I come here often as it’s my local pub. The service is always great and the food is amazing. The bar tenders are so friendly and welcoming. This is a great pub for both a winters evening when the fire is roaring and the summer outside when the sun is gleaming.
10/10 stars for me.More
A cosy, warm, welcoming period inn near Dorking. It was great finding this place on a wet and cold November afternoon. Very pleasant staff and a lively, buzzy ambiance- just what a pub should be really. Didn’t eat here, but might well do in the future.
Hi Tessie1,
We are so glad you had a great experience at The Runners, we are constantly striving to deliver the best experience for our guests. Please do try us in the restaurant on your next visit and experience our quality food.
Many thanks for your review,
Paulo Luis
Holding manager.
This is a pub, but the room are nothing like you would expect an old pub to have. Yes they have all their old world character, but they are spotlessly clean and modernised. The pub is friendly, the staff are wonderful and the food is great. Cannot fault the excellent service by everyone there. Good value for money and if you want to see the sights around and about this is a great place to base yourself.
Hello barefootclaire,
Thank you ever so much for such a nice 5* review from your recent visit.
The whole team look forward to welcoming you back,
Best Wishes,
The Running Horses Team
We called in this afternoon for something to eat .Nobody acknowledged us though there was plenty of staff rushing around so we approached a waitress to ask if we could have a table for 3 but she said there were no tables available in the restaurant and that we would have needed a reservation and told us to go to the bar for a table and food .Fair enough we sat down at a table in the bar and checked out the menu and decided what we wanted but again no staff came to take our order . Suddenly a waitress came without a word and lifted the menu off our table ! We were bemused and went over to the bar to ask if we could order food and were told they weren't serving any food .
The problems were
we should have been acknowledged while we stood at the entrance and
the initial waitress should have explained to us that food was not being served
The second waitress should have explained why she was lifting the menu from our table
Simple things which easily could have been done properly
The problem here is poor training of staff. There certainly wasn't any welcome
The food that people were eating around us seemed quite nicely presented. It's probably a good pub but a bit chaotic
We left and drove a very short distance to King William |V pub where the service and food was outstanding .
Hello labrador499520
Firstly thank you kindly for taking the time to leave a honest review from your recent visit here at the Running Horses. I am incredibly disappointed in the experience you had here. The member of staff who served you was on her last shift with us and unfortunately did not produce her usual high standards.
I can assure you this is not we are about and endeavour to give all guests the best experience possible.
I really hope this doesn't stop you from returning. We do have a new menu out now and going into the Festive season some amazing specials available.
I do hope to see you soon,
Best Wishes,
The Running Horses Team
My husband and I just stayed for one night in the Coach House at The Running Horses for our anniversary. We were very excited upon arrival because it was a cold rainy day and we were looking forward to sitting by an open fire with a pint (as advertised on the website)...Unfortunately the fire wasn't lit and it was quite cold in the pub. My husband asked if the fire would be lit and the staff member said yes (however he was new and wasn't sure how to do this) After two hours passed but it still wasn't lit. A guy who we think was the manager seemed to fiddle with the logs but then sat down to have a beer without actually lighting the fire. We continued to sit in a very chilly room with our coats on.
We were in the restaurant to eat. It was even colder in there so we asked the waiter if the heating was on (he was also new and not sure)...He went away and when he came back he said that he was told 'this is a very old and large building so will take too long to heat up now'. We were dumbfounded! Especially that we were paying quite a lot of money to stay there on top of the food and drinks.
We felt as though we were an inconvenience and that it was unfair to get an inexperienced member of staff to pass a message on. Why couldn't the manager have spoken to us? And why were so many inexperienced staff working without a manager guiding them? (We were told by several staff that they had only started working there that week!) Anyway, there were more aspects that I could write about (including the shabbiness of the room and other staff errors) but it will take up too much space. I have given 3 stars because the redeeming features were the lovely food (obviously a good chef) and the well-meaning staff. However, with better management and attention to detail, this review could have been 5 stars.
Hi Lucy B,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a honest review. We have two fires, one real and one gas. The gas one has been a bit temperamental but is now fully functional. As for the real fire I have no recollection of a member of staff coming to me about the Real fire. We do have a few locals who like to tend to the fire and maybe it was mistakenly thought that a local playing with the fire and drinking was the manager.
I will look into this and see what has happened here.
However this does not take away from the poor experience you had with us. We have had a few new members of staff but non who have only worked a week with us. I do find that comment a bit strange and I will be taking it up with the staff and find out who has been telling guests they have only been working a week.
I do hope this has not put you off returning in the near future,
Kind Regards,
The Running Horses Management
What a splendid place. A beautiful recreation of of traditional Surrey pub .So many nice horse brasses, it was a surprise not to see a horse in the bar. Smashing food: the chef knows his business. Friendly staff.
But, there was something wrong when we visited.
The way the pub was managed.
It was shaky and uncertain.
Too many dishes were suddenly off the menu. This happened to nearly everyone on the first dinner we had here.
As for drinks at the bar, I tried to get my wife a gin and tonic. No Gordons, a tremendous searching to find an alternative gin, then - no ordinary tonic water. Weird ones.Come on, you're a pub, try and serve people a decent gin and tonic.
The General Manager used a whispery, confiding voice to tell diners about items that were no longer on the menu, even though the menu changes every day.He was very pleasant. But when he took our pudding order he disappeared and did not not reappear. A more junior member of staff dealt with this, in a prompt, proper way.
Huge delays all the time. One was given far too much time to read the menu. The drinks one asked for took far too long to appear. The service was clunky.
The young staff did very well. Though they weren't very confident.Not their fault. They weren't being looked after. Trained up. Entirely the fault of the person who is supposed to be training them up etc.
This is a great place, but it missed the mark.
Sorry for this grumpy review.
But these small clunky things really spoil one's enjoyment.
Hi Chris H,
Firstly thank you kindly for taking the time to leave a honest review from your recent visit. I'm glad that you enjoyed the food the new head chef has a lot of pride. He is also in charge of food ordering which he is still trying to gauge for the Running Horses which is why we had a lot of things off the menu during your visit.
As for the Drinks we had a very busy Gin and Jazz night and were short delivered on normal tonic. I can only apologise for and will be holding a lot more stock in the future in case of any miss deliveries.
The Menu doesn't change everyday but our specials do, we have changed to a new menu which again sometime poses some issues with stock holding.
I do hope you give us another chance with all the options available to you,
Kind Regards,
The Running Horses Team
