The Open Guide to London: the free London guide

This is the Gastro pub offering of Surbiton's Maple Road, an up and coming area home to a few good bars and restaurants.

A brief chat with the proprietor exposes a keen desire to get things right and that's exactly what they've done.

The wine list is relatively short but carefully selected and the staff take time to serve the wines well, decanting where necessary or requested. Prices are reasonable.

The food is generally very good. Sunday lunch is absolutely divine and shockingly inexpensive. Of the standard menu, the chips are of the old school chip-shop variety and should not be missed. All the dishes are interesting, well presented and tasty. However, one sincere and strong criticism is the amount of salt used in some of their dishes -- far too much on occasions.

Service is always excellent; perhaps a family run business because all the staff seem to take great pride in what they're doing.

Atmosphere is, well, smoky to say the least, and loud. But the decor is good and they've done the best with what they've got. Arrive any time after 7.30pm and you'll have to wait for a table, and queueing isn't something the clientele have mastered so a bit of assertive table muscling won't go amiss.

Overall, if you're late twenty- or thirty- something and you want to eat and drink well in a relaxed atmosphere, this is the place in Surbiton.

Sounds most interesting - especially the bit about real chips! Can you give some example prices? --Kake

Off the top of my head -- approx GBP 6 to 7 for a larger dish, 3 to 4 for smaller dish / starter. Wine from 15 to 35 a bottle. Beer is bar prices (rather than pub prices). I'll try to get one of their menus and add a photo sometime soon. -- surbitonian