RESTAURANT: BYRON HAMBURGERS RESTAURANT, KINGSTON, SURREY - 80%

Surrey Businesses took a visit to Byron Hamburgers in Kingston for a spot of lunch today. 

Whilst the restaurant may not necessarily benefit from immediate passing trade, it worth taking the time to find it's location, as on a warmer day you can sit outside and overlook the river.

Visiting early in the day, it wasn't particularly busy, however any staff who were not serving, were cleaning and preparing the restaurant for the day ahead. All members of staff who we came into contact with were very pleasant and cheerful, which on a dreary day is always great to see.

Having ordered the Byron burger and Bacon and Avocado burger, with a side of fries and two strawberry milkshakes, the food and drink arrived promptly and looked very appealing. The milkshake, delivered in a chilled decanter, tasted quite superb. The burgers were presented neatly, along with the side of fries, however they were not as hot as one might expect - given that they tend to cool quite quickly in any case. 

There was a range of burgers available on the menu, along with salads, sides and desserts. 

Overall, a good experience at Byron and one worth visiting if you're in the mood for a good burger.

Total cost: £30.00

Review score sheet:

Hospitality and Service: 4

Environment and Setting: 4

Food: 4
Drink: 5

Price and Value for money: 3

Percentage score rating: 80%

Picture Gallery:

Byron Burger

Strawberry Milkshake

RESTAURANT: BILLS RESTAURANT, GUILDFORD, SURREY - 68%

This morning Surrey Businesses undertook it's first restaurant review. 

We visited Bill's restaurant in Guildford for breakfast and our thoughts were as follows:

The quaint and cosy setting, hidden down Angel Gate was perfectly fitting for a restaurant which came highly recommend by many. Having waited a number of minutes before the member of staff was able to seat us (despite booking), we were shown to our seats, near the window and packed in quite tightly with two tables surrounding us. The server immediately asked what we would like to order and being first timers, we wanted to take some time to peruse the menu. This resulted in a further 10 minute wait until the server returned to take our order.

With the order consisting of 1 x 'Bills Breakfast', 1 x 'Egg Royale' and 2 x Hot Chocolates, we were hopeful that the food would be more promising than the service received thus far. A decanter of water was placed on our table, with noticeable watermarks (see image below) around the rim - not ideal as a first impression.

When the food arrived, it was presented beautifully and tasted quite superb. The sausage in Bills Breakfast had a mild kick to it and the egg was cooked to perfection. Similarly the Egg Royale came perfectly cooked, with an accompaniment of smoked salmon on a bed of toasted sour dough.

Unfortunately the Hot Chocolates never made it back to the table until we were finished, which was frustrating and again highlighted the less than adequate service. Whilst both drinks did taste nice, they were a little bitter and luke-warm by the time we received them. 

Overall, Bill's does have a lot to offer, but based on today's experience, the poor service overshadowed what could have been an enjoyable breakfast.

Total cost: £23.32

Review score sheet:

Hospitality and Service: 2

Environment and Setting: 4

Food: 4
Drink: 3

Price and Value for money: 4

Percentage score rating: 68%

Picture Gallery:

Egg Royale

Bill's Breakfast

Water marks on decanter

EVENT: LED ZEPPELIN Listening party London - 56%

One of our first event reviews comes in the form of an exclusive listening party for a new release by Led Zeppelin. The event took place in a flagship HMV store on Oxford Street and was to consist of 8 unreleased and previously unheard tracks from the forthcoming remasters collection. You can read more about the releases here . 

This particular event was hosted by TeamRock.com and Nicky Horne took to the mic in order to begin proceedings. Disappointingly Jimmy Page was not in attendance and therefore, despite Horne's best efforts, it was a decidedly flat start to the evening. Nevertheless free, poor-tasting, wholesale beer and wine was on offer, possibly in the hope we would overlook the fact we were stood in an empty room above a shop, staring at an empty stage with speaker stacks dominating the eye line.

So, with middle aged folk standing around, mostly chatting, the eight so-called 'rare' tracks played out one at a time. On the whole it was a relatively painless experience, but it certainly was not inspiring. The cuts sounded similar to those bootleg, semi-pro recordings littered on YouTube which you tend to pass over with a click of the mouse. The best of the eight in my opinion was the stripped down, catchy, acoustic rendition of 'Gallows Pole' which highlighted the work of the late, great, John Bonham. 

Overall, it wasn't much of an 'event' and the generally atmosphere was uninspiring and lack-lustre. However it wasn't until the final words uttered by a chap in the music industry were heard that the evening took an immediate dive into unforgivable. As a thank you for making the effort in coming along, HMV were rewarding us with one of their own loyalty cards free of charge and we were encouraged to go downstairs and pre-order the album from the store. The groans and jeers were evident and this was quite a kick in the teeth for us all. In addition, we were reminded the bar was almost dry and that we should exit within the next ten minutes. 

Review score sheet:

Hospitality: 4

Environment: 5

Facilities: 4

Experience: 5

Price: N/A

Percentage score rating: 56%

A rainy May and a love for Twitter

Although it is less than reassuring that despite promises of a heatwave to mark the start of the Great British Summer, we are still in the shadows of dreary skies and less than inspiring downpours, we remaining ever hopeful. Surrey still manages to look quite appealing whilst drenched - a feat which not all counties can pull off successfully. 

Nevertheless, I digress slightly as here at Surrey Businesses we have developed  a fondness for Twitter. We have made some excellent contacts and friends through the power of networking on the move. If you haven't already followed us, please do at Surrey Businesses - we update our page regularly and in the coming months we will provide additional exposure and spotlighting for local companies, businesses, events or institutions representing Surrey in a positive and commendable manner.

A trip to Pirbright in Surrey

There is nothing quite like the summer sun to give you the perfect reason to get out and explore the local area. Today we found ourselves in the beautiful village of Pirbright, where the local cricket match was in full swing (pardon the awkward pun) and the ducks graced the sun-kissed banks. We heard that Merrist Wood had opened it's doors nearby and what a fantastic day to enjoy the grounds. Whilst we were not in attendance, we did follow the social media buzz around the event.

We hope you all had a wonderful day also.

Surrey Businesses go live on Blogger.com

Since creating the Surrey Businesses website (visit here) we have been contacted by numerous individuals and businesses to review and promote all manner of goods, products, venues, events and of course food and drink. 

Whilst at first it appeared to be a relatively flooded market, the opportunity to provide honest reviews of local business is something we were keen to offer and explore further.

If you wish to have one of the aforementioned areas reviewed in connection with your business, institution or personal endeavour, please do not hesitate to get in touch. 

You can find our contact information here: Contact

Or you may wish to get in touch on Twitter or Facebook 

Many thanks for reading our first post. Please share this Blog to friends, family and your network of Bloggers and we'll aim to update this as regularly as we can.