The Wheatsheaf Esher

The Wheatsheaf sits on The Green in Esher, which tells you most of what you need to know about the sort of pub it is. This is a village local rather than a destination restaurant — a place with well-kept ales, a seasonal British menu and a garden, positioned for the people who live nearby as much as for anyone driving in.

The ££ price band is worth reading properly. It signals a pub kitchen doing proper food at prices a local can absorb on a Wednesday, not a special-occasion bill. Gastropub, in this case, seems to mean the sensible version of the term: a pub that takes its food seriously without dressing itself up as something else. You are paying for competence and consistency rather than ambition, and for most people choosing where to eat on a given evening, that is the more useful proposition.

Who is it for? Two clear groups. The first is the after-work crowd — people who want a drink and somewhere to sit without a plan. The pub's own billing leans on well-kept ales, and that is a claim worth taking at face value; a pub that puts cellar work front and centre is usually a pub where the beer is the point. The second is Sunday. The Wheatsheaf is listed as a place for a Sunday roast, and a village pub on a green is close to the ideal setting for a long, unhurried one. If you have people visiting and want somewhere uncomplicated to take them, this is the shape of thing you are looking for.

The garden matters more than it might elsewhere. A pub on a green with outdoor space becomes a different proposition in warm weather, and it will be busier for it. If you are planning a summer lunch or a Sunday in good weather, book. Roasts at village pubs tend to go, and tables outside go first.

A few things to check before you travel. The menu is described as seasonal, which means it changes — do not arrive with a specific dish in mind without ringing ahead. Opening hours and food service times are not something to assume from a pub's reputation, so confirm them, particularly for Sunday lunch, which often runs to a fixed window. And if you are coming as a group, say so when you book; a village pub's dining space is usually finite.

Esher has a good deal of choice for its size, and much of it is priced above this. What The Wheatsheaf appears to offer is the useful middle: a proper pub, in the proper position, doing the things a pub on a green should do. It is not trying to be the most interesting place in town. It is trying to be the one you can rely on, which is a harder and more valuable thing to get right.