The High Corner Inn, Linwood, New Forest (From Bournemouth Echo)

The High Corner Inn, Linwood, New Forest

9:30am Wednesday 17th February 2010 in

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IT was with some fondness that a colleague of mine recited the last time she had visited the High Corner Inn.

Apparently she had arrived there on horseback with another of my colleagues. They had tethered their horses and nipped inside for lunch, before saddling up and galloping off through the New Forest again.

Sadly, my arrival at the restaurant last week was far less romantic – although probably just as uncomfortable.

Idling down the pothole-ridden driveway in our car, my girlfriend and I bounced off the vehicle’s roof as we unsuccessfully avoided the ruts in the road – it felt like the kind of track you might drive down if you were looking to hide a body.

Nevertheless, I rather enjoyed the wild feel to it all and, four battered shock absorbers later, we pulled up outside the High Corner Inn, which was absolutely stacked to the rafters with punters – the queue for the bar was two deep.

Fortuitously (after doing two circuits of the inn) my girlfriend managed to find a table while I ordered the drinks, which I nearly had to take out a mortgage for – a wallet-wounding £7.35 for a lager shandy and a large fruit juice.

At the table, nothing on the menu particularly screamed out to us, so we both opted for the carvey (£9.75 each), which looked superb.

Trouble was, however, that we were kept waiting (plate in hand) for the chef to turn up and serve us for nigh on five minutes – sighs quickly started echoing throughout the queue.

To compensate, the chef weighed our plates down with liberal portions of meat (pork, turkey and beef), but disappointingly there was yet more waiting in store while he single-handedly replenished the vegetable tray and gravy bowl – our lunch was so close yet so far!

When we eventually tucked into our food, we were rewarded with juicy slabs of meat and perfectly cooked vegetables, although I was a tad disappointed with the prosaic potatoes.

Fortunately the Yorkshire puddings and leek and cheese sauce offered something in the way of compensation.

Strangely, the service throughout our visit was a Jekyll and Hyde affair.

One minute a stroppy teenager would bark orders at a colleague in the middle of the restaurant and the next a small, kind-hearted woman (possibly the boss) would appear for a friendly natter with the punters and to see if the diners were enjoying their meals. It was a bizarre contrast of characters. However, despite the erratic service, the price of juice and the potatoes, I probably would return to the High Corner Inn.

The service was entertaining, while the inn is located in one of the prettiest, most secluded spots in the New Forest – if only I owned a horse.