The table is booked! On Wednesday 14th, we'll be visiting the excellent Bay Leaf restaurant in Grayshott. Aperitifs will be just over the road at the Fox and Pelican from 19:30 and then dinner is ordered for 20:30 precisely.
I've taken on board the comments about late evenings. Some members suggested that we start earlier, but that squeezes the meet-up and the chance for everyone to have a chat before dinner. The big problem at some restaurants seems to be slow service and a lack of preparedness, even though they were briefed and were well staffed. There was one recently where we didn't have the main course until well after 21:30, by which time it was all beginning to seem a fairly bad idea to be there.
The plan from here on is that we will ask each restaurant to be ready to serve a starter within 15-20 minutes of arrival and main courses within 35-40, which means that we should usually be finished by 22:00 - 22:15. I hope that's early enough for our members and that we can make sure that restaurants fit with this timetable.
Clearly, we can help the restaurants by getting our numbers right, so please let me know if you expect to be there or not be there. Please reply to the e-mail that goes to our mailing list or sign up through our web site
feedback page.
Looking forward to a great evening on Wednesday 14th.
PS: for those that are driving, there's plenty of parking opposite the restaurant at Headley Road car park, and next to the pub: