Review: The White Hart Country Inn, Main Street, Hawes

It’s a long way from home – more than an hour – but of course it’s a long way for almost everyone. It’s why they often call this part of the Yorkshire Dales “deeply rural” - a rather strange phrase but I guess it is just another way of describing a kind of geographical isolation which sets the area apart from your average rurality.

Doing anything up here is difficult – from getting a decent mobile signal to accessing public services the rest of us take for granted or finding staff to run a business. Nothing is easy.

There are, of course, compensations on days when the sun shines and townies like us jump in our cars and head for the hills – as we did last Sunday. And, of course, driving halfway across the North of England would require sustenance at some point.

We did think of calling at Simonstone Hall Hotel. If nothing else it would be the source of some Jeremy Clarkson-related witticisms but it has, we understand, just changed hands and we it thought it best to give time to bed down under its new owners. We also fancied the look of the Stone House Hotel nearby but they only do light lunches on Sundays and we fancied the full Monty – which brought us to the White Hart Hotel in the town’s meandering Main Street and overlooking the handsome St Margaret’s Parish Church.

The White Hart is equally handsome in a rugged, no-nonsense Pennine way. Its 16th century origins are evident in the stone construction and the weighty lintel over the front door which gives way to a surprisingly contemporary interior. It’s still definitely a traditional country inn but with a few modern interior design flourishes.

Sunday lunch service is from noon until “they run out” we were told when booking. At 1.30pm there was a reasonable chance they could have a choice of two roasts but “if tha were rush on’t” there might not. Which was fair enough. In this neck of the woods it’s not as if, in extremis, you can nip down to Sainsbury’s.

Our table was in one of two eating areas with a third, a very attractive bar, set aside for drinkers but also accommodating overspill diners.

The Sunday lunch menu, as well as offering the two roasts, beef and pork, also featured fish and chips, a burger dish, gammon, homemade pie and a nut roast.

Local sourcing is important at the White Hart and that derives from the owners, the Kirkbride family who have been farmers and also in the hospitality trade in upper Wensleydale for generations. The beef, for example, comes from the family farm nearby.

And very good topside it was too, but before that we enjoyed starters of deeply-flavoured and well seasoned vegetable soup served with bread and, Praise the Lord, proper butter cut from a block. Sylvia was almost as excited about the butter as she was the soup, but then you all know how important this is to her.

My black pudding and bacon salad was a bit heavy on the cucumber for my liking but was in all other respects a goodly small plateful of porcine goodness, much enlivened by a sharp-ish dressing. I left most of my bread and butter because I like to save myself for later.

The laters included really top notch light and fluffy Yorkshire puddings, some very thick-cut-but-no-hint-of-dryness pork (Sylvia’s choice) with cracking crackling and the aforesaid really tender topside. The crunchy roast and creamy mashed potatoes were as they should be. The gravy was thin (Sylvia likes hers thick, erroneously in my humble and frequently-ignored domestic opinion) but properly made from the meat juices.

The vegetables however, were rather disappointing. Undoubtedly freshly cooked and not over-done, they were seriously under-seasoned and we didn’t think very thin juliennes of turnip worked. Without being mashed with butter and lots of pepper as in swede it’s a pretty flavourless veg. Or these were at any rate.

Redemption came in the form of an excellent rhubarb crumble with a beautifully crunchy, slightly caramelised oaty topping, some sharp fruit and thick custard (too thick for Sylvia, perversely, who likes her custard thin). But I loved it.

There was an excellent range of locally-brewed beers. Driving duties restricted me to a half of Wensleydale Brewery’s South Cote, Sylvia had a half of Peroni and along with a couple of soft drinks the bill came to £37.85 but only after we had prompted them to add the beers to the bill.

Service was under pressure a bit. Whether it turned out to be busier than they expected or someone didn’t turn in for duty, there just seemed to be a bit too much for our two perfectly charming waitresses to handle. That they largely did is a credit to them.

FOOD FACTS

The White Hart Country Inn, Main Street, Hawes, DL8 3QL

Tel: 01969 667214 Web: whitehartcountryinn.co.uk

Disabled access. Some vegetarian options

Ratings (out of ten): Food quality 8 Service 6 Surroundings 8 Value 7