The White Lion — Restaurant in England

If I could give zero stars I would. What an utterly awful experience.

Booked a table for Mother’s Day and not once during the booking process (or even on their fb page) did they state it was only carvery. We had a large party including young kids who don't like roast dinners so we had hoped there would be some other choice, even just chips would’ve been good. As there wasn’t, we opted to get them just a dessert each, to eat whilst we have the carvery - something which the surly bartender did not approve of.

Secondly, the offer of the day was a free dessert for mums, which could only be obtained after answering a tirade of questions. Honestly it would’ve been easier to just bring along my children’s birth certificates! And back to the bartender’s delightful attitude - I made a brief comment about how I was letting my daughter have some of my free dessert and was told that’s against the rules as it was for mum’s only!! What utter nonsense! Surely it should be my choice whether I want to eat it all myself, chuck it in a bin (which would’ve been the sensible thing to do, considering the brownie was well and truly stale), or give to my kid - it wasn’t as though we were trying to scam the system by getting extra freebies, I was simply sharing what was mine.

On to the much anticipated carvery... Totally unappetising is an understatement! The turkey was still pink, the Yorkshire puddings burnt to a crisp, the veg stone cold, the stuffing was just a lump of miscellaneous chunks. Not a single person in our party even managed half a plate full. How on earth they can justify charging £15.95 for such poor quality food is beyond me.

After the half-eaten roasts were taken away, some of our party ordered desserts as they were understandably very hungry. After almost 25 mins of waiting for just 2 creme brûlées and 1 child’s sundae, I chased them up and was told they’d be out any second. In reality, it was another 5 mins for the 2 creme brûlées - though again the quality was so bad that the people who had them wished they didn’t! We ended up just asking for a refund for the missing sundae, as it shouldn’t take half an hour just for one scoop of ice cream with a squirt of cream on top!

Surely nothing else could’ve been a let down, I hear you ask… unfortunately, you’d be wrong. We ordered 2 cokes, which for some inexplicable reason were poured straight from an already opened 1.75l bottle, resulting in room-temp flat drinks which again we didn’t finish. For the price we paid for just 1 of those drinks, we could’ve nipped down to a supermarket for a full bottle that would’ve at least been fizzy.

The other lowlights to mention include the dirty cutlery with food debris still lodged between the prongs, the lack of spoons supplied when served a dessert, the expensive drinks (£10 for a G&T is outrageous), the slow service at the bar, the lacklustre decor, the non-existent atmosphere and best of all the way customers were allowed to let their dogs put their heads on the tables!

My mind is utterly boggled by all the recent glowing reviews. The only possible reasons I can think of are either the positive comments are all fake, all the staff mentioned in them were off sick, or the previous customers have just never had a decent meal in their life!

Had it been any other day we would’ve immediately turned round and left, but unfortunately everywhere else in the vicinity was fully booked. Even though we did leave still hungry and extremely disappointed at least we learnt a valuable lesson: NEVER eat at the...

A party of seven had pre booked for a Christmas Day meal here. We arrived and there was no meet and greet or a Merry Christmas, not a good start. We had to make our way to the bar and wait for the stressed barman to take our drinks order to ask what's happening. We eventually got told where our table was but there was someone already sat there who were probably the previous booked group. After they left which was about 20 mins ( we had been in the premises for over half an hr at this point) we made our way to the table to find someone again sitting there, we were told by those sat there they thought this table was there's ( they had been waiting an hr already for a table, remember it was pre booking and pre ordered food , so why this was happening was a bit discerning) . We had to find a member of staff to again sort an issue which shouldn't of happened. We eventually got sat at our table ( 45 min or so after arriving at this point) to get hurriedly some cutlery and a Christmas cracker put in front of us. The starters arrived ( after about 45 min , added on to the over 30 mins we had been waiting for a table and 20 mins waiting to be seated ) they didn't though all arrived at the same time, the first of the starters came out 15 minutes before the first so none of us eat together. To give some credit some of the starters were ok, the soups which three of our party had were not . When it came to the main though enough was enough, this was a carvery, the meat was tough ( even the chef found it tough ) and one of our party found a piece of bone in his beef ! The veg was hard and cold and we asked for more stuffing on several occasions with none arriving, and the roast potatoes were nothing like I'd ever eaten or seen, not very nice. We also had two vegetarians in our group who had pre ordered the pies , they came also cold with one with nothing in and the other what looked like just cranberry sauce in. We did have a dessert course ordered but we all decided we had enough and decided to leave, one of our group had a word with the owner who again to give some credit admitted that all didn't go as she hoped for our group and did say a refund will be forthcoming. I really don't like writing bad reviews but i felt this needed to be written, we had paid £90 per person and it just wasn't good enough and ruined for all of us what we had been really looking forward to on Christmas day ( as do all ) our Christmas dinner . I'll also add here none of our party had been out for a meal on Christmas day before and so it was something we were so looking forward to. My thoughts are that they overbooked themselves , which in turn it became disorganised and very stressful for the staff ( we even saw one waitress faint ), but at £90 a head then it should of been better. As regards to one of the reviews on here saying that the only ones complaining are " lower class clientele "..well our table of 7 had individuals working in retail, law ( solicitor) transport, mental health, insurance, utility, and whilst we don't consider ourselves any class at all ( ultimately its irrelevant )we certainly do expect a level of service and food which £90 a...

A Truly Awful Christmas Day Experience at The White Lion, Arreton

Our Christmas Day at The White Lion, Arreton, was nothing short of appalling. What should have been a special day was utterly ruined by poor service, dreadful food, and a complete lack of care or professionalism.

From the moment we arrived, we were left feeling unwelcome. There was no greeting or acknowledgment, and nobody seemed to know where we were supposed to sit. After waiting around for 25 minutes, we were finally shown to our table, but by then, the festive spirit had already begun to fade.

When we were seated, it was clear no effort had been made with the presentation. Cutlery was thrown haphazardly across the table, accompanied by a single cracker – hardly the warm, festive touch you’d expect for a Christmas meal.

The starters arrived sporadically, meaning none of us could eat together. Some of us had finished by the time others received their food, which completely ruined the sense of togetherness that is so important on Christmas Day. Unfortunately, the quality of the food did nothing to redeem the situation. It was inedible and tasteless.

The vegetables were so undercooked they were barely edible, the meat was dry and completely lacking in flavour, and the entire meal was a huge disappointment. The food was so bad that we decided to leave pudding altogether, as the experience had been so awful we simply couldn’t bear to stay any longer.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the service was chaotic. At one point, a waitress fainted in the middle of the restaurant, understandably adding to the disarray, although the lack of organisation was already painfully obvious. To top it off, a young child in a onesie was seen wandering through the kitchen and the restaurant, which raised serious concerns about hygiene and professionalism.

When we raised our complaints with the owner, hoping for some acknowledgment or an apology, we were met with complete dismissal. The refusal to accept any responsibility for what was, quite frankly, a ruined Christmas Day was the final insult.

Our experience at The White Lion was dreadful from start to finish. The food was inedible, the service was shambolic, and the atmosphere was completely joyless. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone, let alone for such an important occasion as Christmas Day.

We are also still awaiting a refund, which has been promised to us since Christmas Day.

One thing I can say is thank you for giving us a memory for years to come by looking back at how god awful it was.

I came across a review claiming that individuals from a ‘lower class’ were abusive, but this is entirely untrue and feels like a fabricated story. Unfortunately, such a statement seems both reactionary and biased. As for the food, it was truly disappointing—honestly, even McDonald’s would have been a better option than what was...