White Hart Inn

I wouldn’t leave a bad review lightly. In fact, this is the first one I’ve written in about a decade, but I’m sharing what happened so other people can be aware. What makes it particularly galling is that the company was still responding to other reviews online as recently as a week ago. The setting at The White Hart Inn Blyburgh is lovely, and the bed was comfortable, the staff friendly, and the vegetarian breakfast very good. That lovely setting is nature’s doing, though, not the company’s. I stayed in mid-January 2026, booking directly through their website. It was a 60th birthday treat for myself, travelling alone after my partner died. We’d stayed there together before and enjoyed it, and I’d planned a relaxing pampering evening after a nice meal. I was told on arrival that there was no hot water unless I crossed the courtyard to ask pub staff to switch it on, or went to the boiler room and turned a valve before a bath, then went back out to turn it off again. They said there was a leak under the accommodation. I have no idea when they discovered it, but a phone call would have stopped me making the 1.5-hour journey. Had I known, I wouldn’t have stayed. The weather was awful, and having to go outside to turn the water on and off put paid to my planned evening. At dinner I also discovered there was no vegetarian option. In the morning, I got dressed to turn the water on for a shower. The shower head wouldn’t stay at the right height, and paint was flaking above it. I tried to contact them several times. The address on the booking confirmation bounced back, as did the one on the website. I sent the online form and got no reply, so I assume it didn’t reach them. The post-stay satisfaction form they emailed me the next day gave no confirmation after I completed it either. Eventually I found another email address in a poor online review. They apologised and offered a free night and dinner, which I didn’t want and couldn’t do, so we agreed on a 50% refund on 2 February. I still haven’t received it. I emailed last week to say I’d apply to the small claims court, but I’ve wasted enough time on this shambles of a company.

The owners were very nice and accommodating when I went in for Sunday lunch. What I ordered was tasty, especially the gravy, but the roast portion was very small: two thin slices of lamb, two and a half roast potatoes, and a very hard glazed carrot. For the price, I wouldn’t be in a rush to go back.

We went for dinner with our 3-year-old and everything came out quickly and hot, even though it was only 5:30 and we were the first ones there because of the toddler. My husband had fish and chips, my son had the children’s sausages and mash with peas, and I had the Katsu chicken burger, which was lovely. We’ll definitely be back, thank you.

My husband’s Katsu ? Chicken sandwich looked good and he said it tasted nice. Mine, the Prawn and Crayfish cocktail in a roll, was awful. I could hardly find any filling, maybe three teaspoons, and there was none of the promised lettuce, pickled red onions, or Marie Rose sauce. It was dry and tasteless, basically a brioche roll that had only caught a glimpse of some prawns. No one checked whether everything was okay. If they had, I would’ve said something, but being British, we don’t like making a fuss. It was the last day of our holiday, and we’d eaten at several much better places, including Poachers inn and Fox Inn, only a few miles away. Go there instead. And please don’t ask for my email so you can say you’ll look into it unless you’re going to offer a refund.