Surrey Yeoman, Dorking

This is a fairly straightforward town centre Greene King pub set in an attractive building on the main High Street. The pub has a split level layout, with the entrance taking you into the upper section, primarily a seating area with a fair bit of standard and comfy chair seating centred around a nice fireplace, but arriving in the failing daylight of a spring evening, we found this was a pretty gloomy part of the pub with overly muted lighting making it too dark to settle down. The pub runs to the rear on both sides of the room, split in two at the front, but opening out to the rear with the simple servery down the right hand side. The bar area has a quarry stone floor which extends down steps opposite into a space with high tables and stools and a few benches with standard chairs. Bright, contemporary photography has been put on the walls, brightening the space up a bit, but adding to the bland, generic feel of the décor - a feeling further enhanced by countless Greene King promotional crap that confronts you with every turn you take. We stopped off here for a quick bite to eat and ordered reasonable food from the cheap and cheerful Greene King menu, although it is worth noting that the kitchen staff's competence might be called into question when my other half's duck dish was initially brought out without the duck! I didn't make it to the bar on this visit, so I failed to note the ale range beyond the fact that they had Greene King IPA and Morland Old Speckled Hen plus three guest ales. Sadly I was driving and only had a soft drink, so I can't comment on the beer quality. This is a typical town centre chain pub that can't shake off its corporate feel and thus has very little character or charm. The ale range was promising and the food was cheap and edible, but there wasn't much to raise this beyond the realms of mediocrity and I'll be exploring elsewhere the next time I'm in town.

This is a split level GK pub with low beamed ceilings and a feel that it might genuinely be quite old. Although it has been opened out to a fashion it still has a sense of three separate areas, helped by the need to step up and down as you move about. Two entrances, one gives level access to the bar, using the other on the left you are greeted by a large inglenook fireplace with chopped stacked logs. The different areas have a mixture of finishes, the bar area has a stone flagged floor, other sections are boarded, carpeted and quarry tiled. Standard seating plus a few armchairs and bucket seats. As well as the beams and posts, some exposed brick walls and columns add character, décor is the usual framed local prints including several of nearby Pippbrook, an old house now home to Mole Valley Council plus Leith Hill tower. Food is served, there are menus on the tables and chalkboards advertise cheap meal and drink combos. Greene King but with a guest ale policy, IPA, OSH, 1799 ( a porter) plus on this occasion Thwaites Wainwright (£3.75). There were signs to a beer garden at the back but this was not an option on a miserable drizzly day. The first town centre pub you encounter if walking from the main stations across the A24, an ok spot for a first pint of the day.

Quite an attractive Greene King pub, which whilst it has been substantially refurbished there is still some character inside. The original multi-room layout has been partially opened out, leaving various different seating areas (some up or down a couple of steps). Four real ales on handpump - IPA, Abbot, Rocking Rudolph and Okells Goodwill as a guest (£3.20 and a bit cloudy but tasted OK).