A jewel Worksop should be proud of

The White Lion, on Park Street, served up some of the best food I have tasted in a long time.

My partner and I decided against booking a table, thinking that the pub wouldn’t be too busy at 5pm on a Friday.

How wrong we were.

The car park was already pretty full when I parked up, and inside the pub was already filling up with diners and those popping in for a Friday evening drink.

The waiter told us all the tables had been reserved, but found us one that wasn’t due to be occupied for another few hours. We were taken into the dining side of the pub by a smartly dressed waiter, who showed us to a little table next to the window and handed us our menus.

What struck me straight away was the selection and variety of dishes available.

There were the pub favourites such as pie of the day (£9.75), lasagne (£9.50) and beer battered fish and chips (£9.95) as well as dishes from the grill.

But it was the main menu that really caught my eye. On there were dishes such as pan fried Derbyshire lamb cutlets (£14.95) and sun blushed tomato and wilted roquette frittata (£10.95).

I decided to go for the pan roast Gressingham duck breast, with sweet potato puree, steamed pak choi and a soy and cherry jus (£14.95).

The starters looked equally as delicious and so I also ordered the English toasted muffin, topped with wild mushroom ragu, poached egg with grated Parmesan and truffle oil (£5.95).

My partner opted for The White Lion Burger (£8.95) from the grill section.

It wasn’t much of a wait until my starter arrived.

The dish was an impressive size for a starter and every mouthful was delicious. The flavours complemented each other perfectly and the poached egg topped off the dish superbly.

My main course was of a similar high standard. The duck was cooked brilliantly and was so tender and melt in your mouth.

My partner’s burger seemed to go down equally as well. The meaty burger came in a crusty cob, with melted cheese, bacon and mushrooms, accompanied with homemade chips, coleslaw and salad.

He said the chips were delicious and they were the first thing to go before he tackled the burger, which was bursting with flavour.

Our meal had been amazing so we thought it only right to look at the dessert menu. I was tempted by the chocolate box dessert, but was too full to order it.

I’ll definitely be returning to The White Lion again. With the right balance between delicious flavours and reasonable prices - I encourage you all to do the same.

by Sam Chetwynd

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