“Kinghams restaurant, Shere, Surrey”:http://www.kinghams-restaurant.co.uk/
Remember that saccharine-sweet rom-com The Holiday? The one where Kate Winslet swaps her impossibly pretty Surrey cottage with Cameron Diaz’s swanky LA mansion?
Well, the English cottage was located in Shere, an impossibly pretty village in the Surrey Hills, nestling in the shadow of the North Downs ‘twixt Guildford and Dorking.
A few years ago, I tried my own bit of romance by taking my wife to the village’s Kinghams restaurant for a Valentine’s Day dinner. And last Friday we went back for our first lunch there, on a gloriously sunny spring day and enjoying the sense of truancy that recent retirement still provides.
The restaurant is a wonderful destination for a romantic meal at any time of day. The building dates from the 17th century and abounds with movie-quality charm and character. And despite being at the end of a mini heatwave, three fires burned in the higgledy-piggledy rooms to enhance the sense of comfort and cosiness.
Chef Proprietor Paul Baker has run Kinghams since 1993, using fresh local produce for the ever-changing menu, focusing on contemporary English cuisine. We opted for the good value set lunch at £17.95 for starter and main course. A crab cake, and stilton & pear tart with cashew nut salad were good starters. Pork & chorizo, and sea bass with asparagus and an avocado & coriander dressing slipped down well too.
But the shared sweet of lemon & lime panna cotta with a blueberry compote sealed the deal. Definitely more Jack Black than Jude Law, but I think I got the part.
Kinghams isn’t cheap and the food may not quite be Michelin star standard, but if you want a little bit of Hollywood romance find your way down the A25 and into the dreamy Surrey Hills.
