The White Hart Reviews Summary

Location & Atmosphere

Pros:

• "Great location right in the middle of the new forest."
• "Pub has a great atmosphere, lovely decor and is perfect if you're looking for a traditional pub meal."
• "The White Hart has been extended and refurbished since our last visit, dropped in for lunch really lovely forest pub setting."
• "Lovely garden and play area and a great location."
• "The atmosphere is relaxed and welcoming."
• "Great looking inn/pub from the outside and inside. Nice pleasant atmosphere and not over noisy."
• "Proper country-style pub, open fire, floppy dog sat near by: everything you're expecting when you walk in."

Cons:

• "The place was packed so food took a long time."
• "Hot and hungry family on our first and last visit. With a moderate number of customers on a week day lunch time, you'd expect normal service. It took over an hour to deliver our food."
• "No atmosphere at all in the pub."
• "The tone and atmosphere of the dining room was thoroughly dominated by the behaviour of children allowed to run between the tables and generally treat the area as a 'playpark'."
• "Service wasn't great and we had to wait an extremely long time for our mains."
• "First time here at the White Hart and can say it will definitely be the last! Service ridiculously slow."
• "But I was a little put off by the hygiene in the toilets. Considering how beautiful the rest of the place was. The toilets were filthy, and falling apart."

Food Quality

Pros:

• "What stands out is the quality of the food, great combinations, rich flavours."
• "Such tasty food at the white hart, the best chicken burger I have ever had."
• "The fish and chips were absolutely delicious."
• "Food was fantastic and had a good range."
• "The food was very tasty, of a good standard and well presented. It was favourably priced too."
• "Food excellently presented and sooooo tasty."
• "The food was beautifully cooked and the staff were excellent."

Cons:

• "The brownie desert was very rich and definitely needed more ice-cream or something to counter the chocolate."
• "Unfortunately, my drink tasted soapy."
• "The children's beef burger is tiny!"
• "Also the batter on the goujons is very very thick. It's not breaded and is very greasy."
• "The steak burger was a nice home made one and was accompanied with chips and a pot of sauce. It was a little overcooked and quite dry. For £15.95 I thought it was overpriced, especially as there was no side salad."
• "The turkey Christmas meal was not. It was not freshly cooked meat, awful warmed up roast potatoes which had that 'taste' and not the expected Christmas veg and fare."
• "The batter on the fish was overcooked and there wasn't much fish inside. Disappointing."

Service

Pros:

• "Our server made a point of providing her with a separate menu with allergens listed."
• "So the staff were friendly and really helpful."
• "Everyone - including some young staff members - was really pleasant, engaging, conversational and efficient."
• "The staff are always friendly and cheery and happy to have a chat."
• "Service very good staff friendly and nothing was any trouble."
• "The service was outstanding. All the staff members were extremely friendly and very smily despite having to wear face visors and adjusting to the Covid regulations."
• "Friendly helpful staff, very welcoming."

Cons:

• "I hate to leave a review like this but hopefully it will be useful. We visited last Monday, and our orders were taken quickly by a very nice blonde lady. We sat outside but it came over really chilly and windy, so when our food was delivered, we apologetically asked the waiter if we could move inside. He put down our plates, told us to go and ask indoors, and walked off!"
• "Waited 10mins with no one serving at the bar and then was served by a grumpy elderly lady."
• "Would not recommend this pub. We ordered food, our order did not arrive, we waited nearly 2 hours, we left without eating, no apology or a goodwill gesture from the staff- they were rude and told us other customers are waiting too and we were not the only ones! ABSOLUTELY APPALLING"
• "I asked to remove it and the waitress was abrupt and rude and walked away before I could explain why we wanted to take it off."
• "When we went to order we were told we couldn’t have food as we hadn’t booked!!!!"
• "Friendly helpful staff, very welcoming. Unfortunately they messed up our order, which mean our meals came out at different times."
• "The service Was rushed and during the meal we had 4 different staff attending to our table."

Accessibility & Facilities

Pros:

• "Children's playarea."
• "The pub does have a wheelchair accessible toilet."
• "Big garden, play area, plenty of parking."
• "Plenty of seating inside."
• "Child friendly with a large garden and child's play area including a real tractor."
• "Lovely country side pub with slide, swings and board games for children."
• "Dog friendly in the bar and adjoining room."

Cons:

• "So the staff were friendly and really helpful. Inside it is quite nice and the seats are very comfortable. But if I am being honest the reason they only got three stars is because, they got my drink wrong at the beginning, my food wasn't that great and the kids play area outside was a little bit tired and broken."
• "Pub and food was OK but the parking spaces are super-tiny so it can be tricky to get out of your car."
• "The gents was out of order which meant using the disabled loo; busy, inconvenient and directly off the dining area."
• "Seemed very unwelcoming. Arrived at the pub and was advised they were only taking bookings today."
• "We had a large table pre-booked, they ran quite late for our table. It was so busy, we were told our table wasn't ready so most of us had to stand outside."
• "It's the Southern beach everyone goes to because love sand and sea. The Air show from the beach was amazing."
• "Old fashioned pub which is deceptively large. Also good sized and very pretty garden."