London – Eating & Drinking – Restaurants – British – Eating & Drinking – Pubs & Bars – Pubs
I think this is the first review I’ve ever written whilst still on the premises…
When you get a nice spacious, airy room filled with magnificent beers from around the world, and then put a bunch of friendly staff behind the bar, you’re on the way to having a sure-fire winner. If a review were simply about the pub, rather than the experience one has whilst there, then this’d be a safe hit into 5-star country.
Am going to have to mark it down a star though because of the frustration involved in going along on a sunny Saturday. Firstly, it fills up *really* quickly, and it’s a completely personal bias, but it fills up with the types that I wouldn’t usually be sharing a pub with. Probably the worst aspect of this is the rude encroachment and the increasing shouting, until your nice “meeting a friend for a beer” at your table turns into a cramped screaming match.
The bar staff were very helpful, but in places unnecessarily bureaucratic – we arrived at 11:45 and wanted to order breakfast and run a tab. Firstly the barmaid had to go & ask whether they started serving at 11 or 12, then she said that we could only order via table service, and then that we had to order food to start a tab. Given that it was the same girl who eventually came to our table (and how at the time there was nobody else there), I can’t see why she couldn’t have just taken our order & started our tab.
But that nonsense aside – The White Horse is a lovely environment, and has a nothing short of spectacular range of beers (Continental & American beers, as well as well-maintained Real Ales). The food’s nice & not overpriced, and if you could time your visit on a day where there was a large horse-related carnival just outside the M25 you’d probably find it to be a very pleasant environment.
Check out my review of White Horse – I am mrfrisky – on Qype