Last week we were lucky enough to have some fantastic weather, well a little bit of sunshine anyway. This meant a lunchtime dining review at a local pub in their beer garden (it’s a hard job sometimes). There are various pubs within the local area that have beer gardens, but the White Hart has been the first to react to the increase in temperature by having music in their garden. It wasn’t too loud and made the garden area seem more exciting.

The White Hart has all of the characteristics of a traditional British pub and a really homely feel to it. The bar staff are incredibly friendly and efficient; I waited no longer than a minute to order my drinks and was politely informed that I needed to find a table number before placing a food order. On Sunday they have an extremely popular carvery with waitress service, so then I guess it is just a case of sitting down and enjoying.

Before going outside I had a look around and was pleasantly surprised. They have private areas for eating, function rooms, areas for pool and a television discretely placed so you can have a sneaky check-up of the football scores whilst taking your partner out. The menu is full of traditional pub food and contemporary classics. They also they have a specials board with all of the dishes of the day on it. At the moment they are running a Best of British promotion where you can have a traditional British dish and a drink for under £7.00. Looking at the size of the dishes around me I thought that this offer would be too much for me to eat, so I went for the very reasonably priced lasagne (£7.45). With my Italian background I knew this would be a challenge for them. The food didn’t take long to arrive (perfect for lunch time as it meant I didn’t have to make that terrible phone call to my boss where I have to explain that the food was late) and came with two slices of garlic bread, a salad and a smile from the waitress. The presentation of the food was fantastic and was much more than I expected. Upon tasting the food I knew I was going to be in trouble next time I spoke to my mother, the lasagne definitely rivalled hers.

The only problem with the day was that as we were on our lunch break we had to eat up and didn’t have the opportunity to try some of the fantastic sounding deserts that they had on offer. The White Hart is a pub we should be proud of having in the heart of Witham. The staff, the food and the premises were all fantastic…just don’t tell my mother about the lasagne!