Daylesford Esher

EXCITING NEWS – Henry’s Kitchen is going to open a second location, Henry’s Grill in the old Daylesford Spot. You can read our review of Henry’s Kitchen here – ladieswholunchinsurrey.com/2014/09/26/henrys-kitchen

***Daylesford Esher has now, perhaps unsurprisingly, closed. Our experience might give you an idea as to why***

A relatively new addition to Esher High Street, located in the recently completed building between Church Street and Lammas Lane (the two main traffic lights.) Town car park unless you hit the jackpot and get street parking out front.

This is our second in the “series of places we aren’t going back to specifically for this blog because we’ve already removed them from our rota but we think you’ll find our previous experience useful” post.

Daylesford Esher is a restaurant outlet of Daylesford Organic Farm in Gloucestershire.

They organically farm both produce and animals and make their own bread, cheese and condiments amongst other products. There’s an organic farm shop on site where you can find lots of goodies and fresh baked treats to take away. They also sell through Ocado. Their slogan is “straight from our farm to your fork.” The specials are seasonal. It’s all very Gwyneth Paltrow.

Naturally all this has a big impact on the prices. To eat here you have to be willing to pay for the provenance.

The food here is good and thoughtfully presented in a visually appealing way. The menu has a wide range of choice, from salads to burgers.

Our issue is the disconnect between the food and the décor. When (ha!) we spend £84 for three people on lunch we want to be in plush surroundings, not something reminiscent of Ikea. It boils down to the prices being in the ‘special treat’ category, but the décor and ambiance being decidedly ordinary.

The service again does not reflect the price level. We hatched a plan that we would send the kids to a matinee while we went for lunch. We thought we would have plenty of time. We were wrong. We had to ask for our drinks then two more times for our food. In the end Marie went hunting for our absent waitress, or anyone, to bring us our food.

The movie finished, our children tracked us down and we ended up sending them to Cafe Nero while we finished eating as we deemed them unworthy of Daylesford prices – even a juice is £4.

If organic and sustainable are very important to you and you aren’t concerned with prices or decor then you may well love Daylesford Esher. For us it’s too expensive to be a regular lunch spot and for those special treat lunches we want to go somewhere that feels like a treat as well as tasting like one.

We ate here in February 2014.

As always, let us know if you disagree with us!

Menu	4
Food	4
Decor/Ambiance	2
Service	2
Value	2
Total	14/25

48 High Street, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9QY
daylesford.com/esher