Surrey Oaks, Dorking

This is a pub I have wished to visit for quite some time, today I finally made it. A rather isolated tile hung old building that started out life as a cottage before becoming a bakery cum beer shop and then a public house. The original tile hung building in the centre is flanked by two later additions. Inside are four interconnected rooms in series, the largest room to the left is the restaurant with set tables but certainly not too formal and stuffy and retaining pub character. There are then two middle rooms, one larger and L-shaped containing a large inglenook with a wood burner. Finally a small room to the right houses unusually for the pub, a pool table, this room is away from the bar which runs through the other three. We favoured the L-shaped space with the fire, there are stacks of framed awards on display here as well as various pictures of the pub, an interesting old advert from original brewery Mellarsh and Neale of Reigate, tankards hang from the low beamed ceiling, a glass fronted corner unit contains scores of old beer bottles and has toby jugs, old glasses and mugs on top. A small table had a row of beer, pub and whisky related books including a fascinating 1960s book of Surrey pubs. The smaller middle room has an ordinary sized fireplace, the walls have a collection of prints of domestic animals including several of the local Dorking Red chicken. The pub is generally carpeted but the inglenook area has a stone flagged floor of clear age. Seating at benches, chairs and settles. Beer is very important here, the pub website handily lists the current and coming soon brews, today had Surrey Hills Ranmore Ale plus Greensand IPA, Blue Monkey BG Sips, Adur Ropetackle, Dark Star Art of Darkness with house regular Harveys Sussex Best being reverse clipped. I also spotted a cider from Black Cat. I tried the Ranmore and the BG Sips, both in tip-top shape. The food is good and reasonably priced too, especially for Surrey, there is a bar menu plus a good list of specials on a chalkboard. Rib-eye steak with pepper sauce, chips and a huge fresh salad was £13.50, and good too, staples like scampi around £8 or so. Outside is a small seating area plus two petanque (boules) pitches and a kids' play area. This really is a pub worth making an effort to get to, even if public transport is scarce and distant, the service, beer, food, welcome and ambience were all good, made better by a friendly long haired cat wandering around and a no mobiles policy which resulted in a rather irritating woman with a typically boorish well-to-do-and-we-know-it family group getting a reprimand when her's rang, much to our amusement and satisfaction. A solid 9.