The White Star Tavern

Above: The luxurious restaurant area

Above: The White Star Tavern

Keen to label myself as a young and trendy type, I was looking forward to experiencing what The White Star in Southampton had to offer. Not just a restaurant, the venue is also a fashionable bar, equipped to cater for the city’s thirsty residents, young and old.

We arrived nice and early, so we could check into our luxurious, contemporary guest room and have a couple of pre-dinner cocktails to work up our appetites.
The bar area has been lavishly decorated to appeal to us trendy types, with luscious wallpaper and stylish low lighting, but still maintains it’s original features – ornate fireplaces are tucked neatly into nooks and crannies and as we sat down at our table it was nice to feel the warmth of a real fire after experiencing the cool night outside.
It was still relatively quiet as we moved on to our second drink, but at 7.30pm, as we were ushered over to the restaurant area I could see customers trickling in, one after the other.

Catering to all tastes
You could say the food at the White Star is rather gastro pub, offering a fresh twist on traditional-style meals. Wild boar and apple sausages, with creamed potatoes and fine beans for instance, or Beer battered fish, marrow fat peas and tartare sauce. And for the more refined palette? How about the Fillet of sea bass with bourguignon garnish? Or maybe Roasted breast of corn-fed chicken, wild mushroom ballotine and wilted spinach?
We were keen to try something from every part of the menu. For starters, I decided on the mushroom soup (£4.50), delicious and served in a sweet wrought iron serving dish. It was the perfect-sized portion for a starter – so often I have eaten at restaurants and felt full after the first soup course. My companion had the Goats cheese and wild mushroom spring roll with olive tapenade (£5.50) and wasn’t disappointed. The mushrooms were finely chopped into the goats cheese: flavoursome without being too rich. The tapenade also complimented the cheese.

The main event
It had taken me most of the evening thus far to choose what to have as a main course, but the homemade fish cake, poached egg and chive butter sauce (£9.50) proved too tempting to pass-up.
It was a daring move for me. I hadn’t eaten fish cake since I was little, fresh from the freezer. Needless to say my memories weren’t pleasant, but the word ‘homemade’ had won me over. It was rather filling, but packed full of flavour and the breadcrumbs were the perfect texture - not too much crunch - which meant it was perfectly cooked. I perhaps made a mistake with the fries as an accompaniment, the home cut chips (available as a side order) would have gone better I felt.
The 10oz sirloin of British beef, home cut chips and watercress, with peppercorn butter (£19) went down favourably with my companion. Considering he usually has such a small appetite there was nothing left on his plate at the end of the course. The steak was cooked exactly to his taste, pink and tender on the inside, but beautifully seared on the outside.
Needless to say, after two such hearty courses a dessert each may well have had us needing to lie down in a darkened room, so we shared the Chocolate parfait with milk ice cream (£5.50). It was rich and (again) filling, but the right choice as an end to what was a delicious meal. Swilled down with a bottle of Italian Gewurztraminer (£26.50) – lovely.
Saturday night was in full swing at The White Star as we retired to the bar. It must be said, this former seafarer’s hotel has pretty much everything: a great atmosphere, fabulous food and stunning accommodation to rest your weary head after a hard night’s revelry (nothing much has changed, then).

The verdict (out of 5)

Service:  4
Atmosphere: 4
Decoration: 4
Food: 4
Value for money: 5

Book your table

Rooms at The White Star start from £79
The White Star Tavern Dining & Rooms, 28 Oxford Street,
Southampton, SO14 3DJ
Tel: 023 8082 1990.
www.whitestartavern.co.uk