The Bear, Cobham

Now owned by Young's Pubs and thoroughly refurbished back to a proper pub, albeit heavily aimed at the food market. A very tasteful, upmarket interior, making good use of the beamed ceilings and polished wooden floors. The front room contains the bar, with a couple of restaurant areas to the rear and a large side room behind a splendid fireplace, all well equipped with comfortable benches and armchairs with a sprinkling of cushions. At the back is a smart garden with artificial grass, while there is a tabled patio to the front if you can tolerate the traffic. Draught ales were Young's Special and ordinary, with Surrey Hills Shere Drop and St Austell Proper Job adding variety; all seemed well kept. On the posh side rather than a boozer of course, but a welcome return of a decent pub to the centre of Cobham.

Official site of The Bear - www.bearcobham.co.uk

Official site of The Bear - www.bearcobham.co.uk

Now calling itself 'Wildwood at the Old Bear', another establishment trying to be a trendy restaurant/bar without losing its credentials as a proper pub. Sadly, in my book it fails in the latter respect: its bare, clinical interior immediately made me feel that this is a pub which has had its very soul ripped out. On the plus side they have at least retained four hand pumps, albeit they had only managed to populate two of them during my visit - with Doombar (at £3.55) and Directors. The third had a TEA clip reversed and the fourth no sign of use. The garden round the back was very pleasant on a warm April afternoon, and was half full with a youngish mix of clientele, perhaps from the chavvier parts of the Cobham populace but generally well behaved. All in all I wouldn't make an effort to come back here.