The Star Inn Alfriston

The food was excellent but it was like dining in a building site. Beautiful day and it was our Ruby anniversary, so we trekked all the way to Alfriston for lunch. A beautiful little village and the hotel looks fabulous and staff were efficient and friendly. We sat in the courtyard garden and were treated to drilling and banging throughout the lunch. We had booked the day before for the courtyard, but nobody had advised us on booking that there was work happening to the building. Such a pity especially given the pedigree of the owners that this should happen….. disappointing!

Four of us had a very decent lunch here this week. The hotel was being blessed while we were here, which seemed slightly bizarre but interesting! The restaurant is a lovely pleasing space and the service first rate. The asparagus starter and plum & almond tart were stand-out best dishes from a quality menu - though I found my beef and stilton pie mains, which had delicious pastry, a tad dry. We chose to have coffee outside in the pleasant courtyard style garden, which sadly turned out to be a bit of a mistake because of really noisy construction work just a few metres away - unfortunate. But overall, a great lunch experience and we'll definitely return.

This historic inn is absolutely stunning. We stayed for 3 nights over last weekend as a celebration of my 60th birthday and from the moment we arrived we were looked after so beautifully. Alex and Olga Polizzi have created the most warm and wonderful environment for guests to feel special. So sympathetically renovated and extended with such attention to detail in our gorgeous, spacious and elegant room (the bedlinen was DIVINE), the dining room, library, the terrace and in the beautiful bar area where open fires were lit every day. Staff are very well trained, local and friendly and we were thrilled that Alex was also working there during our stay. She was so kind, friendly and welcoming and treated us to a glass each of champagne for my birthday which was a wonderful treat. She is very knowledgeable about all the many walks in this beautiful area of the South Downs and genuinely interested in all her guests and their experiences. We had 3 wonderful breakfasts, afternoon tea on the patio and 2 evening meals on Friday and Sunday in the restaurant, all of which were delicious and generous. Local producers are very much celebrated both in restaurant and bar. We had a wonderful tour of the local Rathfinney Wine Estate on Saturday. The whole experience we highly recommend and we will be back, hopefully next time when I won’t have a busted ankle and a broken rib and can walk without hobbling, limping and wincing! Many, many thanks to Alex and her fabulous team for such a memorable weekend. Love from Astrid & Alan PS … The only downside to Alfriston itself is the major traffic issue on the narrow high street of this gorgeous, ancient village - it clearly wasn’t created to accommodate huge 4x4s, vans and buses trying to pass each other so it is often gridlocked…