Inn on the Pond

I spied The Inn on the Pond using a well-​known search tool when I fancied a relaxing Sunday drive in the country with an old pal.
Booking a table an hour or two before through the website was a breeze. When we hit traffic in the godforsaken Croydon area, I phone them. Yes of course the booking could be delayed.
This is the kind of lovely pub which has a bowl of water outside for dogs and a nice little pile of muddy wellies at the door.
The restaurant part is in the back, a slightly dingy room, with no views over the pond sadly. Also quite noisy on a Sunday thanks to assorted children. The Sunday menu offers some delicious sounding dishes. Being in vege mode, it was an easy choice to get the couscous stuffed peppers with halloumi. My companion plumped for a hearty pie.
My stuffed peppers were delicious and fresh tasting, while the pie disappeared without trace as we enjoyed our conversation.
We followed it up with a lemon verbena crème brulee and a dark cherry and almond tart. The crème brulee was a delicate masterpiece, while the tart was good fayre but a slight heavy on the pastry. Prices are a little higher than I expected outside London, but good value for the quality and service.
The management must be good because all the staff we interacted with were pleasant. The staff all seemed to be enjoying their work so seemed like a great team.
There’s nice walking directly from the pub. I imagine it will be very pleasant in summer, and I hope I get a chance to return.

Really tasty goat cheese and beet root and apple salad. Pretty decent sandwiches. Friendly servers. Pretty location. There’s a nice beer garden too.

You want a nice beer garden? Drive (or cycle) along some of the quieter roads from London to Brighton and you’ll see beer gardens that will blow your mind with their prettiness.
We settled upon this one for our lunch (as it was 12pm and I was hungry). The tables outside are nicely spaced out, so no smoke or other people’s conversations with you meal as is often the problem in overcrowded London beer gardens, and there is a pond. It’s fairly safe for children to play around as the road in front of the pub doesn’t seem to go anywhere so no through traffic. There’s also a footpath leading into park territory with wildlife! By that I mean some ponies or something, I can’t quite remember.
My sandwich was a bit lackluster to be honest (you’d have though cajun chicken would be exciting), but the chips were good. People often complain that London pubs are expensive but I find prices are equally high outside London without necessarily the same quality of food (I find this wherever I go, not just here).
The main meals were all upwards of a tenner and probably best avoided with another 30 or so miles on a bike to be getting on with but they looked good.

I had heard and read good things about this place, so decided to put it to the test. I wanted to find somewhere for Sunday lunch which felt special, but not stuffy.
The Inn on the Pond is tucked cosily off the main Redhill road which means that unless you know of it, it would be difficult to find ordinarily.
It’s a beautiful building which sits beside a pond on the Nutfield marshes — a nice place to go for a long summers evening especially.
We were greeted warmly and shown to our table in the main restaurant section of the public house. The look is quite modern/​contemporary — but with hints of the old building secure — it makes comfortable surroundings.
There were six of us at our last visit and the choices from their wide but not overly complicated menu delivered. A good mix of vegetarian, poultry, fish and red meat to choose from.
Although the place seems to be primarily a pub, the service was excellent and we were treated very well by the waiting staff.
It wasn’t difficult to find room for all courses and wine/​drinks to boot.
As far as the overall bill was concerned, I felt that we had received good value for our pound. Would I go back? Definitely!!!

Edit 21^st June 2008:
Downgrading this to 1 star after another visit to The Inn at the Pond resulted in a fetid-​smelling and tasting burger being served.
After a really good first meal (I’m leaving my original meal in for fairness), this meal was a massive let down. We found ourselves entering the restaurant wondering why there were so few people in it for a Saturday lunchtime and left wondering how they were still open, with a sample of food taken to provide to Environmental Health.
Service was terrible: after waiting at the entrance for a couple of minutes, we had to wander around the (mostly empty) restaurant to see ourselves to a table, despite the fact that the waitress has clocked our arrival and said ‘hello’. Drinks, which you’d think they’d be pushing hard, given the massive mark up, were really slow in being offered and topped up.
The food (the edible element) was average. Nothing special, particularly considering the premium prices being charged. If you’re silly enough to visit, please don’t ask for the burger. For one thing, the texture is all wrong — it’s obviously been over-​mixed (almost certainly by machine) and the burger my wife tasted and smelt foul. When we complained, the management claimed (without smelling our burger) that the smell was due to the addition of cumin and herbs. So, first off, the smell of the burger served was definitely not just cumin. Secondly, any chef who puts anything but beef, salt and pepper (and, at a push, onion) into a burger better know they’re doing. The chefs at The Inn at the Pond don’t.
I don’t know what’s happened since our first visit, but I’m really disappointed that this place hasn’t lived up to its potential. It’s not even average at the moment.
Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Original review:
The Inn on the Pond’s recently been refurbished, and our visit happened to be three days after opening.
The Inn’s décor and furniture has a lovely warm feel to it, and the management have done well not to be tempted into the trap of going for a retro-​rustic feel.
The food is posh pub grub (I wouldn’t call this a gastro-​pub). Between us we ordered the minute steak ciabatta, the honey roast ham and cheddar baguette, and the thai-​spiced fishcakes. All the dishes were excellent, with my fishcakes giving enough of a kick to be noticeable without drowning out any of the other flavours. The chips that accompanied the sandwiches were nicely crunchy on the outside. I’d have preferred them in a thicker cut but to be fair to The Inn they do advertise them as ‘frites’.
Service was attentive and relaxed (in a good way), and the staff were very friendly towards my 16 month old daughter. I’m not sure the layout of the restaurant will cope with too many young families, but the lack of a children’s menu and high chairs probably shows that The Inn on the Pond isn’t really geared towards that part of the market. (Luckily for me, my daughter is quite happy eating normal food that hasn’t been dumbed down for children.)
The Inn’s currently in a ‘soft launch’ period — as The Inn’s website puts it, so we do not do a ‘Terminal 5′ — and the menu on offer to us was supposedly limited. Personally, I think it was about the right length, and I’ll be interested to see how they cope with the extensive menu currently being touted on their website.
Recommended, although I hope this place doesn’t become too popular, since it’s my local and I’d like to be able to get in without too much trouble.