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.