IT'S a few years since I last visited the White Hart at Hartlebury. In those days it was run in the style of a gastro pub with a few tables at the far end of the lounge bar and a chic little separate dinning room with four or five tables. The food was excellent.

Things have changed a bit since then and the pub now caters more for the mass market with meal deals and a menu that includes a selection of burgers to appeal to children as well as adults.

The evening did not get off to a good start. Despite booking in advance, my guest and I were given a tiny table - barely big enough for one - in a dark corner where we were told "the bulb's gone". We would have needed night vision glasses to see what we were eating. We chose to move to a bigger table in the more cramped bar area, although to be fair the place was hardly buzzing for a Friday night.

I selected loaded potato skins with bacon and cheese (£2.50). I expected something crispy with thin strips of bacon and bubbling cheese on top.

Instead, I got two soggy potato halves with a bit scooped out of the middle, some bits of bacon and rather tasteless melted cheese on top and - the best bit - a salad garnish.

My guest had prawn cocktail (£4.50). I don't know if the prawns were doing front crawl or breaststroke, but they were swimming in sea of watery marie rose sauce. It came with a salad garnish and four triangles of white sliced on the side.

For the main course I had White Hart chicken breast with Stilton wrapped with bacon, plus vegetables (£5.25). The chicken was quite succulent - moist and tender if a little bland - while the new potatoes were completely tasteless, the carrots were a bit on the watery side, though the peas were OK. Overall as a dish, it really didn't work.

My guest had liver, bacon and onions with veg. She specifically asked for mashed potato but otherwise said new would do. The plate arrived with a large portion of chips. The waiter was very apologetic and a dish of new potatoes followed some time after.

My guest left most of her main course because there was a pool of grease on the plate - coming from the liver, bacon and onion we thought.

In the end, she was grateful for the chips.

Ever hopeful we ordered dessert. I had Bakewell tart with ice cream and my guest had apple pie and custard with a scoop of ice cream (both £3). My pudding seemed hot in the middle but cool on the outside and the pastry was chewy. The generous portion of apple pie was virtually inedible because the pastry was completely soggy but the custard and ice cream went down well. We suspect both desserts had spent time in a microwave.

Disappointingly, though the service was prompt and the food was hot, this was one of the worst meals I have had for a long time but there was one saving grace - the staff.

Our waiter and the bar staff were very friendly, extremely courteous and really did try their hardest - even if they didn't always seem to know what they were doing. Some of the cutlery arrived several minutes after the food and I was brought the wrong drink from the bar.

THE WHITE HART, THE VILLAGE, HARTLEBURY Tel: 01299 250286

SERVICE: ** FOOD: * VALUE: * AMBIENCE: *