Multi-award winning destination village restaurant and pub, The White Hart at Fyfield, six miles southwest of Oxford, has been included in the Good Food Guide’s inaugural ‘50 Best Sunday Roasts 2024’.
A family-run business owned by head chef Mark Chandler and his wife, Kay, The White Hart at Fyfield is a destination pub for an atmospheric and delicious Sunday lunch with family and friends.
The White Hart’s offers crackling log fires in its bar and a stunning 15th-century dining room with a triple-height vaulted ceiling and minstrel’s gallery and generous portions of its top-notch, locally sourced roasts.
Dry-aged beef served with goose fat roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, red wine jus, homemade horseradish sauce or a signature 12-hour slow-cooked roast belly of Kelmscott pork served with roasties, apple and celeriac adorned with a foot-long piece of glorious golden crackling and cider jus, are just a couple of the tempting dishes on offer, together with the freshest seasonal veg picked that morning from its own kitchen garden.
Fantastic starters and traditional puddings with innovative twists are worth saving space for. A perfect children’s menu is also available, alongside vegetarian options.
Since taking on The White Hart in 2005, Mark and Kay have lovingly restored this beautiful, 15th-century Chantry house to its former glory and have built its reputation as a gourmet destination with sustainability at its heart.
In February 2024, the couple appointed a new head chef, Grahame Wickham, so Mark could take on the role of executive chef.
Grahame upholds Mark’s legacy of gastronomic excellence on his daily-changing Modern British menus with Mediterranean influences whilst maintaining a low carbon footprint. Produce is harvested daily from the pub’s own kitchen garden and the best local farms and suppliers. Chefs also regularly forage for ingredients in the surrounding countryside.
Their carefully curated wine list focuses on small, independent makers, and there’s a selection of local real ales, including the bestselling White Hart ale, brewed for the pub at nearby Loose Cannon in Abingdon, and bespoke seasonal cocktails made with homemade infused spirits, shrubs, cordials, mixers and garnishes from the kitchen garden.
Making the shortlist from over 18,000 public nominations, The Good inaugural ‘50 Best Sunday Roasts 2024’ said of The White Hart at Fyfield, “There’s little doubt about the main draw at this handsome 15th-century hostelry.
“The venerable dining room with its high beamed ceiling, stone fireplace and heavy wooden furniture is an impressive reminder of Olde England – the perfect place to hunker down for a classic Sunday lunch.
“Whether dry-aged beef sirloin or 12-hour slow-cooked Kelmscott pork belly with cider jus – all are served with real ‘pride and enthusiasm’. The kitchen does a good line in proper puddings (including the most ‘heavenly’ sticky toffee), and kids have their own little roasts.”
The other Oxfordshire restaurant on the list is The Plough Shiplake. ‘It’s simple, not overstated, and exactly what we love,’ commented one reader about the Sunday roasts on offer at this rejuvenated village hostelry.
