The White Hart
Fyfield, Oxfordshire
CONTINUE READING
Already a member? Log in here
Subscribe to our newsletter to gain access to limited free articles, reviews, news and our weekly newsletter.
The Good Food Guide Membership: Save £100s at Britain's best restaurants - try for free for 30 days
Long a favourite for a countryside jaunt heading out of Oxford, this handsome 15th-century hostelry continues to pull in the crowds – although there's little doubt about its main attraction. The White Hart's venerable dining room with its soaring beamed ceiling, stone fireplace and heavy wooden furniture is an impressive reminder of 'Olde England' that has lured in many celebrity guests, including former US President, Jimmy Carter, who famously dined in its mezzanine. Nevertheless, the baronial atmosphere is leavened by jokey prints of cartoon stags on the walls, a bright new heated 'Orangery' in the garden, breezy, friendly service and a menu that encompasses bar snacks, sharing boards, modern British classics, and a short list of pizzas cooked in the wood-fired oven outside. Locality is given due importance (some produce hails from the pub's own kitchen gardens), so a torched sardine niçoise (the tail-on fillet a succulent morsel) might arrive with a summery assembly of new potatoes, tomatoes, green beans and a quail's egg. This could be followed by a more wintry slow-roasted belly of Kelmscott pork, served as a roundel with apple, celeriac purée, cider jus and a spear of crackling. Apart from a lacklustre side dish of cabbage with parsley and garlic, presentation throughout our inspection meal was a highlight, including the enticing finale: a light, tangy lemon mousse with poppyseed sponge and a luscious berry compôte (the redcurrants were most welcome). In addition to local real ale behind the bar, the carefully chosen drinks list includes a short selection of alcohol-free wines.
