White Horse Country Pub

We went to the White Horse Pub Saturday night with our dinner group. Here is my review of my meal. Everyone had their own experience and I think the overall feel was favorable, although some didn’t enjoy their meal as much as I did. In fairness to the restaurant, 18 people is a lot to handle at one time. They have a large menu, with a wide range of foods, and with as many people as we had they sampled a wide variety that leads to some inconsistency both in preparation and peoples tastes. Now that I have given the caveats about the overall experience of the group, Let me give you mine. First of all the atmosphere is great. The bar area is similar to the Irish Pubs that I love so much (since this is an English Pub, I hope I will still be allowed in Irish Pubs after saying that). It has the old wood everywhere that is just welcoming, there are a ton of things hung on the wall to see, and I will have to go back just to see all of these as I was focused on the dinner ahead. There is a beautiful outside patio that I have seen in pictures and videos and I could see through large sliding doors from the bar. I never made it out there either. I should have, but I couldn’t get myself to leave the bar until it was time for us to be seated and then there were too many pleasant people to talk with for me to leave them to wander. I went there early to check out the bar and make sure our reservations were all set. I tried the Old Speckled Hen beer, which I had never heard of before and I believe is English. It was good, but I am still more a Porter/Stout fan with an occasional fruit summer blend. But it was a nice change. While waiting I tried the French Onion Soup. This was very good, loaded with cheese and not overly salty, which so many of them are these days. Instead it had a rich sweet onion flavor. I then moved to our table with a few of the others beating me to it. I ordered the muscles as an appetizer which were in a white wine and onion broth. The muscles were very good, as was the broth. Much better than the ones I had at the upfee French restaurant on my cruise, but I still liked the ones at MamaLuke in Farmington better. I liked the heat of those and the tomato/Italian seasoning over this preparation. But that was just my individual taste because these were prepared well, if not my sauce preference. Next up was the prime rib served with au jus and horseradish sauce for dipping, along with horseradish mashed potatoes. The prime rib was prepared perfectly medium rare, and was a nice chunk of meat. The one problem I always have with prime rib is I like it medium rare, but also like the charred, seasoned outside. It is almost impossible to have both and this one was no exception with some sacrifice of that outside flavoring given to keep it juicy and medium rare. Normally I like a baked potato with prime rib, but the horseradish mashed potatoes were a very good fit and I liked the combination. The vegetable side was carrots in a sweet sauce, which actually helped me to eat my vegetables. Overall I was very pleased with the White Horse. The combination of atmosphere, the variety of food, and the quality of the food that I had made it a place that I will want to come back to.