The White Hart Review

It had been nearly ten years since my last visit to the renowned gastropub The White Hart in the village of Lydgate near Oldham. My previous visit hadn't resulted in a great meal in all honesty, but since then the restaurant has continued to retain a host of rewards as well as receiving ongoing praise from regular punters. So all things considered, it felt like the right time for a return visit as I duly rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children, on a gloriously sunny April Saturday.

Booking online had been painless, but one thing that did confuse me was the availability of the full carte menu. On the website it says this isn't available at lunch, but on some social media posts the restaurant says it is. Whenever I visit a restaurant I want to eat the best that restaurant can offer, and given the set lunch menu online is fairly limited, I emailed to check beforehand and was told that indeed, the full carte would be available for our visit (huzzah).

There's a large car park on site with plenty of space which is always a benefit, and externally and internally this is still a smart looking venue. It's clear there's a lot going on here with sixteen bedrooms now and plenty of space for large events such as weddings. On arrival we made our way to the bar area where we were greeted and then taken to a small(ish) dining room just off the main bar; it wasn't the main brasserie dining room where we were seated last time, but it was a pleasant enough space.

The ambiance felt a little strange initially, there's no background music which might have helped and only a couple of tables were seated before us so it was fairly quiet, although a few more tables did arrive during service. We were offered water for the table which took a while to arrive, and strangely my daughter's glass arrived with a piece of grass (with root) in it which was a first for me.

On offer at lunch is a three course set menu, a three course carte as promised with plenty of choice, a lighter sandwich menu and also a two course children's menu (which is always appreciated). Drinks wise there's a fairly sizeable wine list, but no drinks list was provided so I have absolutely no idea what's on offer (for example cocktails) in that regard unfortunately. I just stuck with my usual Hendrick's and tonics during our meal which were fine, whilst my wife and kids were perfectly happy with the apple juice provided.

We ate from the carte; I did notice a couple of tables around us received complimentary sliced bread before their meal, but we didn't. Lunch began for me with the Cornish crab ravioli, served with coconut, mango and a 'Thai inspired' bisque. I thought this was a decent dish, the pasta making wasn't great but the crab was nice and the bisque did carry some bold and pleasant flavours. My wife had less luck with a very disappointing leek dish, served with goats cheese and a ponzu dressing. To serve a dish like this the leek cooking has to be absolutely spot on, but it was miles away from that and in reality none of the elements on the dish were executed well. It's like someone has come up with what they think is a great concept, but not actually tasted the dish before whacking it on the menu for paying punters.

For the kids, with no starters on the children's menu my daughter had a portion of the milk bread with local butter which was a good effort as bread goes, whilst my young son was happy with just a portion of French fries.

There was a fairly long wait after we'd finished our starters for plates to be cleared and mains to arrive (albeit, far from the longest wait I've had) and the delivery of our mains did start with a little bit of drama. A waiter arrived with a piece of haddock and chips and asked who it was for. Well, none of us was the correct answer really as my daughter had ordered haddock goujons from the children's menu and in no way, shape, or form were goujons on that plate.

It turned out of course that was indeed my daughter's main course but it another poor effort; the batter on the fish was way too thick and the plate was literally dripping with oil which had soaked through many of the chips, such was the volume of it. It was the worst version of fish and chips I've seen at an award-holding restaurant in a very long time.

For my main, I went for the pork which was fortunately much better and comfortably the best dish of the meal for me. The two main pieces of pork were a little bit on the chewy side, but the flavours on the rest of the plate were great including a lovely braised cheek, a pretty faultless celeriac puree and a tasty cabbage and black pudding mix which the pork sat atop. My wife had the same and enjoyed it also.

Although the savoury courses hadn't exactly blown us away, we pushed on and ordered desserts but these were less than impressive. I had the chocolate mousse, served with toffee popcorn, passion fruit and ice cream. The flavours were OK but the plating showed a real lack of finesse, it was just delivered as one big messy dollop and not at all what I'd been expecting. My wife had the blood orange cremaux which certainly looked neater in her bowl and contained some interesting ideas, but the main cremeux element was too solid and as a whole it wasn't a great dish.

The children's desserts I have to say were enjoyed a lot more; my young son devoured his ice cream complete with (half) a flake and chocolate sauce, and my daughter was perfectly happy with a decent sized fruit salad.

And so after another fairly long wait for our dessert plates to be cleared, I was able to collect the bill and bring our lunch to an end. I think overall, although there were occasional glimpses of good cooking on show, the standard of the meal as a whole was quite a long behind what I'd been hoping for, with some fairly basic issues on a number of dishes. The service was OK but not especially prompt or attentive, and definitely not in any way what I'd describe as warm.

I think the issue here is really the business has other priorities; clearly big events like weddings are more of a focus (and indeed the table next to us was having a menu tasting during our visit) which is completely understandable and I'm sure the experience offered is fantastic for that. But as a fine dining destination in its own right, the overall package here is just lightyears away from the leading pub-restaurants in the country. I wish everyone involved all the best, but I don't think it's likely I'll be heading back here in future.