Thewatermill DorkingReviews 

The waitress was lovely. Had fish finger sandwich, not worth £12.00. A brioche bun with a bit of fish, no chips or salad with it. Partners burger expensive. Waitress was training so didn’t want to complain. I did question why sandwich didn’t come with anything. Sadly won’t go back.

Waited 1h 20m for food, and only 2 out of 6 were served at first. My medium rare steak came well done, and the meat was so tough I couldn’t even chew it.
Nice view, but overpriced with very poor service. They promised a refund for the delay… we’ll see. Not worth it.

Full of young, very noisy kids. We were charged £36 for a double rhubarb gin and tonic and a pint of lager, absolutely outrageous.

I was in this restaurant on 02/05/2025, because the service was extremely bad, I waited 40 minutes to take me to the table, then they tried to serve me a drink in an extremely dirty glass, a blonde girl stretched out extremely rude, we had not finished eating and the bill was already on the table. my wife went to the toilet and complained that there was no hygienic paper, I think the owner needs to review all his staff, because if he continues like this soon closes

Genuinely one of the most unprofessional experiences I’ve had in a pub.

A chubby blonde member of bar staff refused to serve our group for no valid reason, put her hand in my friend’s face, and loudly called us rude names in front of other customers. This was followed by people connected to her arriving and behaving aggressively towards me.

We had not interacted with her at all and had deliberately kept our distance to avoid any issues.

Whatever personal situation she’s involved in is irrelevant - bringing it into the workplace and targeting customers is completely unacceptable. Refusing service, verbal abuse, and allowing intimidation on the premises is a serious failure of basic management and standards.

If this is the level of behaviour tolerated by staff, I’d strongly question how this place is being run.

Would not return.

Went there with family for what was meant to be a very special Easter lunch. Very disappointed with the quality of the food. Very small portions, which were overcooked and dry. Slow service and nothing was done when we complained. Not worth the expensive price of the food - will not be going there again.

Went there for Sunday breakfast, no many customers in .slow service and food was just warm . Very disappointed, won't be going back

The staff constantly forgot food, to put classes on the table after we asked 3 members of staff.

Dirty water jug. Dirty knife and fork & gravy left on table right up until the end of desert.

Food over priced. My son had a kids roast, he got quarter of a yorkshire pudding looked like it had been ripped by hand! Why?

One carrot on roast dinner. Meat fatty. Potatoes dull.
Adult Yorkshire pudding was the only good thing about it, albeit I had to share mine with my son.

Staff stitched off.

Door to kitchen squeaks like an injured animal and it's intolerable after an hour of hearing it.

Staff whining that they had to work 10am to 7pm - oh poor you....welcome to life.

Over priced Toby Carvery with poor customer service. If you want to charge £9 for pigs in blankets - get the basics right!!!!!

Had a lovely a Sunday roast. Cooked beautifully with all the trimmings. Had a lovely lady serve us called Rachel. Very attentive, checked to see if everything was ok with our food and whether we were enjoying our afternoon. Will definitely be returning in the near future.

Me and my partner visited The Watermill today for valentines lunch, we arrived early and the restaurant wasn't overly busy, we ordered drinks and waited for our reservation time, we were then shown to a table right next to the toilets in the corner of the bar, my partner had requested a table in their dining lounge, there were lots of other tables free at this time, 2 next to ours for a start, I thought maybe they were reserved specifically for people but then when other people arrived they were offered the option of either table, we weren't! The menu was dull!! So after a dull food and spending an hour listening to the hand dryer from the toilets! We won't be visiting again! The nerve of them adding an additional £10 service charge!!!

Got an email confirming table for 5 for 7:30pm, got to pub and book in waited no one there after about 6 mins went to bar they said someone will book us in another 3 min wait. When staff arrived could not see our booking. Advised we could sit on larger table at 7;50pm. No indication on menu and not advised at stage of taking order but there is an automatically added 12.5% service charge of which not advised very poor protocol. Food ok but steak has one large chip style potato and a couple of runner beans, no tomato, onion, or peas for £38:00. All in all very expensive and will not return as the undisclosed service charge of over £40 was unexpected and in notified and disrespectful, if they want service charge they need to be on the ball and not expect customers who have booked to wait so long. Also not good protocol to add service charge when not pre advised or on menus, this is not the USA.

I booked us in for Christmas Day lunch this year. The food was really superb and very plentiful, with excellent staff who were very attentive (thank you Elaine and everyone else). Loved the mocktails and we did not feel rushed in any way. 5 stars for that experience on the day, but...

The only problem was the Pub Chain web site when trying to pay for the booking as required in advance. That experience was terrible and resulted in multiple phonecalls to the pub when the website just wouldn't work on any occasion I tried to pay. The staff at the pub were great and took the payments over the phone but that web site really needs sorting out!

Unfortunately this was not the experience I was expecting!
I was looking forward to a roast dinner and underwhelmed to say the least.
I chose the pork porchetta roast that was very fatty and barely had any meat on it. The vegetables were underneath the meat and swimming in grease, soggy and burnt. The roast potatoes were double cooked and not nice.
This may have been a bad day in the kitchen so I will return but would not recommend the pork

Overpriced food very small portions slow service food was tasteless aweful food greasy burnt would certainly not recommend and would not go back there

Had a lovely lunch there last week. Have been several times and never have a bad thing to say about the food or service. This time especially, Elaine was a breath of fresh air and we were lucky to have her as our server.

Only comment - when I went onto the link I was given on the bill to leave a review - my Mac automatically shut it down, saying it wasn't secure. Hence the review on here. Sorry!!!

Great atmosphere and decor - and above all, excellent service from Emily. KInd, utterly in control, easy, and very, very efficient. She was really brilliant. Excellent care from both Emily and Kieran.

nice comfortable pub/restaurant with great views.
good choice of food, standards good, although food took a little time to arrive.
waitresess made a difference though, Elaine and colleagues were efficient and friendly.

The Watermill is a delightful venue with beautiful views. Elaine, our waitress, was helpful, efficient and sunny. We all enjoyed our meals and were made to feel very welcome.

Lovely venue with stunning views but the Sunday roast option left a lot to be desired. Dried overcooked pork, salty beef, overcooked carrots, undercooked potatoes, watery gravy. The list goes on. Will not be going back to eat !

If you are going for a drink and to enjoy a nice view this place is nice, but I can't say the same things when it's come to the food, I ordered a steak Sandwich and from the look of the Sandwich the chef didn't allow the meat to rest , the Sandwich was soaked with blood and it was disgusting to eat. we asked for tomatoe sauce for the
fries and we got it at the end of our meal. The person who served us appeared to be the a manager because he was not wearing a uniform ,he did not even cared about the feedback. Will never go back again.Our experience could have been better if he would have shown some interest in what he was doing.