Quality food and drink but I won’t be jumping on my Cart to return

Estate agents always say location, location, location is so important when it comes to getting a good price for your home.

But Pub Spy knows it can be just as important when trying to attract trade into your local pub.

The White Cart, in the suburb of Busby, on the outskirts of Glasgow, is often forgotten and overlooked in an area short of decent bars.

The location is set back from a busy main road to East Kilbride and you could easily miss it if you are not on foot.

That’s a shame because it of fers a warm and cosy atmosphere with decent quality traditional pub food and a roaring log fire in the winter and a large beer garden for people to sit out in t he summer.

Unless you live locally, you will probably have to drive to get there but it has lots of parking.

The White Cart, which is a listed building, is named after the local river and it has been selling beer to thirsty locals since 1860. It is divided into three areas, with the proper pub part as you walk in, the restaurant to the right and a more relaxed sofa seating area to the left. So you are bound to find somewhere that suits you.

But that’s also the problem – you get the impression that The White Cart isn’t sure itself if it is a pub or a restaurant with a drinking area.

With a lot of families and couples as customers, it’s not the ideal place for a night out with your mates and they don’t show live football but they do screen the occasional rugby match.

While food is served until 10pm most nights, the bar closes at 11pm, even at weekends.

But the food’s not bad. The steak and ale pie was a treat at £10.99 with British beef, buttery shortcrust pastry, mashed potato, buttered seasonal veg and, of course, ale gravy,

The White Cart also sells bar snacks including halloumi, fish goujons and pork sausages and a three-course kids’ menu, which is good value at £ 6.99. A large glass of sauvignon b lanc is good value at just under a fiver.

But, like the location itself, something is missing. The White Cart is trying to be too many things and ends up blending into the background.