The White Hart is an interesting venue as it tries desperately to be the genuine Gastro-pub experience. The ambience is right, with the wooden beams criss crossing the hall and the minstrels gallery above. The bar just off the entrance served just the right number of bespoke, craft ales alongside the standard lagers and even the tables were solid, laid with hefty cutlery and decent glass ware.
The menu was suitably 'gastro' with local this and seasonal that, reasonably priced and predictably full of posh pub grub. If I sound a little dismissive about the place, perhaps that is a little unfair. It was.... fine. I had the meaty sharing platter which was, as anti-pasti platters go, fairly well equipped and was nicely set off with some weird green bread:
Which tasted mainly of fennel. On the platter, I always like a good artichoke so I was pleased to see that included, the meats were all nicely selected, with peppery and paprika-ry salami style alongside a small, dark wild boar cut. Most unusual were the slices of duck. Lovely yielding meat with a decent bit of fat (bottom left in the picture if you were wondering).
However, while it had everything going for it, The White Hart was missing the one thing that would bring me back - heart. I was brought here for a business lunch and if I have the opportunity in the area again, I will probably pop by. But for destination dining, I would suggest looking further afield. I didn't get personality or any real sense of authenticity. It was as if someone had read up on Gastro-pubs and decided to open one with every single box ticked. Good food, tick. A few proper ales, tick. An old out of the way pub that could do with a facelift whilst maintaining all the original features, tick, tick and tick.
If I lived in the village with this place on my doorstep, I might well be championing it's virtues. But I don't, so I'm not. I'm sure it will win a few awards and bring local punters flocking, but for me it was all a little too contrived to travel almost an hour to get to.
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