The Sportsman

We have been using this place for a couple of years, and always had good experiences. However, on Tuesday 17.02.25, I took my daughter and wife to lunch there… what a disaster!!! The worst service I have had here ie no chicken, no beef which left on the hot counter a piece of straggly old end piece of turkey and the same with the gammon. There was a 25 min wait for the hot meats to come out.
We also had a Birthday Voucher, as a gift from Brewers Fayre… which presented great difficulty to get them to honour.
Would not recommend going here for a while… or having a voucher.

It’s not a bad establishment. Some of the drinks over well overpriced though.

In a seemingly never-​ending cycle of new owners, The Sportsman has now become a carvery. Since it’s change over, the range of beers on offer has improved, with local brewery Harveys of Lewes supplying ale and a decent range of lagers of cider.
As for the carvery, it is extremely cheap at £3.59 for a selection of turkey, gammon and beef and a plethora of vegetables. The gravy however is a bit watery, and depending on how generous the chef dishing out the meat is and how busy the restaurant is, you may end up with a pretty poor serving. But then again, it is only £3.59!
Best to avoid on Saturday afternoons when Brighton and Hove Albion are playing at home though, as being adjacent to the Withdean Stadium it becomes extremely busy on matchdays — which means, unfortunately, not much meat for your pound!

First things first. This is a carvery, one of the Crown Carvery chain.
When I first went to this place about 6 months ago, I was amazed at the quality of the food and the pleasant atmosphere, especially given the prices.
You can get a full roast carvery dinner with beef, gammon and turkey for 3.59!
I tried hard to find a catch, but simply couldn’t. The meat was delicious, the veg was great and there was also decent gravy. All of this for under 4 quid and in surprisingly attractive surroundings. Nice!
However, something has definitely changed. The last 2 times I have been, the meat has been tough and fatty, the veg utterly tasteless (I struggled to find any flavour whatsoever in the cauliflower cheese and the roasties were simply dreadful) and the gravy now resembles thin, brown, flavourless water.
A real shame, as it was an absolutely killer deal before and would have merited 5 stars no question.
Also, the tall guy that works behind the bar is the most joyless, miserable person you are ever likely to meet. Zero eye contact and he seems to walk around in a huff all the time with a frown. Not a good attitude for a barman! Sort yourself out man or get a different job!
Overall then, 2 stars from me, as it is still very cheap for what you get, but I doubt I will be back anytime soon.

I used to play tennis quite a bit at the Withdean sports complex and used to watch Brighton play there every now and again (I’m still emotionally scarred) and used to pop here for a beer quite a bit.
I could never get over how this pub wasn’t one of the best places to head in Brighton as its got such a captive audience but its got no atmosphere whatsoever. The amount of space in here you could have a really good restaurant running alongside the pub which I think would do a fantastic trade but no, you have laminated menus offering really mediocre food.
That said, there is a good choice of lagers on board and there’s a great pool table. Just a shame to see so much potential go to waste.

Really nice, great value pub with large car park. Very popular being so close to Brighton & Hove’s football ground. Large area with helpful park & ride service running frequently. The decoration in this place is really traditional and quaint. Also, some of the best toilets that I have ever been in.
The only things which let this pub down was it’s disappointing and near-​deserted atmosphere in the evenings, we near enough had a whole section of the pub to ourselves which can be a little awkward when there’s just the two of you. Maybe this was just unfortunate that we caught the pub at these times.
We did, however, go in there on New Year’s Eve when it moderately full and ended up moving tables because of the children who were running around uncontrollably and at one point even ran around our table. I would have expected staff or management to do something about this.

The Sportsman isn’t really a pub, more of a carvery restaurant with a very large bar. It’s part of the Withdean sports complex: the building is literally behind the South Stand of Withdean stadium (current home of Brighton & Hove Albion FC), with the sports centre to one side and a huge car park in front.
The upside is that it’s convenient for those arriving by car, there’s a bus stop (service 27) in front too, and it’s only a few minutes’ walk from the main A27 London Road out of Brighton — so the number 5 route is handy, too.
Equally, it’s never going to win awards for architecture: what might have been a handsome Tudorbethan Roadside pub has been spoiled — almost buried — at the front by the car park extension. But they’ve done a reasonable job in refurbishing (in March 2009) the interior in a modern, pared down wood-​and leather look.
The main bar is in an impressive hall space by the original entrance, and it has wheelchair access and disabled toilets. As well as the bar area, there’s a carvery and a terrace outside, with partial views of the stadium.
The major downer for me is the complete absence of real ale: in fact, there’s only Tetley smoothflow on tap, or lager — Carlsberg, Carling or Stella, although they’re all less then £3 a pint. There are bottled beers available as well.
The carvery currently has all sorts of special deals on, with meals for well under a tenner, but I’ve not eaten there so can’t comment on the quality. (They stop serving at 21:30.)
Staff seemed friendly enough, but there wasn’t much of an atmosphere, as it was eerily quiet on our weekday evening visit. In fact, we were asked by the barman at 22:30 if we wanted any more drinks, as they were closing the till — which came of something of a surprise, these days. In stark contrast, it’s absolutely packed on match days when the Seagulls play at home.
The pub is no longer operated by Brewer’s Fayre, having been taken over by the M&B pub chain.

Classic Brewer’s Fayre pub, with its own dedicated car park within the public car park for the local gym, the squash club and the football stadium. Park and Ride buses into Brighton use it too, which makes this pub very useful for out of towners. Good food, friendly service, they’re happy to serve coffees and teas too.