way they are going to treat loyal customers. I never received a reply back to remedy the situation.