The White Horse — Restaurant in Chelmsford

Well, this was quite an experience. We came to the White Horse because we’d run away from the horrors of the Hungry Horse up the road, and I’d say we made the right decision. The food seemed to have been cooked in an oven rather than a microwave, the internal decor was a little nicer, and the view of the church and the daffodils through the window was lovely. The atmosphere was a little dead - possibly not helped by the customer choosing to sleep across the seats at the table next to us - but we didn’t mind too much.

You have to order at the bar and pay there and then, which probably should have been identified as a red flag, but we’d already fled one sub-par pub, so we persevered. Our group paid in two sub-groups and the first encountered no real trouble in ordering (other than requesting a blood orange gin and receiving a standard Gordon’s with blood orange tonic). However, my wife has coeliac disease and when it came to ordering for the two of us, this proved more of a challenge than the staff could handle.

We couldn’t get the allergen iPad to work and sadly, nor could the man behind the bar. His colleague recommended that he radio up to the kitchen to see how the roast dinners could be adapted to become gluten free, a suggestion of which I was in great favour. Alas, getting the answers from the (white) horse’s mouth transpired not to be on the table, as the manager then came down (in a tank top and munching on a Mars bar) to fiddle with the iPad herself. After a good few minutes of scrolling and loudly telling me how useless the systems were and how badly they were treated, she found which components of the roast contained gluten. I then made the mistake of asking about desserts, and it took another five minutes to find those answers. Eventually, we placed our order.

We had to wait a little while for the main course, though I’ve had more agonising waits in other places. Oddly, the food ordered after the considerably lengthy iPad ordeal came first. The two of us had to wait another five minutes not just for our companion’s food but also for any cutlery (I tried to go and get some but there wasn’t a single member of staff anywhere to be found at the bar or on the restaurant floor). When the food arrived, we had some fresh surprises. My gammon was stone cold (though this was fairly easily rectified using the gravy), and my wife’s pork was rock hard, to the extent that once she eventually got her knife through it, chunks made a healthy ‘clunk’ noise if dropped on the plate, not unlike a small piece of wood. It was also pointed out that the stuffing balls looked a little like a testicular bushtucker trial from I’m a Celebrity. One member of our party had a steak, which he reported was nice once he’d removed the extensive amount of fat on the edge. Personally, I enjoyed the cauliflower cheese but the rest was nothing to write home about.

Due to paying at the bar, we had ordered our desserts at the same time as our mains. However, nobody came to check on us at any point and so they had no way of knowing when we had finished our main course. After an absurdly long wait, my wife went to ask about our desserts. She found the manager and one of the kitchen staff sat on the floor in front of the bar, petting a dog. She asked about the desserts and was snapped at rudely that ‘we didn’t know we were supposed to be doing desserts as well’. Both then disappeared up to the kitchen and I hope against hope they washed their hands before preparing our desserts.

The crème brulee was completely soft on top. The apple pie was rather nice until I found a centimetre-long shard of hard plastic inside it, which was a little off-putting. All in all, I wouldn’t say it was our finest dining experience. My wife had an upset stomach throughout the night and the next morning, so we can safely assume that the extended ordeal regarding gluten free options was entirely redundant.

The five of us were very grateful for an exceedingly enjoyable night - we never would have had this level of entertainment at the Hungry Horse....

As customers who have visited this restaurant regularly for the past 10 years, we are extremely dissapointed regarding our recent visits as the restaurant has gone dramatically down hill. This review is based on our most recent visit in september 2013, where we left feeling utterly disgusted at our experience. Firstly, upon ordering drinks, we were told that 2 drinks displayed on the menu, they no longer had, so after changing our drinks order, we placed our main meal order also. We had no problems with our main meals, but dessert orders were a different story. Again, hardly anything on the menu was actually available, and with 2 family members being forced to change orders again, we settled with one 'apple crumble pie', two 'tropical sorbets' in replacement for the fat free sundae, and one 'sticky dicky pudding'. Firstly, we have visited this resturant for many years now, and in all our time here, the 'apple crumble PIE' has always come as a slice of pie, as detailed in the menu, which myself and my nan did not like, as we prefer a normal apple crumble, so we ordered alternative dishes. Upon arrival of desert the two 'sorbets' resembled what i can only describe as slop. Clearly these had been sitting around for a while and had melted, and also, the 'apple crumble pie' came up as a normal apple crumble. This had obviously changed since our last visit although the menu still refers to a PIE. My father would have preferred a pie, whereas myself and my nan would have preferred the crumble, which we would have ordered had we have known it was a CRUMBLE and not a PIE. As the waitress 'Vicky' came past we bagan explaining our issues, to which we recieved what i can only describe as the worst customer service i have ever experinced. We began by asking for two more sorbets as ours were completely melted, to which her response was 'That's how it is.'. No apologies or anything. We were startled by this response and had never been spoken to in such a terrible way before. We responded by saying we have had many sorbets at many other restaurants in our time and none had been like slop. She then went on to bring out another scoop of sorbet in a bowl as if to prove a point, where she continued to be rude. At this point we declined the sorbet and instead asked for our money back. We then complained about the 'apple crumble PIE' which was now an apple CRUMBLE. To which her response was that they have always been that way. Which was wrong for a start as we have had many apple crumble pies, before that have come in pie form. So we said she must be mistaken as we ourselves had had the pie there before. Her response to which was 'Well i've worked here for six months now and its always been this way' which we felt was extremely rude, as we had been only a few weeks prior and had the pie. She went out of her way to belittle us and i can honestly say this was the worst example of 'Customer service' or should i say lack of, that ive ever experienced. I AM ABSOLUTELY APPAULED AND WILL NOT...

The only reason I've given two stars is because the drinks were nice and the barmaid was going above and beyond in a stressful work environment.

We booked for 2:30, arrived at 2:15 and placed our starter and main order at 2:25. It was mother's day and although the staff insisted they were busy there were lots of empty tables and I feel as though preparation for a busy Sunday would have resolved the issue (such as having more than 1 chef working!)

We had our starters at about 3pm, we sat with clear plates on our table for half an hour until my partner got bored of waiting and took them to the bar. He knew that our mains wouldn't come until the kitchen knew we'd finished our starters! We were at this point told it would be an hour for the roast beef to be ready, if I'd have known this at the time of ordering I might have chosen something else!

The manager...who wasn't the actual manager but the manager of another pub...came over and told us in fact it would be only 20 minutes for our mains.

We waited and waited and then got bored. We went to the bar at half 4, a whole 2 hours 15 minutes after sitting down at our table and told them we would be leaving, we were greeted by groups of angry customers along with a stressed bar maid and a young food runner who although meant well couldn't serve or help. It was only when the two of them went upstairs to demand that a manager came downstairs did we see the manager..who wasn't the real manager again.

Rather than just apologising and admitting it wasn't acceptable she complained that they were busy and all of the pubs in the group were understaffed and busy! Not my problem, I'm now starving and spent more on drinks than I planned because I spent so long waiting for food.

All in all it was a poor experience and I feel sorry for the staff who were...