Mina is fish and chips critic

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Fish & Chip Reviews

The White Hart, Waterloo, London, SE1 8TJ, 8 February 2017

white hart waterloo

Hello hello hello from The White Hart, Waterloo, London on a school night.

The White Hart, Waterloo, London
Feeling slightly guilty having a pint on a school night..

The last time we visited this premises was almost exactly 2 years ago, again it was a school night.  We actually remember it was not an impressive Fish and chips then (total score 4/10), therefore, we have not visited for 2 years.  According to the record, it was “Fish & chips – sustainably caught hake, cider & tarragon batter, pea puree & chips £11.75″.  Today the menu reads “British ale battered cod with triple cooked chips and mushy peas, £12.95”.  Just over 1% price rise in 2 years, this is below inflation, acceptable (at least it is not Brexit related inflation).   BTW, we used to see “hake” more often but it seems quietly going back to cod.  Somebody tell me why please?

The White Hart, Waterloo, London
First impression – mediocre!
The White Hart, Waterloo, London
Take a close look but I have to use torch of my phone. The place was far too dark!
  1. Fish 5/10 Perfectly mediocre.  Yes this is nothing wrong, but absolutely nothing special.  No skin, no flavour on batter, slightly dry texture of fish, not flavoursome at all,
  2. Chips 5/10 Again, I cannot quite point out what was wrong but nothing special.  No evident characteristic of “triple cooked”, if such thing exist!
  3. Peas 3/10 straight from the tin

Overall soooo not special but not bad enough to complain.  From the menu and how they present themselves on the website, it is clear that the intention is “a gastro pub”.  But this is clearly failing.

The place was packed but not many people were eating.  We now know why. Here, we found unpleasant consistency,  “good beer but nothing special/disappointing food”.  I don’t think we will be back.

You must sort out the lighting, we could not hardly what we were eating.  I was certain there was not skin on fish but had to do close examination using torch as well as needing torch to read the menu.

Good night!