Pub/Restaurant: The Mill at Elstead

Yup, it's been a long time in the anticipation, but Helen's Alice in Wonderland-themed party finally rolled around:

Some more photos available here.

Anyway, that was yesterday.. today was a bit more sedate, with lunch at The Mill at Elstead. Reservations definitely required - by all accounts, this is one of those hot ticket destinations; I hear they were once booked out completely from 11 to 3. Anyway, today we were lucky - we could have got midday or 2pm. 2 it was.

The drive was brief, through leafy country lanes lined with red-brick properties, with names like "The Grange", "The White House". Even saw a "Kildare" - although they do say the English countryside is similar to the Irish, just tidier, and I think they're right. We duly pulled into the large surrounds of The Mill at Elstead.. the car park was full, so we headed for the "Overflow Carpark" - the field to the left. Whose entrance consisted of an enormous, undulating pothole. I believe the entire thing floods at high tide, sited on the banks of the Wey as it is. Anyway, four-wheel drive would be a definite advantage for this car park.

It was a short walk into the main building, where we carried on into the bar, and waited for several minutes to get one of the (two) bar staff to notice us. Meantime, we heard others being told that, if they ordered bar food, it would take 45 minutes - although the daily roast might be bit quicker. They hadn't booked, you see, like we had - and when we finally got someone's attention, we were shown through to the dining area at the back, and given a table with someone else's name on it. Whatever.

We ordered drinks, which were the first things to be delayed - a passing waiter, seeing we still hadn't got them, chased them down for us. Our main courses weren't so problematic - two of us had roast chicken, which comes with so many trimmings (like all the roasts) that you really don't need a side, and the third a burger, which - unfortunately - comes with several different options. Our chicken arrived without issue, plates piled high with food. The burger came too - with the wrong options. It didn't take too long for it to be corrected.

I have to compliment them on the chicken, which I've ordered in other places and found to be dry. Not today - it was succulent and tasty, doused in gravy, on a plate with lots of veg and roast potatoes, a huge Yorkshire pudding, and stuffing oddly separate from the chicken, and formed into a disc. But it was as nice a roast as I've had, and filling - I did my best, but couldn't quite finish it all.

I did have time to digest, mind - we had a wait to get the dessert menu, a wait to order it, and once the two of us who'd ordered coffees had received them, we might as well have wandered off, for all the interest they took in bringing our desserts. I hate it when restaurants lose all interest in you once you've finished your main course. Anyway, we finally grabbed someone, and finally got our desserts - rather melted, by the look of it. Mine was a brownie, of which half was virtually liquid, but which was otherwise rather tasty. It, and an accompanying scoop of ice cream, were covered in a rash of popping candy - which I haven't had in an age, and which was quite an interesting sensation.

Afterwards, with it being such a beautiful, hot and sunny afternoon, we headed down the road a bit, to Waverley Abbey. Waverley Abbey House, on the other bank of the river, is a Georgian mansion now used as a conference venue - but our aim were the ruins of the original Cistercian abbey:

More photos here.

So, back to London tomorrow evening, after my country escape - I'm back with the Man with the Hat; we're off to see Gladiator, in an outdoor screening at the Guildhall, with a visit to the Roman amphitheatre underneath first. I expect a fun evening..