The Richard Onslow

The Richard Onslow sits on Cranleigh High Street, in the part of Surrey where the Hills start to make themselves felt. It is a gastropub with rooms, which is a useful thing to be in a village: it works as a place to eat, a place to drink, and a place to stay, and it does not require you to decide which before you arrive.

The ££ price band is the honest middle. This is not a bargain and it is not an occasion-only splurge. It signals food you would happily eat on a Tuesday without thinking hard about the bill, served with more care than a standard pub kitchen would give it. Gastropub, as a category, has been stretched thin over the years, but at this price it usually means proper cooking rather than reheated portions — and the venue's own description points to fresh, seasonal food, which means the menu will move with the year. Check before travelling if you have your heart set on something specific.

Drink is given equal billing here. Cocktails, wines and beers are all part of the offer rather than an afterthought bolted onto the food, which matters if you are choosing between somewhere to eat and somewhere to spend an evening. It suits both.

Who is it for? A weeknight dinner without ceremony. A long Sunday in a village that rewards slow afternoons. A meeting point for people driving in from different directions across the Surrey Hills, since the High Street location is easy to describe and easy to find. The rooms change the calculation for anyone coming from further afield, or for anyone who would rather not drive home after the wine list has been consulted properly. If you are walking or cycling in the area, a pub with rooms at the end of it is a sound plan.

Before booking, two practical points. First, the rooms: if you want to stay, that is a separate conversation from the table, and worth sorting early, as village pubs with accommodation tend to have a small number of rooms rather than a large one. Second, the food. Seasonal menus change, and nothing here should be treated as a promise of a particular dish on a particular night. Ring ahead if it matters.

Cranleigh is a village with a long high street and a settled, unhurried character, and The Richard Onslow occupies a clear position within it — the place that covers the middle ground between a drink and a proper dinner, with a bed upstairs if the evening runs on. That is a genuinely useful role in a village, and not every high street has something filling it. If you are in this corner of Surrey and want one address that handles most eventualities, this is a reasonable one to hold on to.