CityLife

Pub of the week: The White Horse

The White Horse has a great kids' menu

The White Horse
Swinton
October 2009

HALLOWEEN half-term with the kids needn’t descend into tinned pasta hell if you head to the White Horse in Swinton.

The landmark white hostelry dates back 200 years and is allegedly haunted – so it might even be a good place to go in search of, ahem, spirits.

The Horse is renowned locally for decent home-made food and is offering two main meals for the knock-down price of £7.95 Monday to Thursday.

We visited on a busy Sunday afternoon and the traditional wood-panelled and beamed pub was showing no signs of struggling to compete with the allure of sitting at home with a cheap take-out.

It is mainly a drinkers’ pub and there’s no kind way of saying that it had that slightly sticky feeling that a well-used boozer can have on a busy day. Nothing too serious, but broken soap dispensers and torn or dirty food menus can create the wrong impression.

Excellent

Anyone who has a quick pint of the ubiquitous Boddingtons and makes a speedy exit, however, is missing out. The Horse really does live up to its reputation for offering both a good range of beers and a selection of great value, home-cooked, pub grub. There’s no faulting the kids’ menu, which, while mainly boasting the usual burgers to bolognaise fare, represented superb value for money.

Our two-year-old is a little short on vocabulary, but I’m pretty sure she’d have said something of the lines of “Are you sure that’s for me?” upon the arrival of her gargantuan £2.85 Sunday lunch. The other two children went for similarly inexpensive hamburger and chips and twisty tomato pasta.

Yours truly had the grown-up version of the Sunday lunch (£5.85 – or super-sized for an extra £1) and it was excellent. There’s a choice of chicken or roast beef and a healthy offering of vegetables – and if I had to scratch around for a criticism I’d say that the carrots MIGHT have been frozen.

I couldn’t help but develop a bit of steak and ale pie envy for my other half’s meal, a properly home-made staple which lived up to its delicious appearance.

The choice during the week is the White Horse’s own take on traditional pub fare.I had a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord and it was terrifically tasty. At these prices and with this quality and value for money, I wasn’t all spooked by the experience!

The White Horse - Worsley Road, Swinton, M27 0FH - 0161 794 2404.