Last week, Third Monkey chef Adam Fisher told us his Top 5 Surrey restaurants.

That felt like a good excuse to head down to Farnham and try his cooking for ourselves.

As the sign says, inside the Grade II-listed building, there is a restaurant, cocktail bar, terrace and a ‘gastropub.’

I’m not sure they can say that last one with a straight face. It’s not like any pub I’ve ever been in… It looks much more like an upmarket bar in a luxury hotel.

After a quick look at the à la carte menu, I decided to go for the midweek set lunch. At £28 for two courses and £32 for three, it felt like a sensible entry point.

To start, the Cornish Mussels in Clotted Cream and Cider served with toasted bread.

For a moment I worried this was going to be one of those lunches where you leave quietly planning a sandwich on the way home. The bowl was quite small. But then I took my first bite.

The sauce was extraordinary. The clotted cream and cider combination was rich, sweet and slightly sharp. It made me lean back in my chair, take a deep breath and have a bit of a moment.

The mussels were soft and supple, and the small pieces of bread were a useful vehicle to chase the remainders of the sauce around the bowl. Superb cooking.

For main course: Market Fish with Creamed Potato, Sprouting Broccoli, and a Caper and Lemon Beurre Noisette. Not something I’d usually order, but the mussels were so enjoyable, I decided to stick to the coast.

The pan-seared fish (hake, at an educated guess) arrived moist and crisp-skinned. It sat atop potatoes crushed into a mix of soft mash, along with pieces that had a little bite, but all rich, creamy and buttery. The broccoli provided earthy, snappy texture underneath, and the beurre noisette tied everything together without announcing itself.

It was a reminder that even the simplest ingredients can be wonderful in the right hands.

And then came the Sticky Toffee Pudding with Salted Caramel ‘Baked Alaska’ Ice Cream.

If there were any lingering concerns about leaving hungry, they were erased by the ocean-sized amount of caramel sauce underneath the pudding. (The bowl is deeper than it looks). The pudding was luxurious and moist, and the Italian meringue piped around the salted caramel ice cream was a touch of light, marshmallowy fun.

What’s The Damage?

Punchy for a midweek lunch, but honestly, not an unreasonable price for three courses of cooking at this level.

A few days before visiting, a kind reader emailed to say they had eaten at The Third Monkey. They enjoyed the food, but were less enthusiastic about the portions or the price: “Would I eat there again? Yes… if someone else was paying!”

Make no mistake. The Third Monkey may call itself a gastropub (and a terrace and a… number of other things), but the cooking is firmly in fine dining territory, and the prices reflect that. Expect precision, careful plating and portions to match.

That said, this isn’t the sort of fine dining that requires a top-tier palette and a dictionary to decode. The flavours are big, bold and a lot of fun.

The Third Monkey manages to combine the ambition of fine dining with the pleasure of food that simply tastes great. Whatever it calls itself – bar, pub, or intergalactic spaceport – the cooking here is very much alive and kicking.

The Third Monkey, Farnham.

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Guildford North Street Market

Wallington Farmer’s Market

Milford Farmer’s Market

Basil’s Big Pour (Wine event, ticketed)

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