Stayed here over the bank holiday weekend.
From dealing with the initial enquiry through to welcome, serving of beers or breakfast the staff attitude was refreshing - smiling and and helpful!
The pub itself serves local ales (brewed 300 yards away!) and the menu looks great. Beware that on a Sunday they do not serve after food 5.30pm and the bar shuts sometime between 6-8pm depending on the number of customers in.
The accomodation is above the pub, and we paid an extra tenner as it was a bank holiday weekend, but at £95 for a double and £65 for a single occupancy we felt that itwas good value. The rooms were large and had been kept in reasonably good nick, and the only real gripe was the bathroom. This was dark, and with the fan not connected to the lightswitch it meant that it had that musty moldy feel with mold on the shower curtain. A shame as that was the only negative, It had hairdryer, ironing board, tv (small), the double bed was large and the room had a sofa too.
Worth a go!

Right here's a split review, not sure what to lead on, the food or the accommodation, OK I'll start with the positive.

The food here is excellent, the breakfasts for B&B are good, but the show stopper was the evening meal, their "Fine Dining" menu was delightful and for the quality of food it was good value at £18.50 for 2 courses, beautiful stuff, I throughly recommend a eating here.

Right the now for our room, don't get 'Room 4', unless you don't mind 13 hours a day of the kitchen extractor fan, starting at 10:00 and ending at 23:00, it's fine if your out all the time but... There doesn't seem to be any concession for this inconvenience, their Website says double rooms £75 per night but they charged us £85. OK they've had my money once...

Shame really as if it was not for the accommodation, they'd have got 5 stars from me.

We stayed at The Dorset Arms for two nights after struggling to find much accomodation in Lewes. We were pleased to find it was in a central location near to other pubs and restaurants yet down a side road so quiet. Our room was spacious and clean and had all you needed for a two night stay - comfy bed, tv, large shower. Breakfast was a full english with toast and cereal all very good and there were very friendly and helpful staff in attendance at all times.
The pub itself was always busy but never noisy, with a great range of ales and ciders. Outside was a large beer garden perfect for the sunny weekend we encountered. We shall be back!

We selected the Dorset Arms because of its close proximity to Brighton - where parking is at a premium. Our 2 night stay was fairly uneventful and there were no major faults with the accommodation but...and there is always a but, there were some aspects of the pub that justify comment. First, there is no pub car park which is quite unusual. Parking was in a pay and display car park across the road something I was unaware of and was not happy about. Customers please note the car park was heavily patrolled by 2 wardens - so be aware. Although the accommodation was comfortable with most amenities, the decor and furniture was dated (flat pack furniture and dark carpet; why can't hotels and B&B's inject some modernity into their decor - wall mounted LCD TV's are fairly cheap to buy now?) Guests should also note that that the pub - despite dating back to the 1600's - was similar in many respects to a 'Wetherspoons' - all high stools and leather sofas. The food in the restaurant was excellent although a little fussy ('jus' with everything to give you an example) and the bar food was even better. To summarise, a good place to stay if you are not looking for traditional pub or boutique type accommodation.