Bel and the Dragon-Churt

Brilliant pub with amazing room and food. I stumbled upon this pub online and took a punt. What a find. Super cosy and well fitted out rooms. I managed to eat dinner twice and enjoy the breakfast during my stay. A fantastic restaurant menu with not your standard pub grub which was very welcomed. The breakfast menu was along the same vein. Shakshuka with poached eggs were brilliant and the coffee was on point. A real 10 out of 10 place to stay, eat, recharge and enjoy great staff. And all of this with a price point to embarrass other hotel chains with a fraction of the style or personal touch. Will be back again in a heartbeat.

The curious case of the frozen baked Alaska. This was our first visit to this restaurant. We were shown to our seats by a senior member of staff who I assumed to be the manager. The setting is very pleasant and has a nice atmosphere helped by the fact that it was quite busy. I had a mackerel starter which was very nice and we had a Dover sole and two succulent pig dishes as mains. The meat was a bit over done and the sauce a bit sp**** and thin but acceptable. The problem was with desert. I had a banoffee tart which was nice but the pastry a bit hard. My wife and father in-law shared a flaming baked Alaska. This was a variation on a traditional baked Alaska and was a dome of ice cream covered in meringue and scorched. It was brought to the table and a liquor poured over and set alight. This was a bit of theatre that drew attention from neighbouring tables and was quite fun. Unfortunately there was a bit too much liquor and some sat in the plate which unfortunately burnt for too long and burnt the bottom of the meringue which left it tasting bitter. On trying to eat it the ice cream was solid, as in ‘solid as a rock’ and impossible to serve with a spoon. We called the waiter who went to see the chef, who is on view and chucked a knife down and told the waiter to advise us to wait for it to thaw. He managed to cut it into quarters with a lot of effort and to the amusement of the next table and apologised. We waited for a good ten minutes before managing to chisel some of the ice cream off. My wife left most of hers as it was seriously inedible. As we paid we mentioned this to the waitress who said ‘I think that’s the thing with baked Alaska’. I said ‘not really’. We paid and left. The manager was of course nowhere to be seen by now. I think the chef should really rethink his presentation. The young waiter apologised again as we left. He was very polite and helpful.

Having had a lovely time last year at a family event held at The Bell & Dragon, we happily decided to book for my very special birthday last month. A table was reserved for eighteen people and the restaurant was notified that this was a special event. What a mistake we made! On arriving as the weather was nice we intended to have drinks outside, but due to the bad sewerage smell, we all made the decision to move inside. On notifying a staff member, we were told there was a table upstairs! There was no assistance from staff to the whereabouts of the table, we were left to find it ourselves! On finally locating our table, it then took an age to get the attention of a server to order our drinks! After our first order of drinks we were then ignored and had to get our own at the bar, not too much of an inconvenience if only the bar staff, were trained in customer service. Getting just a drink proved to be an issue as the bar staff were unfriendly and slow in getting the drinks, at this stage the restaurant wasn’t full and servers appeared to be chatting to each other. At one stage we did eventually manage to order two bottles of wine, but only one arrived and the other arrived after we had paid the bill! As a large group, we pre-ordered our meals before the evening – this was efficient and a great organisation. The main choice of food was fish – what a disappointment, there were more bones than fish. Many people including myself gave up on trying to eat our meals as we felt that there was a good chance of choking on the bones! Unfortunately, due to the bad quality of the food served we had to provide food at home for those who were still hungry – not what you expect when going out for a meal. The final straw was on paying the bill. We were a large group and each individual was paying for their own meal, on booking The Bell & Dragon it was requested that a deposit be paid to secure the reservation, which was duly paid by myself. At the end of the evening having asked several times for somebody to bring the card machine for us to pay I maybe wrongly assumed that the deposit would be refunded to me. I explained this to the waitress who took payment from 16 of our guests and walked off, leaving two people to pay. On questioning I was rudely informed that this is not the case and the deposit was taken off the final bill and could not be refunded, leaving me now organise payments from others! Having been previously to The Bell & Dragon for a special event and received amazing service and attention, we were expecting (obviously incorrectly) the same level of attention and care. How disappointing to receive such terrible service and attention on the one time of the year you want to be made special, enjoy time, and celebrate with your close friends. Instead, we were placed upstairs at the back of the restaurant and completely ignored. We did inform the restaurant on booking that this was a special event – what went wrong?

We went as a family of 4 and ordered two adult size roast beef dinner and two children size roast beef dinner. It turned out to be ‘Grilled’ left over roast beef. Basically the chef was just lazy cut corner instead of warming it up properly in the oven but instead he just put it on a griddle pan!!!!!! The chef obviously know this is cheeky hence he only grilled one side and put it at the bottom side to hide it. Cabbage was way under cooked so I was basically eating salad. Even my 8 yo couldn’t eat the food as it was so awful. The manager was so GENEROUS took one of the adult meal off, although she can see my daughter hardly touch her plate. If the roast beef dinner cost under a tenner fair but at £22!!!!! .

Food was good and we normally love this place but the restaurant was quiet and the service was non existent. I ordered a second glass of Meursault and waited 15 minutes and nothing arrived. Just a lack of interest and customer service and I had to go find the bill as nobody around. Bad night at the office as normally far better!

My husband and I recently went to celebrate my Birthday as we live very local and had not been for quite a while. Service was excellent and staff were all lovely. However, we struggled to find a starter that we liked so just opted for main course which had an OK selection. On ordering a bottle of Vermentino house white wine at £22 we were told that it had recently been changed and there was now a Sauvignon Blanc option. As I like Sauvignon Blanc we opted for that instead. Big mistake...didn't check that it was the same price. It was £31 ... I really feel the price difference should have been pointed out as 9 times out of 10 the house wine is the cheapest. This was about the 5th most expensive white wine on the wine list. It was a big shock when we came to pay ! In addition we decided to have a dessert but as the choice was underwhelming we opted to have a cocktail. The cocktail booklet listed about 6 drinks on one page but then repeated the same drinks on the second page. When I pointed this out the young lady did apologise and said that they had only just been printed. For the upmarket place that they are portraying this error should not have been overlooked. I'm afraid that the overall experience means that we will not be revisiting again.

In January visited the hotel on business and was very impressed. From the easy check in, warm welcome, beautiful room with luxury facilities to the best breakfast I have had in years. I highly recommend this hotel. So much so I have rebooked again for February.

This is located in a lovely part of the Surrey Hills - nice Boutique Hotel with nice restaurant and rooms.

We came here for Sunday lunch, we had booked a table outside. There was supposed to be table service which was non existent and despite our table booking a seat in the very small garden had not been reserved. We were given a table but had to go to the bar to order. I had roast beef my husband had crab linguine, meat very fatty and was not medium rare - hardly any crab in the linguine. Both very over-priced! I would not recommend or return