La Luna Godalming

La Luna sits on Godalming High Street, in the thick of the town's shops and frontages rather than off on a bypass or tucked into a hotel. It is an Italian restaurant, and a fairly formal one by the standards of a Surrey market town, the emphasis is on handmade pasta and classic Italian cooking rather than on pizza and a quick turnaround.

The £££ price band is the thing to read carefully. It puts La Luna above the casual end of the High Street and below the special-occasion-only bracket. In practice that means a proper sit-down dinner with a bottle of something, not a plate of pasta on the way to somewhere else. If you are deciding between this and a chain Italian a short drive away, the price difference is real and so is the difference in intent.

It is listed as a place for romantic dinners, and that is the honest reading of it. Two people, a table for the evening, no rush. It suits an anniversary, a birthday that does not need a function room, or the kind of weeknight dinner where you want the meal to be the point. Larger groups and families are not ruled out, but the atmosphere described is warm and close rather than boisterous, so if you are bringing eight people it is worth a call first to see what the room can take.

Handmade pasta is the thing it is known for, so it is reasonable to expect that to be where the kitchen puts its effort. Beyond that, the specifics of the menu are not something this note can tell you, Italian restaurants of this type tend to change dishes with the seasons, and we have not seen the current list. Check before travelling if you are coming for something in particular, and check opening days too; independent restaurants on High Streets often close early in the week, and we cannot confirm the pattern here.

The High Street location makes parking the usual Godalming question rather than a La Luna question. Arriving on foot from the town centre is straightforward. Booking is sensible for a Friday or Saturday, and more or less essential if you want a good table for two.

Godalming has a decent spread of places to eat for a town of its size, and La Luna's position within that is clear enough: the grown-up Italian option, on the main street, priced for an evening you have planned rather than one you have fallen into. It has been part of the High Street for more than a decade, which in a town this size counts for something.