The Victoria — Restaurant in London

This Young's Pub occupies an impressive space on Surbiton high street, a mixture of vacant shops, vape shops and charity shops, only a stones throw from the station.

Owned by Young's since 1897, it's vast inside with nooks and side rooms, and boasts arguably one of the best gardens in the area, one that was a frequent meeting spot during Covid with the firepit and bookable chalet style booths.

Built around 1850, originally a beer house, it gained its licence and proudly served "tradesmen, mechanics and labourers". The glasswork you see on the windows survived a 1980s refurb and is original (I think), the dining room extension is a former 1890s billiard room, and in 2005 George Best was known to drink here as a regular, although did suffer a serious assault on one occasion.

On tap, it's your usual Young's affair, it's pricey, as are most Young's, but the Pravha is decent, the Guinness pours well, the glasses are clean, and the Surrey Hills Shere Drop came in under £6 which is somewhat reasonable. The Young's on Tap app is available on all tables and out of all of them I've visited, this is the best I've seen it in action.

It's also super family friendly, so this was a rare occasion not to find the front two rooms with prams and parents, it made it a prime opportunity for my empty pub requirement. The garden is usually packed out as well, just a few solo daytime wine-drinkers enjoying the quiet. No sport on unless it's terrestrial channels, so the vibe remains mellow and fun, it's a decent spot if you need space, food, drinks and good service.

I popped in this time around because a certain customer wasn't there who seems to want to talk AT me whenever I seem to go there. He asked my wife "where are you really from?" on one occasion (London, parents are Indian), and compared wheelchair tennis (which I was praising the athleticism of) to "a freak show that belongs in the circus". It's not a reflection on the pub, maybe I should've said something. Maybe someone else did. Maybe he doesn't drink there anymore.

I hope so, I'd...

Possibly the best pub roast dinner in the borough.

I opted for the roast beef at £22. The other meat options were pork belly or chicken (£20 each). The veg option was a vegan plant Wellington.

I received a well presented plate containing a generous 4 slice portion of roast beef, accompanied by a slightly under generous serving of vegetables; 3 roast potatoes, half of a maple roasted carrot, a spoonful of crushed swede and some cabbage. There was also large Yorkshire pudding and a small pot of gravy to add to my preference.

Roast beef - 9/10. 3 of the 4 slices were perfectly cooked and pink, the 4th was slightly over done to my preference but was still tender and delicious. The beef was of good quality and the portion was generous.

Roast potatoes - 8/10. Large, slight crunch to the outside and relatively soft in the middle but room for improvement in both of those areas as well as a bit of seasoning. I appreciate some may prefer their potatoes like this.

Assorted Veg - 7.5/10. Happy with the selection and how well they were cooked and complimented the meat and potatoes. My criticism would be the portion size. I'd happily have given up my one overcooked slice of beef for some extra veg.

Yorkshire pudding and gravy - 8.5/10. The pudding was large, not too crispy but not too soft and held the gravy well. I enjoyed it. Fyi, for lovers of thick gravy, this was slightly on the runnier side but it was flavourful.

Service - 10/10. All of the staff I encountered were pleasant and...

We visited The Victoria in Surbiton, a lovely English pub where my friend lives. The atmosphere was pleasant, but the service was shockingly poor.

I placed a very straightforward order: 1 beef burger, 1 chicken burger without blue cheese sauce, 1 order of chicken wings, 1 cider, and 1 Hugo spritz. To avoid confusion, I repeated the order slowly three times to the chap serving us (Kelvin?) as I had a feeling he wasn’t concentrating or taking it in. He confirmed everything, even tapping it into the till as I spoke. Yet when I got the receipt, the order was completely wrong. He’d put through a beef burger instead of the chicken burger without sauce, and the price didn’t even match the menu item ordered.

To make matters worse, when I asked about the burgers, he confidently told us they came with chips. Later, when the food arrived, no chips materialised. A female server asked if we wanted to order anything else, and I explained that her colleague said the burgers included fries. Thankfully, she sorted it out for us.

However, when another server eventually brought the chips, we were asked if we wanted ketchup. We said yes, but the sauce never appeared. I guess they were too busy fixing the first server’s mistakes!

Overall, it’s a nice pub, but the service was sloppy and slow, even during quiet times, which led to long queues at the bar for all customers. Disappointing.

Pubs that serve quickly and that provide good...