The White Hart

The White Hart is getting lots of media attention and it caught my eye enough times that I had to try it, especially after reading about it in...InStyle Mag! Yes, I am a big enough dork to go somewhere because I read about it in a zine, I have never lived in a city so big that places in my own town actually get mentioned! I am sure I will learn my lesson soon.

It is a nice space in Neutral Bay on Grovesnor Street surrounded by other fun and trendy spots.

We stopped here with one goal for drinks and only drinks on a Friday night about 6:45pm. Being Friday night, it was understandably crowded. We ended up standing around the bar with no perch to sit on and no real defined space of our own very college bar. There are tables for the cocktail set but not nearly enough and they are very close to the nice people having dinner, as mentioned below. There are some low loungey seats but again not enough. The drinks were good, but small and extremely labor intensive thus making the wait for the first round 15-20 minutes. Fo' Real? First drink of the weekend and my mouth is watering, come on already! One of the glasses was dirty and the bartender was extremely offended that I pointed this out to him. With a big sigh and flourish he remade the drink. I guess this place is so cool that we should drink from dirty glasses and like it!

The food looked good and the people eating looked like they were enjoying their food. Sadly, on a Friday night the bar crowd is pretty much standing on top of the eating crowd as there is not really a division between the bar and dining area. I will probably never come here to eat as that would really bug me.

Revisit: after dinner drink, aborted as it was the same old song and dance.

Revisit for food: AWFUL TERRIBLE MAKE YOU SICK FOOD. DISGUSTING.

Good: tasty drinks
Bad: small drinks, long waits for tasty drinks to be prepared, lacking in atmosphere and adequate lounge seating
Ugly: dirty glasses and dirty looks

Brass tacks: If you have more patience than I do, enjoy cocktails that are not much bigger than a "shot" and do not get the DT's waiting 20 minutes for a drink you will love this place.