Yee Gan O.
Yelp
For my 200th review, I've been considering a few contenders but in the end, I decided to go for a local restaurant. Drakes is my favourite restaurant in Surrey. It offers top class ingredients allied to superb classical French technique and given a modern twist with the presentation. It retained its well-deserved Michelin star this year.
Booking is a smooth affair though trying to dine here on a Friday or Saturday evening can leave you looking at a long waiting list. The restaurant itself is slightly hard to spot but if you've driven through the whole village, you've missed it. Free street parking is available nearby. The dining room is airy and modern and in the summer, there is a garden area for drinks.
The restaurant offered a lovely touch of customer service that really impressed me. My friend and I were agonising whether to go for the tasting menu to try more courses or to choose some of the wonderful a la carte dishes and truth be told, we wanted to eat dishes from both menus. This is a sign of a good restaurant to me - when you're agonising over which of the delicious sounding dishes to go for. The maitre d' noticed furrowed brows when he came to take our order and we explained our dilemma. He excused himself and glided off to the kitchen, returning in a few minutes to say that chef Drake had approved for us to substitute a la carte dishes in the tasting menu!! What amazing customer service.
So we were able to try different dishes each. My friend enjoyed her scallop starter very much and the accompanying chicken wing was beautifully deboned and stuffed. I got very excited to spot a rare sweetbread on a British menu and went for the celery and almond panna cota (I've noticed that savoury panna cotas are very hip at the moment), roasted veal sweetbread (yummy and creamy) and mushroom biscuit, which was flatter than I had expected but packed full of concentrated mushroom flavour.
We then both enjoyed the expertly cooked quail, which was still moist and it was nice to see it accompanied by liver parfait - a sign of a confident chef who will present an element that may be unpopular for some diners.
For the fish course, the sole and roasted sea bass were both cooked to translucent perfection and came with creative foils of spring onion mousse, parsley root puree and celery panna cota.
My friend then continued with the saddle and breast of lamb, served with fig & prune puree, goat's cheese, crushed kohlrabi and maple syrup. She pronounced judgement with a satisfied sigh and an empty plate. I enjoyed my pork belly, ham hock beignets and squid very much.
I finished off with the restaurant's signature creme renversee , a close cousin of creme caramel, which cmae with apple sorbet and a dried apple tuile. My friend had the rhubarb fruit leather, bay leaf cream, ginger parfait and rhubarb consomme, which made fantsatic of the rhubarb in season at the moment.
After our meal, Steven Drake, the chef came out to the dining room for a chat with us as he knew we had an interest in food, which was a lovely touch.
If you're after a special occasion restaurant in Surrey, this is the place to go!