The Plough — Restaurant in Reigate and Banstead

Nice looking pub with a decent garden, the reason I'm rating it a 2 star is mainly because of the food and odd service. I went there with my partner and her friend after deliberating what to have for dinner, as it's been such nice weather lately we decided on The Plough.

The setting is pleasant, the drinks went down great, it's a lovely old pub then when we ordered food at the bar things began to go downhill. I don't like leaving a negative review but it was comical by the end of the evening.

Young lad behind the bar did not seem to cope with the pressures of serving around 10 people around the bar, he got the food order wrong for a friend simply could not refund it or re-do the order, fine no problem, he needed help but he just stood there really awkwardly and nothing was happening, everyone looked at each other around the bar with raised eyebrows and wonderment with what he was going to do next.

5 mins later, management came and sorted it out. Off we went to the garden to wait the food, came fairly promptly seeing as it was a busy evening. So, the friend that had the wrong order charged at the beginning now had the wrong food and no chips (as charged for) she got on with it and reminded the waitress about the chips, my partner's 'Surf 'n' Turf Salad' came out and I can only describe the steak as one of cheap cuts and the 'King Prawns' listed on the menu were the size of small shrimp, that salad was £16.50 and it should not have been more than £10. My Lasagna was fine so cannot fault them for that, I did play it safe though seeing the earlier meltdown of the staff.

We asked for the chips, which never came out, which we chased again after 15-20 mins and it was rushed out of the kitchen. I put ketchup on my share of the fries and the bottle exploded. We were fits of laughter because so many things had gone wrong up until that point, it was the cherry on the cake.

I really want to like this pub as it's close to our favourite park but I cannot bring myself to spend the money on their menu again as the quality was not there to justify the price tag of the food and I certainly do not mind paying for good food, this just wasn't it. We unfortunately left disappointed which is a shame as it's a nice setting...

Loved coming here for decades (got married in the church next door) but it’s been getting slowly worse over the last few years and the last time it was weirdly bad. Arrived and waited at the unmanned bar for longer than you would expect. Two of the three ales were off so I ordered a Neck Oil but no, that too was missing in action. So I ordered a lager but again no, that too was unavailable. Helpfully it was pointed out that I’d missed the plastic beaker on top of the tap indicating they were off and at that moment I saw that almost all of the drinks had a beaker on top! It’s hard to differentiate when everything has a beaker on it. I plumped for the Moretti and we wandered into the garden. The garden is a fun quirky mishmash of rustic seating and mirrors and artefacts and has long had charm. But today my table was in danger of falling apart - too wobbly to stand my beer on. We moved twice before choosing a seat that didn’t need fixing or, to be honest, replacing. Finally supped my chilled lager in the summer sunshine and the final disappointment made an appearance - it was a bit flat.

This is mental. To have all of those experiences in the one place is crazy. The Plough is an iconic pub but slow service, outdated garden furniture and - this is madness - virtually zero choice of beers makes it hard to recommend. I’ve given it two stars for old time’s’ sake....

Went for dinner on a Saturday night over the summer. I booked a table in the restaurant area but they gave me a bar menu with only a few things on it and didn't mention that there was a board on the other side of the pub with lots of options on it. I had to find this on my own as the waiter disappeared for about 10 minutes even before taking our drinks order. Even though they didn't look busy the service was slow and then when the food arrived it was average.

Response to owner: It was definitely The Plough. Check my name under your bookings for 24th August around 8pm.

Regarding the ordering, the person who seated us didn't explain where you order or that there was a board menu round the other side of the pub. We were only given the bar menu not the summer menu aswell.  That's why I went looking for the board menu because it didn't look like alot of options with the bar menu alone.

The bar probably was manned but we were waiting for the person who seated us to come back.

I eat in pubs around redhill every week and have no problem ordering food. The problem was that your staff didn't communicate well with me. I think alot of the negative points I raised could have been avoided if the staff would have communicated...