The White Horse — Restaurant in North Norfolk

Disappointing dining experience. Reserved a table for 8 of us for lunch. Pretty empty when we arrived but there was no warm welcome as you might expect. Instead we were pointed to our table at the end of the dining room rather than have someone walk us to our table. Minor point perhaps but surely this is all part of the dining out experience?

Deliberated what to have and the majority of the group opted for a roast lunch (it was Sunday after all). Choice of chicken, beef or lamb. Five ordered the lamb and the rest had the burgers.

Food arrived within a reasonable time but was not as we had expected. Instead of there being braised lamb there was a cylinder shaped ‘object’ propping up the Yorkshire pudding. This was very different to the other guests roast dinners as they looked to have received the more standard versions of chicken and beef.

On closer inspection the lamb (advertised as ‘braised lamb’) was a finely minced, soggy textured substance. Our immediate thoughts were that it fell somewhere between being a luke warm kofte kebab and cat food.

At no point did the (not busy) staff come to check whether we were happy, nor did they offer any additional condiments or drinks.

Had they asked us the question we would have complained. As we were discussing the poor quality of food and lack of customer service we noticed other people experiencing the same and were refusing to eat their meal.

When the staff finally came to clear our table and asked us how it was, the manager was present (possibly anticipating our dissatisfaction?). He tried to explain that it was braised lamb. We disagreed. It might have been braised once but had then been minced within an inch of its existence prior to someone re-forming it into its new shape.

I maintain that anyone walking into a coastal pub on a Sunday and selecting the braised lamb would be massively disappointed. If only they had provided a more accurate description rather than listing it next to the roast beef and roast chicken. To be fair even if they had advertised it accurately the flavour and texture was pretty awful. If you don’t believe me you should try it!

So in summary, the staff need to up their game and remember they are working in the hospitality industry and as such they are there to make the customer experience a good one. The manager took the cost of the ‘lamb’ meals off the bill which is all fine and dandy but it ruined a lunch which had taken a lot of planning due to our various geographical locations and was something we had very much been looking forward to.

And whoever made the decision to introduce their unique version of what they consider to be braised lamb onto the menu should be fed it, three times a day for the rest of their life.

Real shame. Won’t be...

On arriving at the pub I asked about the "reserved" cone in front of one of the parking spaces in the pub car park, and was told it was reserved for us as we'd booked to stay. The cone reservation system worked (to ensure there was a space available on our return from day trips) 3 times out of 4 on our 4 night stay. Another big Brownie point for the White Horse was when I was handed a small insulated bottle of fresh milk (none of your nasty plastic pots or sachets of plastic UHT milk to go with your in room tea) when we were shown to our room. Indeed the White Horse had the best ever selection of in room hot drinks I've encountered (regular English breakfast, decaff, green, Earl Grey, lemon and ginger, peppermint, berry tea bags, plus hot chocolate, though only the usual Nescafe and Nescafe decaff coffee). Border biscuits as well. Our room was clean and comfortable with a shower over the bath in the bathroom which looked like it had been refurbished recently. As with most independent hotels/pub rooms, no blackout blinds. The sash window frame would benefit from a repaint.||When I'd booked the White Horse was an Adnams pub, but had changed hands to the Chestnut Pubs group a few weeks before my stay. While the artwork decorating my room and the corridors advertised Adnams beers, they were not available on tap in the bar, so the pint of Broadside which I'd been looking forward to as we drove up to Norfolk was not available. Only 2 real ales were available, both from Norfolk's Barsham brewery, and neither IMHO as good as Adnams. My husband resorted to drinking Jeremy Clarkson's Hawkstone lager.||The breakfast hot selection was good with full English and other options e.g. eggs & smoked salmon and porridge available, as well as a toaster so you could ensure fresh hot toast. The one disappointment at breakfast was the fruit. The breakfast menu referred to fruit salad, but what I found on the first morning was a fruit bowl with 2 apples (one rather tired) and some hard plums. I ate the good apple on my first morning. The same fruit bowl came out the next morning and the following one, and on the 4th day it was topped up with grapes and pears which were fresher. It was such a shame when at the Spar shop round the corner stocked the locally grownSharrington strawberries and delicious raspberries, which would have been a great addition to the breakfast selection.||We dined twice in the White Horse - excellent chunky chips (which I had with my very crispy battered haddock and my husband had with a tasty steak). Makes a nivr change for food not to be over-seasoned. (Salt can always be added at the table,...

We booked for lunchtime but need not have bothered as we were the only people there. This was a special birthday meal for my husband and we had driven over an hour in anticipation of some excellent food after reading the reviews. My husband had the the squid to start served with a spicy dipping sauce which he thoroughly enjoyed. The tempura batter was light and the sauce was piquant and delicious. I opted for the mackerel pate, but it was bland, under seasoned with heavy cream overpowering any flakes of fish hidden in the pale slush. I’m still not sure if the slices of bread accompanying were stale or just poorly toasted. The only flash of inspiration was the small stack of pickle on the side. Our main courses were mussels with sourdough, piping hot seasoned well but no extra silverware provided to eat it with! We had to use the settings on another empty table.( We would have asked our server but he had disappeared to find the chips which my husband had ordered and didn’t reappear til we were half finished. ) The pan fried bass with smashed potatoes and langoustine tails was better than the starter but why add stray bits of pea tops to any dish?! Pointless. Sauce was rather clunky over powered with yet more cream. We didn’t bother with a pudding . Total inc 2coffees, one glass of wine and a pint of beer. ( We did ask for water on the table which was tepid and no ice but we were not charged for this. ) was £81. Expensive for what it was. Would we recommend? Probably not as a lunch. We did hear people coming in and booking tables for the weekend so maybe it’s better evenings or weekends? We were disappointed as didn’t live up to...