There are some places which absolutely tick all my boxes. I had a good feeling about The White Horse Inn from the very start.
D had entrusted me with his latest copy of The Good Beer Guide, which he had painstakingly annotated using a unique rating system, marking places he thought I'd like with a little 'u' and places he thought I'd LOVE with a BIG 'U' (he is exceedingly thoughtful like that). I'd fired off dozens of emails to various little and big 'U' places in an attempt to find a last minute countryside getaway to banish those recently-back-from-holiday-blues, and I wasn't expecting much luck.
But suddenly, in one afternoon I suddenly found my inbox filled with a number of potential places to visit. The email from proprietors Tara and Danny Adams somehow seemed the most friendly. The White Horse Inn was described in the beer guide as a 'real gem' (hence a big 'U'), and best of all, as I explained to D, it shared it's name with this pub (our favourite pub in the world, not least because it was where we met). Our minds were quickly made up, and we looked forward to a weekend of adventures with Wiltshire White Horses.
Compton Bassett is a tiny village, but we found it without any problems at all. The sun was shining as we got our first view of the beautiful countryside, the idyllic beer garden and the lovely characterful building. There were geese and even a couple of very cute pigs behind the pub, and a separate building for the accommodation (8 rooms in total). We received a very very warm welcome at the bar, and Tara showed us to our light and airy room. Newly refurbished to a very high standard, everything was perfect - lovely shower, lots of attention to detail, tea making facilities and yummy biscuits! The sheer peace and quiet of the location felt good.
We headed off to Avebury (very close by - and we passed the first of three chalk White Horses on our way), and enjoyed watching the antics of a group of energetic lambs, scrambling back and forth across a steep hillside as if in training for a lamb marathon.
Lots of fresh air meant we'd built up quite an appetite as we returned in the evening for dinner. It transpired that one of the other buildings at The White Horse, was a skittle alley, hosting a group of twenty! The restaurant was fully booked (a good sign), but we had a great table in the smaller pub area. One of the last free-houses in Wiltshire, there were three real ales on and a magnificent pear-cider (or more correctly, a perry), called Bee Sting. Sweet and very pale and entirely clear, it was dangerously drinkable for a 7.5% beverage (I happily drank it all evening - the intriguingly named Black Rat Cider is only on in the summer, being a scrumpy). D thought the 'Tunnel Vision' was a nice malty bitter in very good condition. He later moved onto 'Innocent' which was a pale, heavily hopped offering, and then his favourite, the 'Bath Ale Gem', which boasted some caramel flavours.
The frequently changing menu made the most of locally sourced produce. There was a good range of dishes (all of which sounded delicious), so myself and D made the decision to share everything we ordered (fairly and equally), so as to sample as much as possible.
Starters arrived in perfect time for our hungry stomachs. I started with the beautifully presented mushrooms on toast with garlic cream sauce.
The juicy mushrooms were decadently rich and perfectly paired with the rustic bread. (We ate the flowers too - they tasted good!) True to our word, halfway through we swapped plates, and I sampled the tasty strong-flavours of the breaded Camembert (crunchy on the outside, and fantastically gooey on the inside) with cranberry syrup, We were delighted and hoped this was a sign of great things to come.
We were not wrong. The main course I started on were thin sliced of juicy pan-seared duck breast, with scrumptiously salty roasted salsify, crispy saute potatoes, Jerusalem artichoke puree and some very tangy red berries. As great as this was, this actually couldn't prepare us for the sheer divine nature of the other main meal, which D somewhat reluctantly shared with me. It was pork belly, that had been slow-roasted for 12 hours, and sourced very locally from Bishops Cannings (a mere 10 minutes away). It was utterly incredible. Incredibly soft and flavoursome, served with amazingly crispy (but not-teeth-breakingly so), crackling, crunchy greens (savoy cabbage) and sage mash, a mouthful of these components combined was heaven on a fork. I can't remember the last time I'd tasted anything that worked so well together. Once again our plates were soon completely clean.
Somehow, we still had space for dessert, and stuck to our sharing policy (mostly). My Chocolate Crunch dessert was paired with D's choice of Plum and Sloe Gin Sorbet. (Both good, but I preferred mine, as it was more indulgent.
It had been an absolutely wonderful dinner - every single thing we sampled had been delicious and we hadn't left a thing. We had been so well looked after, even though the restaurant and pub was at full capacity, that it had been a very chilled out experience (particularly as we knew our beds were in stumbling distance).
The next morning, any normal person would have still been full. I don't seem to be a normal person when it comes to good food (and thankfully neither is D). Full english breakfasts are one of our most guilty-pleasures, and we thought we may as well continue to indulge.
Tara was amazing looking after us yet again, (even though she was about to help with a charity fun run before dashing back to serve what would be a fully booked lunch service!) We weren't in a rush so we took it easy, eagerly anticipating another fine meal.
And what a meal it was! All the ingredients were of the best quality. A hugely chunky sausage (such a good flavour), two thick slices of bacon (D's favourite component), rustic bread toast, Stornoway black pudding (the best black pudding I'd ever had), beans (an essential binding ingredient), and a wonderfully soft-friend free-range egg (as good as the ones from my chickens, and with a yolk that was just as orange). A blissful end to a visit full of gastronomic delights and exceptionally wonderful hospitality. I'd strongly recommend a visit and hope I can return!
