The Foresters Arms, Kingston Upon Thames

Official site of Foresters - the-foresters.com

Official site of Foresters - the-foresters.com

We had the most amazing evening at the Foresters last night! Live music, food, service and atmosphere were all second to none. I had the steak and my friend had the Belly of Pork and I have to say that it was the best meal I have had in a pub/restaurant for about six years, and I eat out A LOT! I live in Kingston and have a few so called "Gastro pubs" near to me, who should take a few leaves out of the Foresters book in my opinion. Most of them are very overpriced and do not deliver in terms of quality and value for money. I am so pleased that I have found this place and will recommend it to everyone that I know. We will be back very soon. Thank you for a great night :-)

An attractive green/turquoise tiled exterior gives way inside to two main rooms, to the right, a dining area, very popular last Sunday afternoon, and straight ahead the bar. The bar area has a part wooden, part carpeted floor, mostly traditional seating, although there is a small secluded area off this room behind a curtain which has two sofas between a low table in front of a fireplace. This area at the time of my visit was occupied by a young couple who seemed to be very good friends indeed, therefore precluding the use of the opposite sofa to all but the most determined of persons in need of a seat. The bar area has a lot of exposed brickwork, usually such brickwork is "fair-faced", ie designed to be seen but this is clearly old Victorian work of not especially good quality and therefore looks rather more worrying than it does a design feature. Posters around and on the ceiling advertised music events, and a laid back bluesy jazz played while strangely an old B&W war film played silently on the box. Sunday papers were laid out on a table by the bar. The bar is reasonably pubby but there are hints of modern fashion/gastro pub style such as the candles in wine bottles, and flowers in vases. Over the bar there is a collection of old, mainly Bakelite radios. Drink wise, there are three handpumps, Pride, Old Speckled Hen and Doom Bar, nothing exciting but at least a choice. Accommodation is advertised.

Just down the road from The Swan, on the other side, is The Foresters, an attractive looking street corner pub with a tiled frontage. High up on the wall outside, it announces itself as “Restaurant and Accommodation”, although, based on my recent late afternoon visit, it caters for drinkers as well. Outside also is an old Taylor Walker plaque, indicative of former ownership. As we approach the pub, we see several rather officious and formal looking notices from one “Thomas J Furber, FBII – Proprietor”, telling us not to disturb residents when we leave, not to smoke in the doorway etc. There’s separate entrances on each street corner and I imagine that this would have once been a fairly typical two bar Victorian street corner local, although there’s no etched glass or old photos of the pub anywhere to confirm this for us. Inside, we find a pleasant traditional interior retaining what could be its original bar counter and gantry, but the empty wine bottles with candles and menu holders on several scrubbed tables indicate a food emphasis, even in the smallish bar area of the pub. Several shelves contain one of the largest collections of board games that I can recollect seeing in a pub for some time, which seems odd as it doesn’t feel like a family orientated establishment at all. Note also a collection of old radios on the bar gantry. A smallish TV high up in one corner was showing snooker with the sound off. Surprisingly for an establishment this size, there’s special music events at weekends. We see posters telling us that on the last Saturday of every month it’s “Freak Beat at The Foresters” – a night of funk. There’s also “Oh Oh Seven”, which is a “DIY DJ Night celebrating the pure love of 45’s” on certain Friday nights. At one end, and occupying by far the larger floor area, is the dedicated smart looking restaurant, hidden behind a large black curtain, presumably to shield the diners from the gaze of the hoi polloi in the bar. Beers on were Doom Bar, London Pride and Hogs Back TEA. I formed the view that these were probably the standard range. Both the Doom Bar and the London Pride were pretty much spot on. This is a pleasant enough establishment, but I strongly suspect that the apparent food emphasis might prove discouraging to non diners, particularly at peak meal periods, when seats might also be at a premium.