It's clear as soon as you walk into Southborough's Right on the Green, that something special is supposed to take place. Tables are heavily glassed and cutleried, and the welcome from the attentive staff is warm and genuine. There are two floors, a ground floor where we ate, and a superior upstairs room with some very pleasant views over the green and surrounding woodland. There's also a huge creaking staircase down from the kitchen to the ground floor, and we mused on how often waitresses went arse over tit as they wobbled down the staircase with blister-hot plates. Right on the Green has won various different rosettes, etc, for its cooking and so we approached the menu with a not inconsiderable enthusiasm.

On the day we went, a three course lunch menu at £20 consisted of a choice of Potato and Garlic Soup, Crab or Smoked Duck salad for starter, Cod, Pheasant or Spinach dumplings for main. My smoked duck was unremarkable but came with a superb leafy celeriac salad drenched with a walnut-y dressing, Q's soup was garlickey but bland. A Carry-on moment then ensued as we finished our starters, with the waitress yelling "Mains please" up the stairs. It was a bit of a giveaway, but within a couple of minutes a loud ding beckoned her upstairs to wobble down with our hot plates. My Cod was tender, juicy and fell-away on a bed of Garlic mash and puy lentils, again functional rather than delicious - but Q's pheasant was a mess - she tugged at it, she tried to slice bits off it, she even picked it up to tear at it King Henry style, but it would not yield. It looked like it had been lying around for a while and she was terribly disappointed. Being British we couldn't really raise even a half-hearted complaint, partly because the waiters and waitresses jumped up at us every five minutes or so asking "is your food enjoyable?" We were fairly defeated by the choice of desserts (i.e. we didn't like either of them) so settled for cheese. This appeared to be one department where Right on the Green (oh, forgot to say, crap name) got it absolutely peachily right. Four generous chunks of goats, camembert, devonshire blue and a stiff, waxy cheese (which I've forgotten the name of) were truly magnificent and came with oatcakes and biscuits with celery, grapes, etc.

And so to the Spy stamp. It would be unfair to suggest that this restaurant is a poorer establishment than the chain-gang monster that is the Harvester across the road. However, Spy recommendations are often down to expectations and in Harvester we were pleasantly surprised to have reasonable food given our expectations. In Right on the Green we expected and deserved better. Given the alternatives in the area, OK is hardly a ringing recommendation. M