Anderida Restaurant at Ashdown Park Hotel & Country Club

Very disappointing experience. Booked for Sunday lunch for birthday celebration. Our pre and post lunch experience was good : we enjoyed relaxing in the pleasant lounge and walking in the beautiful grounds. Sadly, the ''star '' of the show ie our lunch, was very disappointing. We both chose Sunday roasts for our main courses and found the meat tasteless( the fat on the beef sirloin was inedible), and the roast potatoes and parsnip dried up and tough. Quite a lot was left uneaten. The starters and desserts were ok/ good.
Sadly, we will not be returning.

Afternoon tea wasn’t as good as expected it to be. Food was good, presentation good but service not as smart as it could have been.
For the money paid it should have been much better all round.
General decor, looks tired.

Based on Lunch Menu we were pleased with the value offered and the quality of the preparation.
Nothing revolutionary about the cuisine but solid and well presented fare. The 'cloche' presentation was a bit 'old hat' and 'over the top' especially for a tiny lunch portion. Bit of an anti-climax really - not the desired effect I'm sure.
Maitre seemed a bit 'pressured' despite not having many covers. Absolute minimum contact and as fast as possible, standard phrases, clipped. He did seem to be taking bookings as well on the phone during service though.

HOWEVER, 'as they say on masterchef' the Cocktail bar was a bit of a rip-off. £7 for a small glass of Italian pinot grigio, £16 for ONE G n T.
(Recent visit to a 1 star Michelin - G n T £10.50)
Perhaps this explains the reasonable menu pricing and that they request you arrive 30mins early for a cocktail !!

Excellent Fleurie and cheese board ! (Fleurie reasonably priced and cheeseboard NOT extra for once)

The restaurant decor reflects the gothic style of the place but is not particularly joyous (at least in daylight) and appears a little staid, heavy and unimaginative.
Thoughtfully they opened some windows: as they prefer jackets to be worn !
Wife described the dining room as having an old town hall/municipal function room feel. Ambience 0.

Perhaps report again if staying overnight for any reason and going a la carte...........

Recommendation with reservations ***.
Value ***. if you avoid the cocktail bar.

We had a lovely dining experience, my only negative comments would be around finding the restaurant, at the end of a long dark'ish corridor and the fact that you request that diners dress smart-casual and yet there were guests walking around the hotel in less than smart-casual attire. Saying that, once we were in the bar we had an amazing experience. The barman was excellent and friendly, there was a brilliant choice of drinks on offer and the maitre d' was very friendly, again the food menu was excellent. We had the salmon and crab to start and then the Chateaubriand for main, all of the food was presented well and tasted delicious. All of the waiting staff were excellent too. We had the Malbec with our lunch, it was delicious.

The hotel didn't answer telephone call. Tried twice to book lunch with no joy. First attempt - after 2 minutes 10 seconds of ringing their system disconnected my incoming call.. Second attempt - after 2 minutes they answered and put my call to "reservations" who didn't answer. After 8 minutes of waiting I put the phone down. In the end booked by on-line booking company The food was good but the service was very slow. So slow that afternoon cream teas became their priority.

Excellent plus all round

Nice window table with comfortable seating. Very attentive staff. Unnecessary music but pianist very good. Delicious food but more vegetables would have been acceptable.

Lunch was for my brothers 60th birthday. The lunch was good, what was not so impressive was waiting way too long for our drinks in the bar area adjacent to the restaurant, we had to go up three times to see where are drinks were. Also I found as an Interior Designer (DMJ design) that the overall feel to the restaurant was tired and heavy.

We both had a very enjoyable meal indeed. The duck was the best that I have ever eaten.
Our waiter was very attentive and asked if we were celebrating something special. We said it was our 9th anniversary. To our surprise we were given an extra dessert with our coffee with "Happy Anniversary" written in chocolate on the plate.
The whole dining experience was wonderful. Thank you.

Sunday lunch staff 100 percent including trainee waiters my husband had Dover sole best he has ever eaten i had pork found a bit tough apart from that would certainly return and would recommend to anybody