White Hart at Roydon — Restaurant in South Norfolk

Recently I went with two friends to the White Hart for dinner on a Friday night. I have to say I was throughly unimpressed with the service we received.

Firstly, we were only offered one drink throughout the course of our meal (we were there for over two hours and had to ask for more drinks, which didn't seem to impress our waiters) Secondly, we were offered a chance to see the desert menu to which we accepted and ended up waiting for over 20 minutes before we had to ask again for a menu to be brought to us. Thirdly and I feel more importantly - the waiting staff couldn't have been any more unhappy and fed up with our presence, or so it seemed. Whenever we spoke to the staff there we were faced with sighs/displeased looks and a general 'off' attitude. Whatever happened to service with a smile? When we asked for the bill it was brought to us rather quickly and almost thrown down on the table whilst the waiter walked off without even glancing at us whilst doing so. Obviously our presence was not wanted for whatever reason I do not know.

The food wasn't anything special and although it tasted nice the presentation was awful. I asked for salad and potatoes with my meal and was given an enormous bowl of chips. Which I can only assume were to accompany my meal as the other two were having curry and rice?! Overall it just was a very bad experience.

For that reason I will never go back to this restaurant, which is a shame as I had heard such good things about it and had wanted to go for a long time. However since relaying my experience to others I have heard similar stories, so perhaps this was...

Needed somewhere to eat after visiting Banham Zoo whilst on holiday, and after a quick Google search came across the White Heart (20 minute drive away). A quick look at the menu online I could see that it would cater for a range of ages and tastes. We arrived as a party of 9 (aged 7-70) without a booking on a busy lunchtime. The staff were really accommodating and informed us that they could seat us outside, the weather was pleasant and so we were more than happy with that. On seating, the outside area was covered and spacious. They staff explained that they were busy and would be back to take our orders. This, under the circumstances didn’t take too long and gave us the chance to look over the extensive menu. Whilst waiting for our food to arrive the children enjoyed playing in the outdoor play area, we didn’t feel that the wait for food was particularly long. All food arrived together and was hot, the portions were generous and freshly made, and everyone enjoyed the food. Despite the large portions a few of us managed to squeeze in a dessert. I would recommend the Bakewell tart. The bill was reasonable for a party of 9. Overall, what a great find. The staff and food 10/10 and I felt they went above and beyond to accommodate us during a busy lunch period. The only negative I have is that we won’t be able to visit again as we were on holiday but if I’m ever in the area again we would love to come...

A very disappointing experience just because of one person. We had a table booked for 7 of us for our son's birthday which we we're all looking forward to until we was served by a rude grumpy abrupt old lady. First of all we was served by a pleasant member of staff who took our drink orders then straight away after the grumpy one said what you having in a way that we felt uncomfortable to ask if we can have a couple of minutes to decide, so we all quickly just picked something off the menu but old grumps wasn't happy that we didn't know what sides we wanted and therefore made her even more grumpy. I really wanted to say something then but I didn't want to be the one to ruin a special occasion or risk something horrible being done to my meal. So we tried to enjoy the night with this person making us feel uncomfortable and unwelcomed. It honestly felt that we had just turned up uninvited in her own home and she was doing anything she could to make us want to leave. Despite the food being nice and the restaurant it self is lovely we will definitely NOT be going back again. I even went to the cash machine on the way just to get some cash to tip which I always do but there was no way after that service from her I was going to, which was a shame for the other members of staff to loose out because of this one...