West Byfleet Restaurant Guide

The “fancy burgers” usually hit the spot this year at TV chef Gordon Ramsay’s growing diffusion chain, with nine sites in the capital as of mid-2023 (and where the frozen chips are provided by another prominent chef now retired from front-line stove action: the venerable Pierre Koffmann). The odd “mixed experience” or “haphazard service” was still reported, but overall ratings were up.

2021 Review: FKA ‘The Manor at Foxhills’: this “beautiful” dining room of a top golf course – set in an impressive Victorian manor house – “has been refurbished, with no carpets or window furnishings so it’s noisier than it used to be”. Too little feedback as yet from which to rate this new, more modern guise, but prices are not punishing and there is a menu for ‘Young Adults’. A traditional afternoon tea in the adjoining plush lounge is still an option.

2023 Review: “Good solid food” and a “large outdoor space for eating” makes this country pub a handy refuelling spot for visitors to the RHS gardens at nearby Wisley.

From a growing popular chain of ‘no membership’ clubs, this comfortable venue has a bar, lounge, orangery and terrace, along with “fun” all-weather igloos on the roof, in which to graze on a pretty standard all-day menu of Italian-inspired dishes, including pizza and pasta. Not a culinary fave rave, but handy for many occasions.

The Rarebreed Dining Group’s boozer is far from your regular beast: the in-house butchery and smokery turns out “excellent” meaty cuts including chateaubriand, t-bone or sous-vide sirloin; in August they also run an outdoor cinema if you’d like some celluloid after your steak.

The second link in the growing Brucan Pubs group, set up by James Lyon Shaw and Jamie Dobbin, who met during their days at the famous Ivy. By all accounts the three-year-old venture is “surprisingly good for a somewhat unprepossessing area”, and with “good-value set menus” to boot. Top Menu Tip – “in my experience the best dishes are the slow-cooked ones”.

A “buzzy, colourful atmosphere” reigns supreme at this Surrey offshoot of The Ivy’s flashy brasserie chain, with a beautiful orangerie the best of the seating options. As for the food, “it is perfectly acceptable” but “this place lives off the name for sure” and is “very expensive for what it is” (not that this necessarily deters repeat visitors, who “return for its lovely ambience”).

Given its attractive setting on Downside Common, this “lovely country pub” (part of Raymond Blanc’s White Brasserie chain) in the heart of plush stockbroker belt would likely be a local destination come what may. But it also goes the extra mile and – though it’s not particularly ‘gastro’ – wins consistently high acclaim for its “cheerful welcoming staff” and high quality of cooking. “It was done up over the winter; and although there is no longer a set menu, the prices are reasonable in the current climate”. Top Menu Tip – “well-prepared steak and very good tartiflette starter”.

2023 Review: “The best by far in the locality” – with “upmarket pub food that puts many expensive restaurants to shame” – this “buzzing” gastroboozer is “always excellent, whether you want a quick lunch or are celebrating a special occasion”. Top Tip – “walk there along the towpath on a sunny summer evening”.

Set by Horsell Common just outside Woking, this smartly refurbished former pub has high ambitions for its modern European cuisine, with a kitchen under Mark Wadworth, former head chef at Brighton's acclaimed Salt Room. The same management team have enjoyed great success at The Swan in West Malling, Kent.

“How nice to have a decent restaurant to round off your visit to the RHS gardens”, with a “short menu of good-quality food” in “attractive surroundings”. Wisley can get enormously busy, though, and service can struggle to cope with the sheer numbers.

2022 Review: Having opened high street hit Osso Buco[s] in 2011, owner Elena Vahedi and her husband ventured into more trendy, casual eating territory in the same location with this equally popular Italian, born in 2018. “Top pizza” of the wood-fired variety (and wonderful pasta too) has earned it a real local following.

Opening spring 2024, the kitchen return of chef Ashley Palmer-Watts, for almost 20 years Heston Blumenthal's no. 2 as head chef of the Fat Duck and launch chef at the Mandarin Oriental's Dinner by Heston. Expect kitchen perfection in the 35-seat restaurant, along with a bigger wine bar, cafe and bakery, with luxury accommodation following soon.