The Wiremill

I was looking for somewhere local to Gatwick Airport to have dinner before spending the night there in anticipation of my early flight the next morning.
A look on Opentable showed a few options in Surrey but I liked the look of the menu and the sense of humour on their website. I love supporting non chain businesses and I really wanted to love the Wire Mill Inn.
The owners have obviously taken care to renovate a lovely old mill building which has a lot of character with low beams everywhere (mind the head!!) and a great location next to a big pond, where you can watch waterskiers practise. They’ve also gone to lengths to make guests feel welcome with signs offering blankets if guests feel cold sitting outside.
The name also tells you that you can stay here and there are 6 bedrooms available for hire.
My main reservation came from reading reviews suggesting that food can be slow coming out of the kitchen and they often run out of choices early on in service. Nevertheless, as the reviews weren’t recent, I decided to give the Wire Mill a go.
I arrived and enjoyed a little stroll around the lovely building with its nooks and crannies and spent a little time admiring the waterskiers in action on the pond outside.
I was given a table by an old fireplace and the furniture matched the owners’ zany sense of fun.
My first disappointment came when the marrow bone on the restaurant’s internet menu wasn’t on the menu at the pub — the waitress was kind enough to check with the kitchen but they were out. A shame as that was a big reason why I had chosen to dine there.
I went instead with gravadlax with chilli & crayfish. What arrived was enjoyable — smoked salmon with small crayfish with a kick from chilli and salad which had some cooked courgette in it, I think. Not wanting to a food grammar Nazi but I’m not sure that it was gravadlax though — perhaps the salmon had been cured in the traditional salt, suagr and dill mix but there was no sign of the dill and mustard saue which usually accompanies the salmon. I did enjoy the dish but perhaps it was mis-​named.
I then opted for the ‘funky Beef Wellington’ to follow as it looked like a house speciality. I asked the waitress why it was considred funky but she was unable to tell me. I think it was due to the funky shape and prsentation of the dish — most restaurants try to make their Beef Wellingtons perfectly shaped with decorative patterns on the pastry whereas this was definitely a rustic looking Wellington. Once again, the flavours were all there — moist medium beef, flaky pastry and a duxelle containing mushrooms, Brie and butternut. The Wellington was delicious but the mash was a bit on the dry side.
I had my heart set on the summer jelly with vanilla pannacota and ice cream. To my great surprise and disappointment, they had run out — I was virtually the first guest for dinner on that Friday evening. In the end, I went without dessert as the other options looked a bit too filling.
The service was enthusiatic throughout and you can see that they’re trying their best.
I so want to give them an encouraging 4 stars but unfortunately, the little mistakes and lack of availability of menu items shows that the previous reviews’ comments haven’t yet been acted upon. So it’s 3 stars for now and perhaps a re-​visit in the future.

Very poor experience.
We arrived at 3:30pm on a Sunday and the pub/​restaurant was busy, but were quickly offered a table for two with no hassle.
After ordering our drinks through our waitress we placed our food orders. The food was taking some time to arrive but we thought we would give them the benefit of the doubt as it was busy.
The same waitress offered us more drinks but did not say anything about our food or wonder why we had not received it. Over an hour and a quarter later our food (a starter and sandwich) had still not arrived, so we went to the bar to cancel our food and leave.
When we told our waitress what had happened, she had not noticed that we hadn’t received our food, despite walking past our table numerous times.
The manager offered very little in the way of apology and wanted us to pay full price for our drinks as if nothing had happened. Stating we wouldn’t, she disappeared to the kitchen only to return and simply say «no charge» as she walked past us with no explanation as to why our food had not arrived. (we overheard that the ticket had not printed out in the kitchen).
We were very disappointed, not only because we had gone out of our way to visit the Wire Mill, but also because the location and interior were so welcoming along with the enticing menu.
Another of my family members had a similar experience when food did not arrive for over an hour, and only after prompting the waitress did they receive an explanation that again there was a problem with the ticketing system.
The service that we received was very poor. Some of the waiting staff seem particularly unprofessional and lack enthusiasm.
This review comes across as persistent but the service was particularly bad, a real shame for an attractive establishment in such a promising location.
Would not visit again.