The Kings Arms — Restaurant in Borough of Runnymede

To start with the positives, the food was really nice. However, everything else added up to this being the most bizarre dining experience I have ever had.

We were a large party and booked in advance, so were requested to preorder our meals. As such, we would expect that the food could then be ready promptly. Unfortunately, this was not the case. After arriving at 12:30, it wasn’t until well past 1pm that any of the starters arrived. Only a few of us had ordered starters, so those who hadn’t were left waiting without anything to eat until the mains were brought out, a full 90 minutes or more after we had arrived. The desserts also took an inordinate amount of time to appear, and so did the hot drinks we ordered in the mean time. The hot drinks were a necessity, as the room we were seated in was an unheated conservatory - more on this to come. Since we had all preordered, I am left wondering why we were waiting so long between meals. I am also befuddled that one of our party was unable to have their chosen dessert (per their pre order) because it “wasn’t ready” as it “hadn’t been defrosted” - surely the vanilla parfait cannot have been a surprise when it was ordered a few days before we arrived to dine? Very odd. As I have mentioned, the food was delicious, though the portions were quite small. It also got cold very quickly, due to the freezing environment we were subjected to.

We were placed, as I have mentioned, in an unheated conservatory, on a frosty January day. Given our advance booking, I wonder why the room wasn’t preheated at all with the various space heaters littered about the place. There were some heaters in the ceiling, but the waiter informed us that the one above us was broken. So why were we seated there? No staff offered us any additional blankets or to plug in any heaters, we had to ask for the heaters and grabbed blankets ourselves from a pile in the room. I would think that good service would include taking note of the large group of people still sat huddled in their coats and offering them something for warmth. Some of our party were very elderly and so particularly uncomfortable. With the long waits for each course, we ended up having to sit in the cold for over three hours. We arrived at 12:30, and left at 15:45, which is a long time to sit still in the cold. When we were finally served all our food and paid, we were overcharged because we had paid a deposit for the booking and this was not subtracted from our bill, though thankfully this was refunded. The tables themselves weren’t very clean (there was a hair on ours? And the area tray for the salt and pepper was covered in crumbs and crud) and the cushions we were sat on had seen better days, while the blankets we cloaked ourselves in to keep warm were certainly not recently laundered.

Finally, and most bizarrely of all, was what we witnessed through the window of the conservatory. No less than three times, a member of staff (who seemed to be somewhat in charge?) walked purposefully/jogged into a bush beside the building, stayed there for a few moments, then re-emerged covered in undergrowth and re-entered the restaurant. He brushed the debris off, but I am unsure if he washed his hands. At least this was entertaining in its mystery as we could speculate as to what he was diving into the bushes for while waiting for our food to arrive and trying to keep ourselves warm. Perhaps he was trying to start a generator? Perhaps it was a different route into another section of the restaurant?

Overall, I cannot fault the food, but the organisation of the restaurant left much to be desired. I do not expect to be left freezing cold during absurdly long waits between courses when we have preordered well in advance. This seems to be a problem with management rather than any of the staff involved with cooking or serving, as surely the kitchen should have been informed of our preorder in advance. As to the strange man and his visits to the bush, I expect that to remain a fun mystery. We will most likely not return in a hurry, but the food was...

Visited last night for the first time.

Warm welcome on arrival, attentive host and we thought it was great that our temperature was checked and prompted to hand sanitise. It was nice to see all staff wearing face masks as well. I didn’t see any NHS test & trace QR code to scan which would have been nice.

The decor is absolutely beautiful and the attention to detail is exceptional. There truly is nothing like this place in Egham.

We were given the choice between alfresco dining in their heated, covered area or inside. We picked the beautiful outside area. All parties were evenly spaced out which really enforced how conscious they are of safety. When we were seated, we were immediately asked if we would like to order drinks, but we had not seen the drinks menu yet. We were shortly after asked to order food but had not had the chance to read the new menu yet but ordered a sharer. As soon as this arrived we were asked about the other courses and whilst there was still food on our plate we were asked if we were all finished - this all felt a little rushed.

The arancini was beautiful, but the blue cheese mayo slightly overpowering of the truffle and mushroom flavour.

One starter we had was the smoked haddock crumpet which was lovely but a bit greasy, especially as it was served with a quenelle of butter. The other starter was the tempura scallops. The tempura was passable, and the scallops were small, but beautiful flavour and very tender. The crispy rice noodles, however, were barely edible - stale tasting, very dry & bland which did not compliment the delicate scallops. The rest of the flavours were stunning.

For main, we had the chicken Milanese. The chicken itself was good quality but unseasoned, which was a shame as the flavour of the oil came through more than anything. The egg also was unseasoned and the rocket tossed in oil. The tomato sauce tasted literally of tinned tomatoes - overall a boring and bland plate.

The other main was the ribeye steak - perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned. Really nice flavour and very tender. The fries were great and the peppercorn sauce was fiery and packed a punch. This dish was perfect.

For dessert, we shared the sticky toffee pudding. Unusually, this contained banana which was not mentioned on the menu, but was very nice.

Courses were served in very quick succession, next time I would ask for a little pause in between.

The picpoul was beautiful, and the dessert cocktails were exceptional - the Old Fashioned and Espresso Martini were both the best I’ve ever had and finished the evening off really strongly.

In summation, the staff were attentive and friendly. The attention to detail in the decor was exceptional, however this wasn’t quite mirrored in the food or the service which I’m sure will be ironed out soon. Although the alfresco dining area had heat lamps, blankets would have been a nice touch as most people were wearing their coats - however the temperature was definitely not uncomfortable.

Only criticism was we felt slightly rushed, particularly as towards the end of the evening candles were being blown out around us and we felt like we were being encouraged to finished up. For the price, most of the food lacked little refinements which I’m sure will come in time.

For a sharer, two starters (including scallops), two mains (including ribeye), a dessert, two pints, a bottle of wine and two cocktails, the price was reasonable, or it will be when they iron out the small details.

Definitely will be returning very soon - my new...

This is the third time we’ve been to this restaurant but the previous 2 occasions were for Sunday lunch.|We chose to book for lunch at 1 o’clock as a birthday lunch for a friend.|The restaurant was very quiet and there was only one waitress working.|We ordered 2 small plates to start (both the crab crumpet) however the waitress came back to the table stating it was unavailable. We ordered a terrine and cheese soufflé as a replacement. The terrine was quite dry but edible. The cheese soufflé arrived and was barely warm. The centre of the soufflé was fridge cold. The waitress dealt with it efficiently and returned later with a replacement. This time the soufflé was warm enough to eat but quite tasteless except for an onion flavour. Apparently it was served with a Brie mornay but I couldn’t taste any cheese in it.|For main course we ordered the beef bourguignon and whole Seabass. The waitress told my friend that the Seabass wasn’t whole as it was headless. My friend was quite happy with her fish dish but instead of being stuffed Seabass it had caponade on-top of it. It might have tasted nice but looked a complete mess. The beef dish was just warm but not warm enough to maintain any heat. My husband ordered chips with his as he doesn’t like horseradish and the mash potatoe had horseradish in it. When the beef dish arrived there were 2 portions of chips and the waitress said she was bringing some mash potatoe for us to taste, which surprised me as I was expecting mash potatoe anyway. This was obviously a breakdown in communication and not the end of the world as my mash potatoe did arrive some time later which gave our Luke warm beef time to cool a bit more. When the mash potatoe arrived it was in a stone cold dish so of course that potatoe rapidly went cold. Whilst eating the beef I realised it didn’t have any bacon in it and neither did my husband. Having just checked the menu on line I have noted that we weren’t served any carrots which should have accompanied the dish.|Two of us had desert but three of the deserts on the menu weren’t available.|I had coffee and asked for some artificial sweetener but apparently they didn’t have any!|The waitress did her best to make our lunch a pleasant experience which is why we paid the bill. |Overall a very disappointing experience and sadly I doubt we’ll be returning.|I don’t know what qualified this establishment as Award Winning but it can’t have been the food.|I didn’t want to make a fuss having already sent my first course back as I didn’t want to spoil my friends...