Ketchup Reigate

Ketchup sits on Reigate High Street, in the thick of the town's shops and pavement traffic, and it does one thing clearly: burgers and American diner food, served in a relaxed, colourful room. The existing description calls it family-friendly, and everything about the format supports that, this is a place built for people who want to sit down, order something recognisable, and not make an evening of the decision.

The price band is £, which is the lowest of the four bands and means something specific. It signals a place you can take a family to on a Tuesday without doing arithmetic first. It does not signal tasting menus, long wine lists or a room that expects you to dress for it. For a High Street site in a Surrey town where a fair amount of the eating out runs more expensive, that matters. A cheap, competent burger is a genuinely useful thing for a town to have.

The listed offer is gourmet burgers, loaded fries, milkshakes and craft beers. That combination tells you the kitchen is aiming a step above fast food without leaving casual territory, and the drinks side covers both ends of the table, a milkshake for a child, a craft beer for whoever is paying. It suits a family lunch after shopping, an early weeknight dinner, a group of teenagers, or a low-stakes meal before or after something else in town. It is not the room for a quiet business lunch or an anniversary.

What to know before you go. The facts available here cover the type of food and the price level, not the detail: we do not have opening hours, booking policy, menu specifics or whether the kitchen can handle particular dietary requirements. High Street sites in Reigate can be busy at weekends and parking in the centre is not limitless, so if you are travelling in with a group, check ahead on hours and whether tables can be held. Anything more precise than that would be guesswork, and this page does not deal in guesswork.

Honest position: Ketchup is not trying to be the destination restaurant in Reigate, and reading it as one would be unfair to it. It occupies the everyday end of the High Street, the place you go when the point is feeding people well and cheaply rather than marking an occasion. Towns need that tier as much as they need the expensive end, and it is often the harder one to get right, because it has to be consistent rather than impressive. On the basis of what it sets out to do, burgers, sides, shakes, beer, a room children can be noisy in, it is straightforwardly aimed and easy to plan around. Go for the format, not for ceremony.