The White Lion — Restaurant in England

We've been to the White Lion many times over the last 30 years and had some amazing meals here, sadly this was not one of them. First off there was no staff about when we walked in so we stood for a while thenwandered to look for a table when suddenly someone appeared and told us to sit anywhere rather abruptly. There only being 4 other people in at the time, it wasn't hard to find somewhere. This lack of customers should have warned us. Our order was taken but took an inordinately long time to come out, with the pub being so empty this was surprising. Four of us had the roast, the lamb was good but the vegetables, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage , no carrots at all which is very odd, were disappointing as 3 of us don't like any of them, so we were stuck with lamb, very hard roast potatoes, oddly glutinous gravy, a Yorkshire pud and some invisible mash, so not at all the glorious roast dinner it should have been . We also had the the scampi, it was deemed 'only OK' so not great. The Macaroni and Cheese was so dry my Mum could only manage half of it and I don't think she enjoyed any of it. The garlic bread that came with it was nice though. The puddings, Cherry pie - flat, very little filling, also the same said of the apple pie. Two of us had waffles but don't like chocolate sauce so asked for toffee but got told no so just had a weirdly damp, flat waffle with some ice cream plonked on the top. The Wet Nelly didn't have a lot of 'Nelly' (raisins ) in it and was drowning in custard to the point it covered the top of it ,along it waterlogged and not just wet! We came away very disappointed in the whole experience and...

14 September:- Called in for lunch mid afternoon as we have done a number of times. Our chosen starter sharing seafood platter was fine, our main course of fish pie was only average with quite gluten mash potato, my main of chicken ham and leek crumble was not overly tasty and not very crumbly atall We had the distinct feeling that our meal at this visit was really an example of what is happening at many locations, the is a reduction in quality and portions in order to make up for more than any increase in basic costs, and that is lost revenue. The service we experienced was poor in comparison to previous visits, with a young girl waitress in need of proper customer service training. Although our sharing platter was fine, her attitude when she brought it to the table was in an abrupt and cold manner, ' who's is this' only. She also thought nothing of abruptly interupting a private conversation with haste when delivering our mains. I did not say anything at the time because there was no need or wish for us to expect any replacement food, and we do not want to create a possible bad atmosphere, possibly leading to further marring the visit. We will, of course be back at some point to check if today was an unfortunate hiccup, but remembering today hoping the White Lion has not joined other establishments in making customers think twice. As part of this review I will not make any positive...

As a party of 12, with 1 dog and 4 children we decided to go to the White Lion as we believed it to be dog friendly. We arrived as it opened at 12, on a Sunday with a plan to have lunch and leave an hour later. We were greeted by an incredibly rude and abrupt general manager who when asked if the bar side was dog friendly might as well have said ‘yes as long as he doesnt breathe, sniff, move’. He literally reeled off a list of things the dog can’t do if he comes in. Let’s just bare in mind, the bar side was COMPLETELY empty but got forbid a dog makes a sound. Moving on, after some consideration we thought maybe it’s just easier if we do eat here and hope the dog meets his expectations but as we re entered as a group, the general manager said again rather rudely and abruptly ‘I didn’t know you have children; they can’t eat in the bar side’ ITS A SUNDAY WITH NOT A SINGLE CUSTOMER in the bar side. Absolute madness, these rules really do need to be reconsidered if they hope to keep custom. It’s quite clear that dogs are not welcome inside. It’s a shame, as the manager of the pub was lovely and apologetic. The general manager however needs to learn some people skills. But anyway, safe to say we left and went to the Hornsmill who do allow dogs AND children in...