Outing

A week ago, having got various chores, some healthy, out of the way first thing, we decided on a small outing and settled for elevenses at Denbies, possibly followed by the visit to the top of Box Hill or to the bottom of the River Mole, that is to say the Mole in spate through Leatherhead after all the recent rain.

Denbies' car park was busy at 11:00 this Monday morning, so it is clearly a destination. Perhaps the thinking person's alternative to Chessington Garden Centre. The Daily Mail to their Sun.

Plus, the cycling connection has been strengthened by the addition of a shop.

Plus, they are making a lot of their coffee beans and their coffee. It appears to have become a regular coffee nerdery.

Onto the cafeteria, the one in the roofed over courtyard. Solar gain in the summer?

A better grade of crockery and so forth than is to be found at Polesden Lacey, but then that is National Trust, practically a nationalised industry. The same formula of a lot of very young people serving a lot of much older people - although as well as cyclists there were some very floridly got up lady joggers.

The cheese scones did not look that clever - I don't glaze mine - but they turned out to be the best cheese scones that we have bought from a cafeteria for a very long time. They were not hot out of the oven, but their texture and flavour were spot on.

However, coffee nerdery notwithstanding, the tea was not up to much. Maybe the problem was that it was not the same as the tea we take at home, rather than there being anything wrong with their tea.

After which we decided that a second round of steak and kidney - previously noticed at reference 3 - was the way forward. Both Box Hill and the Mole would have to wait.

References

Reference 1: https://www.denbies.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/06/ladderland.html. Seemingly our last visit.

Reference 3: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/02/cook-of-day.html.