Sorrel

An attractive 300-year-old former school in the town centre is home to this delightful restaurant, which is named after the chef-owner’s favourite herb. Sit on the cosy ground floor or in the intimate upstairs room, where beams divide the area into three. The creative cooking showcases the complex technical skills of the kitchen, while the well-sourced produce provides delicious natural flavours. The finely balanced combinations often look to Japan for inspiration, such as miso with scallop, clam chawanmushi with pork and bonito with sea bass.

• A two-room restaurant inside a former school building, with a layout that lets guests choose between kitchen-adjacent intimacy upstairs and a cosier ground floor.
• A surprise tasting menu sits alongside an à la carte ‘Exploratory’ option, but Saturday dinner is deliberately tasting-only.
• The cooking leans modern British, ingredient-led and detailed, with a visible preference for high-quality seafood and meat, scallops, crab, and mature beef show up as recurring reference points.

• Orkney scallops, used in both the tasting menu and Michelin’s own examples.
• Hereford beef, cited as a headline meat ingredient.
• Beetroot, treated as a composed starter with horseradish, dill, and walnut.
• Stone bass, paired with cauliflower, brown crab, and red prawns.
• Highland venison, paired with Jerusalem artichoke and juniper.
• Granny Smith apple with Calvados, a recurring dessert direction.

Modern British in a former schoolhouse

Sorrel is set in an attractive 300-year-old former school in the centre of Dorking, split across two floors, with an upstairs room that looks toward the kitchen and a cosier ground floor that leans into fireside comfort in winter. The kitchen offers both a surprise tasting menu and an à la carte option described as the Exploratory Menu.

Service notes

• Open Wednesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner.
• Saturday dinner runs as tasting-menu only.
• Vegan or dairy-free menus are not available, the kitchen asks guests to flag allergies at booking.

Sample dish cues

The restaurant’s own sample menu shows a clear, seasonal line, beetroot with horseradish and walnut, Orkney scallop with morels, mussels and N25 caviar, stone bass with brown crab and red prawns, venison with juniper and Jerusalem artichoke, and desserts that run through apple with Calvados and chocolate with Armagnac.