The White Hart has a fantastic restaurant for those looking for a genuine Scottish experience. It has an open fireplace, and comfortable booths, fantastic food and a wide variety of single malt whisky. Philip and the staff really make you feel welcome. A beautifully decorated room adjacent to the dinning room makes this excellent restaurant large enough to accommodate groups but it is also intimate enough for a romantic dinner beside the roaring fire or a cozy dram shared on one of the red leather couches. We also loved the local ale named for the hotel. We plan on staying in the hotel when next we visit Islay.

I stayed in Port Ellen for four nights on business and dined here on the first night in the lounge bar. The standard of the meal, Hunter's Chicken, was nothing short of pathetic and the presentation was totally uninspired. It was obvious that it was a 'boil in the bag' microwave meal as it took less than 10 minutes to be served.
There is a choice of 2 eateries in Port Ellen, with the second being the Maharani Indian restaurant along the road and thankfully it is there, otherwise I would have had to travel to Bowmore every night for a decent dinner. I can recommend their meals as good quality, freshly cooked and good value for the price but who wants to eat an Indian meal every night?
As a regular Islay visitor, I look forward to the new Islay Hotel opening and having had a look around it, I am sure that the competition from the Islay will either make or break the slovenly White Hart where in the past I have been told at 2.10pm that I was too late a bar lunch! I really should have known better.

We were a group of 13 people and booked 7 rooms. The hotel is very nice with a great view. The only thing we were disappointed are the bathrooms. There was one shared bathroom and one shared toilet for 5 rooms. The toilet did'nt work. So we had to share one bathroom with toilet among 10 people. This caused some inconveniences in the morning.
In the restaurant they offered self service to get drinks. While we had dinner it took sometimes quite a long time until one of the staff appeared. Dinner was fine.

We arrived very late at night to find we had been placed in a room with no real bed and only a fold out sofa with very little padding. After rearranging other members in our party we were moved to a twin room. Thats when it all really began. the room was smelly and unclean. Firstly, the seat in the room looked as if it has been rescued from the bar downstairs. The desk was dusty, the carpet unhoovered and the curtains stained all over. The air vent/filter unit was covered in years of greasy mildue. The final straw arrived when we pulled back the bed sheets to find BLOOD stains....I kid you NOT!!! It safe to say we moved hotel. Don't let this hotel ruin your impression of Islay.