The White Lion — Restaurant in West Lancashire

HOW NOT TO STARVE IN WIGAN AND OTHER IMPRESSIONS

There are places where it's impossible to get a bad meal. Then there are places where it's possible, but you don't—if you're smart and lucky. There is, in other words, a spectrum. Where does Wigan fall?

Well, there's good food to be had in Wigan, for sure. There is, for example, the Foresters Arms, where you can not only have excellent pub food and proper pints, but you can also have them served to you by Francesca, the Miracle of Wigan. And if you're smart, you'll just accept that Francesca's recommendations for where to eat when visiting Wigan, of all places, are going to be the best that Wigan has to offer, and you ask her out on a date.

So where does one take Francesca for dinner if you happen to be so lucky?

The answer came from Francesca herself: The White Lion, Wrightington. And she knows, because Francesca used to work there. And once you arrive at the White Lion and park your rented BMW next to the other snazzy cars in the parking lot and have your left sideview mirror nearly taken clean off by a lady opening her car door as you pull into your spot, you will be struck immediately by the fact that the White Lion is maybe the only place you ever have to go to eat in Wigan, of all places. Here's why:

The staff at the White Lion is . . . well, let me put it this way: If you're wondering where the straight hotties of Wigan are—the sort of wholesome ones you can introduce to mum and da, not the ones with really exaggerated eyelash extensions and mini-skirts that show off not only the legs but a good bit of the bum as well, and who you just know have boyfriends with the sort of face tattoos you can certainly get in other places but which if it's a face tattoo you're after, well, you might as well get it in Wigan—they're working at the White Lion. Like Joni, for example.

Joni's the lass in the photo with the beers. And she is a keeper, keeper, keeper. And it's not just her stunning good lucks, utter lack of face tattoos, and the fact that she's brandishing two pints of the proper stuff. No, it's that Joni has vibe for days. Vibe, vibe, vibe. When I asked Joni if I could take a photo of her, she didn't hesitate for a second. No. Cuz Joni's got the killer instinct that says, "Oh, you just go ahead and take that photo, you handsome and intriguing foreigner, you. What do you want? Want me to give you provocative? Sexy? Nasty?" While many women would say, "Hold my beer," Joni needs no such assistance. She'll hold the beers—both of them—thank you very much.

My point, obviously, is that Wigan doesn't really fall on the spectrum at all, and that's no bad thing. You can get bad food, sure. And you can get really very good food (the Sunday roast, particularly the lamb, at the White Lion is just the ticket, as it were). But nobody comes to Wigan for the food. I'm not even sure anyone comes to Wigan, not on purpose anyway. But if you happen to be in Wigan—say, for the Richard Ashcroft homecoming concert at Robin Park—and you happen to be open to its charms, you can discover, well, its charms. Those charms are these (in no particular order):

Joni and the other wildly attractive and vibe-ous staff and Sunday roast and proper pints at the White Lion.

Francesca, the Miracle of Wigan, and the Foresters Arms.

And the fact of Wigan itself, which is notable for being a place where some people live. Where you can drink proper pints. And eat food. Some of it good. But also where, if you know where to look, you can meet Francesca at the Foresters Arms and, if you're lucky, take her on a date to the White Lion, where you can meet Joni and, if she'll have you, take her on a date to the Foresters Arms. And, if you play your cards right, you can get out of Wigan without having gotten a face tattoo. Or if you maybe didn't play your cards right, but you didn't play them too badly either, you get just a small...

A more recent visit proved a little less satisfying. The food very greasy and cold. I simply didn’t enjoy it as much. Garlic bread was undercooked and had a zero garlic. It’s not a cheap place. And on this occasion it was well off the mark. And we won’t mention a creepy crawly in the supposedly washed salad.

Reputation reached us via social media and word of mouth. Excellent kitchen, and a constantly changing selection of real ale, available in 1/3rd pint measures, to tantalise your tastebuds. In addition both vegetarians and vegans are well catered for, with a dedicated vegan menu.

As it was a Sunday, I decided it would be wise to book. The lady answering the phone was friendly, welcoming and efficient. Our table reserved. We arrived around 5 minutes before our booking, met with a smile behind the bar, and taken straight to our table. We requested the (separate) vegan menu. Food ordered was bruschetta and risotto for starters, and olive and spinach cannelloni, plus veggie balti for mains. We followed this up with vegan ice creams churros, and champagne sorbet. We also had two glasses of wine.

Service was impeccable and friendly throughout. Absolutely no complaints. The starters perfect. The risotto was superb. The mains not quite top draw, I found the cannelloni just a tad too much tomato. Needed a balance (come on guys, Vegan cheese) and the balti was again, randomly quite deep in tomato sauce, very much on the mild side, and tastes drowned out by the tomato. The deserts again lovely.

House ambience was good. Sadly a really poor quality music system, and the dining room really needed air conditioning.

Overall, a really great experience. It’s a shame it’s a car ride for me, as the ale selection was great. It’s fantastic to have real choice for vegetarians and vegans. It’s also fantastic to have such...

Extremely disappointing visit and not what we've come to expect from such a lovely place. We had a table booked on May bank holiday Monday and we left after spending over £140 ( 6 diners, including 2 children) and wishing we hadn't bothered. We had 4 different waiting on staff during our dinning, so we weren't sure who we were actually being served by. Two of the waiting on staff were abrupt and unprofessional, for example leaving our bottle of wine at the edge of the table no offer to pour the wine and glasses which weren't red wine glasses and which we had to ask for suitable red wine glasses, which wasn't ideal. No apology when items of food weren't available, which is basically just manners. After ordering we were eventually informed there were no king prawns and asked to order an alternative but no apology just told 'you'll have to order something else.' quite unprofessional. The children were told there was no garlic mayo so they had to have tarter sauce instead, again not ideal. When the main course arrived with chunky chips rather than skinny fries we were informed that they had no more skinny fries, which meant that the children didn't eat the fries, which was a waste. Finally as we were about to leave we asked to take our pizza, we had left, home and were informed they had no pizza boxes, despite offering takeaway pizza, and were provided with wholly unsuitable small square takeaway boxes and suggested we squash the pizza slices into them, again not ideal. The food was average at best and our evening was certainly not a...