The White Horse Is Back And Better Than Ever With A $55 Lunch Special Featuring Its Legendary Brie
The white facade is the same, as is the iconic silver stallion rearing over the roof. But walk through the front door of 381 Crown Street, and you’ll find that White Horse is a different beast entirely.
For close to a century, this was a proper old Surry Hills local, the sort of pub that had been pulling schooners since the 1930s, with the sticky carpet to prove it. Then, in 2024, a multimillion-dollar overhaul saw the public bar relocated upstairs and a polished new restaurant land on the ground floor, with everything except that trusty steed given a decadent makeover.
Step inside now, and it shows. The dining room is spacious rather than crammed, with luxurious, warm interiors and an art collection striking enough that you could happily stare at it all evening.
That sense of space carries through to how the meal itself unfolds, too. It's a slower, calmer style of dining than the typical rushed 90-minute seating, the kind of room that encourages you to linger rather than clear out for the next booking.
The kitchen is helmed by Executive Chef Jun Hwang, who's been a trusty steed at White Horse since day one. Jun has spent the last year properly making the menu his own, and the food has taken on a personality that's punchy, playful and totally distinct.
French technique underneath, Korean flavour memory running through the middle, and the occasional South-East Asian detour for good measure. "I still cook with the French techniques I learnt early in my career, but the flavours have become much more personal," Chef Jun tells Urban List. "We're not trying to be a modern Asian restaurant. The foundation of the cooking is still French, but I naturally draw on the Korean food and flavours I grew up with.”
During a recent visit, Chef Jun dusted down the apron and came to join us for a dish. Talking about his process, he revealed that underneath all the complexity, his approach is simple. "I try lots of things. I draw on memories. And this is the result of that."
Case in point: the W.A. rock lobster stuffed pappardelle. Despite the name, it's closer to a dumpling than a pasta - sitting in a savoury miso broth built from brown fish stock, daikon and kombu, finished with lobster bisque foam and prawn oil. Jun says the broth is a straight line back to his childhood in Korea, standing at food trucks outside school slurping down tteokbokki broth. "I used to drink litres of it," he says. "That broth has always stuck with me. This is obviously a very different dish, but that memory is in there."
Work further down the menu and the food keeps swinging for the fences, delightfully daring at every turn. There's a silky seafood pie stacked with mussels, scallop, prawn and potato under puff pastry, its classic velouté given extra depth with dashi and kombu. There's a Korean jeon-inspired chive pancake piled high with taramasalata, trout roe and pickled chilli. Even the steak tartare has gone rogue, swapping out the usual Dijon and capers for soy, sesame and shiitake, served over a bonito-and-horseradish custard with crisp potato. Roasted chicken skin turns up as a crisp shell for spanner crab and cider gel, because apparently nothing on this menu is allowed to be boring.
And through every menu overhaul since opening, one dish has stubbornly refused to leave: the Adelaide Hills brie ice cream, these days paired with strawberries and pistachio - the kind of scoop that would make the very best Messina special jealous.
Whilst special occasion in nature, White Horse surprises with an almost alarmingly reasonable Friday-to-Sunday lunch menu. An easy way in - six dishes for $55, covering black truffle choux, that chive pancake, the lobster pappardelle, gochujang-glazed chicken, XO fried rice and the brie ice cream to finish. At dinner, an $88 share menu does something similar across eight dishes, including a yuzu-and-white-soy kingfish and duck leg cigars.
On the drinks side, the wine list has more than doubled since opening - now sitting north of 200 bottles, with a solid Australian backbone and plenty sitting comfortably under $100. Behind the bar, Scott Hawker has built a cocktail list that doesn't take the easy route either, with options like a Kyoto Kitsune martini spiked with umeshu and ginger, and a Wagyu-fat-washed Marble Club old fashioned.
Plus, as someone who is always on the hunt for the perfect non-alcoholic cocktail – White Horse delivers. If you’re taking it easy and want to play it straight, the sans-booze menu includes a delicious 86 Negroni, a spin on a classic paloma and a pineapple concoction so spiky you could never tell the difference.
Image credit: White Horse | Supplied