BITE user comments - duckdod
Comments by duckdod
A Real Pub! We love this place, it attracts loads of different people from loads of different backgrounds... what a real pub should be. The pub, amazingly, for a tied pub (Dark Star), supports different micro breweries and varied cider/perry producers as well. The thing here is that Dark Star are a great brewery and they believe in choice and all their pubs (all three of them) will sell whatever drinkers actually want... choice. We will always make an effort to visit this place.... brilliant!
1 Aug 2010 22:10
The Cowdray Arms used to be one of the pubs we would make an effort to visit in the early 90's when Mike and Claire used to run the place. Mike used to run Beer Festivals that were really great. Anyone know what Mike is up to these days? Anyway, we popped in on Saturday and it was sad to see that there were no guest ales to speak of although there was one pretending to be guest ale that was in fact brewed by ... Green King (something from Westgate). Green King also have a bad practice of pretending that the brewery's they have shut are somehow guest ales (ie. Morland). It was also sad to see that the waiting times for food were one and a half hours! OK maybe we were unlucky with out timing, but far too many people (we counted 14+), faced with this wait, promptly left. This place can still be better than it is and we hope it will improve before our next visit.
1 Aug 2010 22:00
Who is 'Deservebetter'? One posting only and it's a serious dig at quite simply, one of the best pubs in the UK. This person has no idea what The Surrey Oaks is all about. We have eaten in The Surrey Oaks as recently as two weeks ago and the food was absolutely excellent, no 'deep fat fryer' in site! Run by 'morons'? Are you serious? This sounds more like a description of you rather than a pub that cares about the community. The notices do not tell you what you what you can and can not do (if you had read them you would have realised this), but they relate to games of boule that the pub plays against a host of other interested pubs and amazingly the other pubs appreciate what The Surrey Oaks does and they join in... creating a great inter pub atmosphere. The Surrey Oaks is a great pub, maybe 'Deservebetter' confused this with somewhere else?
1 Aug 2010 20:46
Crikey, this place is not easy to find! Don�t expect to get off a bus or train and stumble across the Royal Oak! Persevere though, it�s worth it.
Before you even enter (car park side), you meet an impressive array of differing barrels by the entrance. This really whets the appetite. On entering you find yourself in a small room with sofas and a really fabulous open fire. There are three hand pumps here, seemingly dispensing cider.
The pub seems small, but it is long and thin and seems to go on for quite some distance. The main bar is down a couple of steps, and it�s here that you find the answer to the barrels by the door�. Seven fantastic hand pumps. From what I understood the Surrey Hills Ranmore Ale and Hammer Mild are the regular beers, the others are all guest beers. Unusually there do seem to be quite a few beers from Devon. The beers I tried were very good indeed.
Just past the main bar there is small dining area and beyond that is another room, part restaurant and part local produce shop.
There is a great feeling about this pub and the CAMRA certificate, on the wall above an amazing model of the pub, indicates that it made it through to the last four in CAMRA�s National Pub of the Year 2009.
Guess I�ll come back to this gem!
12 Apr 2009 09:49
What a great pub! This place is a real beer gem. Popped in tonight and found a really different beer. It was from the Dorking Brewery (not seen anything from them before) and it was called "Ruby Plus!". The plus bit turns out to be orange and ginger. It's great to see unusual beers and a good beer choice. The Surrey Oaks certainly seems to pride itself on beer choice and there is a list of forthcoming beers on a blackboard in the middle bar. It's a pity this information is not visible from the lower bar as I thought they were only selling Ranmore Ale and Harvey's Best. Will definitely be back.
9 Feb 2009 22:13
The Surrey Oaks, Newdigate
Beginning to think that you just can't trust anything on beerintheevening anymore. This pub was thriving on the first Friday in December; complete with a fully decorated indoor Christmas Tree. Guess what? It has a loyal following of locals and if you try to chat to them, you might be surprised... they will talk back! A great pub, selling great real ale and if you want to eat here as well, the food is great too. For me... the perfect pub 8-)
2 Dec 2011 21:35