White Hart, Wadhurstback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
A huge welcome to te village! I have eaten here several times since it has re-opened
And adore it! They advertise that the chef makes everything in house
And you can really tell! Fresh pizza , fresh breads, pasta!!and on my last visit
I had the burger which came on a homemade brioche bun! They seem to be doing more of
A variety of dishes now, not just Italian.
Nice lunchtime items and a more fancy dinner menu! The staff out front
Are pleasent, professional and the restaurant manager really stands out
As she meets your every need with a smile!
I would highly recommend booking as it is sometimes hard to get a table in the
Evening. Great Job, great restaurant .
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Just an illusion...no more italian food...no more italian chefs
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REALLY GREAT!
A welcome new pub/resto in Wadhurst. It surpassed my expectations for food, wine, and ambience. The food was really delicious and great value for money. Would highly recommend to both locals and those willing to make a longer trip!
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Sophisticated and sublime! Came here yesterday with my neighbour for lunch as we'd heard that the pub had an Italian chef. I've lived and worked in Italy and tend to find Anglicised Italian food rather bland and disappointing, but here is the real thing and it's delicious. To start with, we had a perfectly chilled Pinot Grigio with very good quality Sicilian olives which were a good omen. My neighbour had spaghetti carbonara, in the authentic Roman style, cooked without cream and using a fabulous parmesan. I had a parmigiana which melted in my mouth, accompanied by a crisp, salad of rocket and tomatoes. Our bread rolls were cooked with thyme and parmesan, warm and fresh and very tasty. My neighbour had a pudding called "sfinci" - sweet rice pudding balls cooked like little doughnuts served with a custard delicately flavoured with orange. When we enquired about the origin of this pudding, we were told it was a recipe handed down by the chef's Sicilian grandmother. My tiramisu reminded me of the good old days when I lived in Rome. Light, freshly made and sumptuous! Washed down with an espresso and so good that I think I'll come back here for my birthday!
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SHOCKINGLY POOR
I have never in my life received such a hostile welcome to a pub. They've refurbished recently in a very bland, corporate style. The beer on offer, to be fair, is a good selection with a few unusual additions which is nice to see. That, however, is the one and only positive factor it what is an underwhelming, boring and frankly nasty pub. The food is "authentic italian" or, more accurately, bought in, frozen, mush. We had the homemade bread to start; an under-proved, over-salted lump of barely cooked dough, completely overpowered by rosemary. Then onto the meatball starter; advertised as italian meatballs with pomodore sauce and spaghetti. What was actually presented were the most bland, tasteless balls of breaded, deep-fried meat with a huge amount of uncoloured, overcooked peppers (which weren't even de-seeded properly) when both myself and my friend barely touched them, they were removed from in front of us, without an inquisition into why we'd not wanted to eat them. Then to main course, we'd gone outside for a cigarette to try and mask the taste of those terrible meatballs, and within 2 minutes of doing so, the young, perfectly hard-trying but ridiculously undertrained waitress came and shouted across the court-yard "your food's ready!" Why, I still do not know, they couldn't have held on for a further minute so we could eat at our leisure, I do not know. After being hurried back we came to our table to see the "authentic italian food" before us. The pizza that my friend had, was ok. Far too much tomato sauce, which tasted much more of uncooked tomato paste than anything fresh, but other than that the toppings were decent. And the dough, despite being almost totally unseasoned, was surprisingly well made. My lasagne really was an abomination. No béchamel sauce, tragically over-cooked pasta, tinned tomatoes with no other discernible ingredients and boiled mince. The whole thing was anaemic, sloppy and really quite disgusting. I had a fork-full and couldn't stomach anymore, so after being ignored several times I finally managed to usher over the manager and tried to explain my grievances. This was met by a surly "have you ever been to Italy?" That was possibly the most awkward, unprofessional, aggressive and thoroughly rude patter I have ever heard in all my years of eating out. And yes, dear manager, I have indeed been to Italy several times and in fact work everyday with a decorated Italian chef, whos run his own Venetian patisseries as well as working for decades in fine-dining Italian restaurants the world over. Yes, I do know Italian food and no, I do not appreciate at all being undermined by a twenty-something pub manageress when I am paying for her services. Needless to say, I made her take the food back and promptly asked to be brought the bill. After this being slammed down by the clearly, unreasonably irate girl, without so much as an apology, I was shocked to see the meatball starter, which neither of us had eaten, firmly printed at the top of my bill. I then asked for the bill to be reconsidered. Lacking the lustre to deal with the matter herself, she told me that she would go and talk to the landlady about it. I was therefore expecting her to make an appearance, but obviously she was too disinterested to do so, so I was left in the hands of the remorseless manageress to resolve the issues. Whilst my bill was being re-calculated, I was having a discussion about the terrible quality of the meal and service with my friend. During which conversation (which was no louder than any other, and certainly could not be heard by any other diners) I said "frankly it's a bit s**t. This was then used, I suppose as ammunition on the part of our delightful manageress, against me. Not by herself, no. She was too cowardly to confront me herself and instead relied on her teenage counterpart to, loudly and aggressively tell me to "stop swearing in the restaurant". This, of course was extremely embarrassing and hugely unnecessary. I was then told by the manageress that she "didn't like my (her) staff being threatened ". This was the single most audacious and inaccurate assessment I have ever been given in my life. The only people in this situation who felt threatened were indeed myself and my friend. Finally the bill came, I settled it and was gratefully set free from the awkward and unsavoury grasp I had been put in throughout the course of my meal. I am shocked by the down-right rudeness of the staff at the White Heart and am absolutely certain that if this issue isn't resolved post-haste then this apparent charming new addition to Wadhurst will fall, rightly, flat on its face. I sincerely hope the owners have a degree more sense than their employees and something is done. I would never wish a business to fail as I'm very aware of what people put into such things, but this experience has me close to condemning them to do so. I'm absolutely disgusted and will certainly never return, nor wish anyone else to do so.
ct101 - 30 Sep 2014 15:25 |
Great transformation and just what Wadhurst needed! Brilliant range of beers,6 real ales, mostly local, good wines and decent spirits- tasting notes for the beers (its OK just being helpful!) and the chance to order a "threesome" - three thirds, so you can have a try at unfamiliar brews without having to order a pint-a range of food coming soon including a pizza oven apparently,complete with Italian chef.
Who'd have believed it?
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Thank god Wahurst has another decent boozer. Popped on opening night and the transformation was terrific. Really nice in there - great range of beers and wines. No food yet as kitchen not fully installed but that should add to it. Only thing that was a little lacking was the hospitality? For an opening night, the staff hardly seemed gushing - maybe first night nerves. Def worth a visit though...
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We had a swift drink and left as fast as possible. It's totally lacking in atmosphere. I'm sorry to leave such a bad review but this is just not a pub you want to spend time in.
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Good standard village pub. Ok it's Greene King buth the Speckled Hen was very nice and the atmosphere was very friendly. It was jam night and was told it was a relatively quiet one but it seemed well supported and we enjoyed the music. All in all a very pleasant evening.
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Bog standard village local. Could be really nice - it's a great building - but in its present form, not my scene.
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Used to be a bit of a dive until the current landlord took over (Jerry?). Now it's lively, has plenty going on, and you get a bit of banter with the your beer.
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great friendly pub with plenty of live entertaiment, jam nite every weds, with a wide age range of customers
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Great pub good food and a good crowd up for a laugh.
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Seems pretty good. Check out their 'Jam Night' on Wednesday.
Tom - 17 Oct 2002 21:34 |
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