White Hart Inn — Restaurant in Forest of Dean

Not entirely sure where all these reviews of wonderful, attentive service and great food have come from but we visited today for the first time and this certainly was not the experience that we had. The only time we were ever acknowledged was when we walked in and were asked how many for. We sat down and were not given menus or offered a drink. My partner then got up to get drinks from the bar and by the time he got back we were still not given any menus. I had to ask for menus in the end and this was after about 10 mins of being seated. After reading the menus for 10 mins and noone asking us what we wanted to order (after 2 or 3 different waitresses/waiters walked past) we accosted one and asked if we can order from her and her response was "yeah I guess so". Considering there's no numbers on the tables I assume it is table service and not self ordering at the bar? Anyway, we ordered pork belly and beef lasagne which came out reasonably quick however, the pork belly had a layer of chewy rubbery (what was supposed to be) crackling. It appeared to have been cooked in the oven and then microwaved. It was like rubber. For £16, we would have expected a layer of actual crackling on the pork belly and not just something that looked like it. The rest of the meal contained 4 roast potatoes and 2 stems of raw tenderstem brocolli. The pork was overcooked, chewy and dry and the gravy was lumpy and clearly made from granules. The lasagne was "OK" but bland and disappointing. The side salad was the only impressive thing about the meal. One thing we were pretty annoyed about was the complete lack of customer care or attention throughout. Not once were we asked if our meals were to our satisfaction at any stage during our time there. We received no check back whatsoever. We were eventually asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu but only when the plates were cleared away. This would have been the perfect opportunity to ask if we enjoyed our meals, but no, nothing. We eventually paid at the bar as noone came to give us our bill or ask if we had decided on desserts. Even at this stage we were not asked if we enjoyed our meals so I find it bizarre that everyone else seems to have been showered with attention on their reviews, as I did not witness this at all today.

Such a shame as there's a lot of potential here but if I am spending near on £50 on food and drink I expect some level of service, good customer care and a better standard of food. We will not...

I made a booking for Sunday lunch (21-01-24) for my myself, my wife and her son and family who we have not seen for a long time. We decided on The White Hart and thought this would be a nice venue for this special occasion. I made the booking on the Tuesday prior to the Sunday giving plenty of notice and agreed the time, discussed, and reserved a certain table in an area where dogs are allowed and tucked away, giving my full name and telephone contact number.

On the Sunday we arrived spot on time only to notice the table I booked occupied, when I gave my name the staff looked a little confused, it was clear there was a problem, I was offered a table for two, I said the booking was for five, we were then shown to a table that could only seat four, once again I explained the situation only to be told for my group to wait at the bar (with dogs) until the original booked table became free, it was obvious that this would be some time as the people at this table had only just been served their main course, as it transpired the wait would have been over an hour for the table to become vacant. In the end we were allocated a table in an area that was okay but disappointing in comparison to where we thought we were going to sit.

To my amazement I was informed that the reason for the situation was they were terribly busy with two separate groups who were there for separate special occasions, guess my special occasion was less important to them and I question how would this effect bookings !

I understand that booking errors happen, however, not once did I receive an apology for the mix-up, or even an offer of a complimentary drink, this turn of events completely took the edge off our special occasion, so sad for my wife and her family.

Food was good but the ability of staff to deal with a situation of a booking error of their doing was dreadful and verging on rudeness from what I think was the female manager who I spoke to and made to feel the situation was of my doing. Will I return, I doubt it, customer service and politeness are equally as important as quality of...

Sadly average. The staff and the surroundings were nice but the food was very average. We had pre booked for a party of 4 with 2 small children and it took over an hour and 20 minutes on a Saturday afternoon for our food to be served. That was ok, we had brought colouring books etc for the little ones and some snacks for them so they didn't cause a ruckus, but to be honest we thought the service would have been faster. This could all have been forgiven if the food was good but it just wasn't. The portion size was very generous but three of us had burgers and the meat portion of it was woeful. Very processed, no texture, and to make it worse it was made in house - I cannot understand why anyone would choose to make meat taste like this - it was like double thickness patties of meat that you get from roadside burger vans - thick and dense with no texture and very salty. Really not nice and we couldn't finish them - seriously they should just halve the amount of meat, lose the filler, and cook minced beef with some salt and pepper on the grill and if good quality meat is used then it will be delicious. How bad is the burger meat if a punter is suggesting how to make the food!!! The other main dish we ordered was scampi and chips. The batter/breadcrumbs used was the dark brown variety that you get out of a packet (no panko breadcrumbs here!) - thick and heavy and unappetising. The cost? 4 adults, 1 drink each, main course with no starter dessert and 2 children - £80 - so not cheap by any means. I did bring up the fact that the burgers weren't very nice with the server as I paid the bill but he said that people really liked them - go figure. All the excellent reviews are puzzling but maybe they ate different food to us? I suspect that this pub is so popular because of the location and to be honest there isn't much else around. If you go then just don't order the burgers or the scampi and maybe you'll have a better experience than we did. Good luck because although we are local we will not be going back. ...