The White Horse Gastropub & Music Venue — Restaurant in Cork

A copy of the email I sent to "Dear Manager," who didn't bother to reply as of yet.  edit: waiting on an update from management.

On Monday 27th my mother and I decided we would go for lunch at your esteemed establishment. For years we have chosen the White Horse for a special treat, holding both food and service in high regard.

Unfortunately despite your friendly staff our opinion after today's lunch is very different. Firstly when seating we were put up next to the fireplace where the mantle was intrusive for the customer sitting in the chair. However, your staff were most helpful in giving us different seats upon request. Now, while appreciate that you have a very successful business that is continuously turning over clients I felt as though you have lost attention to detail. The table we were sat at had two holes from where dowel plugs had been removed and left unattended to, my chair had a dirty pink cover on it that appeared to have a cigarette burn and in all the seating area looked worn.

Moving to the food when the food came , which seemed like a long time to wait for a soup and 2 sandwiches. My mother received a steak sandwich( image attached) , that although she did praise that it tasted good it still was not a traditional steak sandwich that was received. (I appreciate the chef's attempt to cut her food up for her as the steak was scattered around a piece of bread but she is still capable of cutting her own food and takes pride in being able to do so while she still can).

During our meal there was a lady sat Infront of us at the bar, as she used her hands to pick up her spaghetti dish a drop it into her mouth. I was a bit put off my own lunch, in saying this it was not something I would  trouble your staff about as I would not expect them to worry about basic table manners of customers in a country type bar… That was until I watched as this woman pick up her plate walk around the bar and proceeded to bring her plate back to the kitchen, then returning and handling a number of items behind the bar without so much as washing her hands. I would expect that someone working in the establishment would show a little more poise in the general dining area

As I previously said the staff were lovely and the food tasted well, so with this in mind I ordered a dessert that we waiting nearly 20 minutes for before deciding to cut our losses and get on with our day after a disappointing "treat".

I have to say I am unfortunately not impressed with today's...

Toxic work environment for waiting staff on display during our most recent visit.

Food was lovely.

5 stars for our young female waitress. Overall 4 for service, due to her colleague.

Our waitress was spot on, every dietary request was correct. A young friendly absolute lady, knowledgeable on the menu, attentive. Great at her job.

An older male waiter (with possibly an auz accent) seemed to consider himself humorous but was actually obnoxious twice in comments.

The overall 1 star rating is due to the female supervisor, during our visit on August 23rd 2025. She walked around with a pompous attitude. Not once did she check in to ask any table of customers if their food/service was satisfactory. She scolded our fabulous waitress for going to the rest room. This was done at the bar counter, in full earshot of a room of customers. Asking loudly and harshly, 'are you sick, you have to tell me if your sick, I've never seen someone go to the toilet so much during a shift... '. As noted, this waitress was attentive, friendly, efficient. The supervisors behaviour was totally unacceptable and an absolute disgrace, showing the toxic work environment for the waiting staff. In my opinion, a power hungry supervisor, an excuse for a human, more concerned with herself than the staff, customers or reputation of the White Horse. The waitress was visibly upset, trying to hide her unease for the rest of our time there.

White Horse owner(s), please take effective efficient action. A supervisor should have at the very least basic customer service skills and basic human decency. Tolerating this toxicity, will not only damage your reputation and business, but more so the health of your employees, to whom you owe a duty of care.

We have had many positive experiences through the years, so hope this feedback is taken seriously and...

Went there for the last time. We booked a table to meet our friends for some drinks to celebrate our engagement. As we weren’t hungry, cause we have been on a dinner before, I only got myself some chips, what started the whole thing. Our waitress, who is also a manager I suppose, was clearly unhappy about the food order, what she did not hesitate to share with her colleagues. We could hear her giving out about “just chips” and we could see her pointing at us with her glasses, which is so disrespectful and so unprofessional. In the meantime our friends joined us. We were sitting right next to the entrance and their computer screen. They were right there all the time and passing by many times, but we clearly were getting ignored- didn’t get menus for our friends until we asked for them, didn’t get served until we complained about the service. The woman came over and wanted explanation what was the reason for the complain. Don’t want to quote the whole conversation, but the sentence “what service? They only got chips” says everything. My question is- so what? We weren’t getting just chips, to be clear. We went there specifically to celebrate our engagement with some drinks. The bill at the end was €150, which I suppose is pretty good as for “just chips” right? It wasn’t a first time we experienced bad service in there, so just don’t bother sending us another voucher to apologise. We are not going to visit this...