The White Hart, West Bergholt

West Bergholt is a village to the north of Colchester, on the Nayland Road. Some way away from East Bergholt in Constable Country, the village boasts a couple of pubs with a reputation for good food.

 
We’ve been going to the White Hart for more than 20 years. In those early days it was still a traditional country pub, with the emphasis on the beer rather than the food. Things have changed over the years, and as with many country pubs, food has kept the pub open. In recent years the food has been of top quality, and is very reasonably priced. Five of us went there last night, and sampled a wide range of items from the menu.

Three of us had starters. The whitebait and the garlic mushrooms in cheese were rated by my fellow diners, and I can recommend the tempura king prawns in a chilli sauce – the only issue was that there wasn’t anything to mop the sauce up with (other than my fingers!)

Main courses for my fellow diners were a surf and turf, a steak and ale pie, garlic roast chicken, and plaice. Fish is one of the staples of the restaurant, and from past visits I can recommend their mussels and their skate wing. I decided this time to leave the fish to go for a rack of lamb on a bubble and squeak bed. The lamb was cooked to perfection, and just the right portion sizes – I hate to see large plates piled high with food!

Three of our party partook of puddings : the Strawberry Meringue Mountain was taken on by two of us, who rapidly made short work of it; and our resident apple pie expert was more than pleased with his pudding.

 
With a round of drinks, the bill came to £20 a head, which is excellent value for money. Best to book well ahead if you want a peak time table on a Saturday. We booked late and couldn’t get a table for 7:30, but they were good enough to take our number and call back in half an hour to confirm that was the case and to offer us a table at 6:00, which was fine for us.

You can visit The White Hart’s website – click here.