Sorrel

Steve Drake is a chef I have followed for many years since encountering his cooking at Drake’s in Ripley, where he held a Michelin star for 14 years. A former Roux Scholarship winner, his CV is a glittering roll call of top restaurants from the last 25 years, including Chez Nico at Ninety Park Lane and L’Arpège in Paris. Sorrel opened in 2017, housed in a beautiful 300-year-old Grade II listed building and former girls’ school, the finest building in Dorking. The timbered low-ceilinged room provides instant warmth and charm, the mere 40-something covers inside delivering tranquillity with which to enjoy supremely assured cooking. A visit may feature dishes such as turbot with mussels in Gewürztraminer, grilled lettuce and ‘turbot head sauce’, a strip of translucent dashi jelly draped over the top like a cloak of umami seriously ‘cheffy’ cooking, subtle and intelligent, yet always delivering big flavours that jive against each other. The current menu shows off a starter that sings from the page; hand-dived scallop, crushed apple, turnip miso, Ortiz anchovy and turnip leaf oil. Or how about blueberry ice-cream, lavender cake, oregano and homemade ginger beer? Thought-provoking, often surprising, always delivering. A tartlet of Barkham Blue cheese lingers vividly in the memory, a one- bite morsel with rosewater gel and tarragon, an echo of Turkish Delight snapping the synapses. Likewise, a slab of duck breast slicked with a date glaze and Moroccan spices, served alongside a cloud-like meringue filled with its liver. Some of the most thrilling, creative and engaging cooking in the UK, a mere 50-minute train journey from London. Reviewed by Zeren Wilson