Cygnet Restaurant at The Swan Hotel

Mrs. K. Le Seelleur (12 May 2009)

Having visited the Swan's downstairs restaurant for meals on various occasions, and having been very impressed by the variety and standard of the food served there, we chose, on Saturday, to celebrate our golden wedding with a family party at the Cygnet Restaurant. The service and attention given to us and our guests were excellent. The food was superb, with a wide range of dishes, on a personalised menu, and served hot, something not always achieved by some restaurants we have visited. The bill came as a pleasant surprise, being less than we had anticipated, and all our guests said how much they had enjoyed their meals. We will have no hesitation revisiting in the future, and would happily recommend The Swan to anyone looking for a special night out.

Unhappy Diner (16 March 2009)

My husband and I recommended the Swan to some friends for a Sunday lunch as we had been there before for the carvery, which we had thought perfectly reasonable, if nothing special. We were unable to book in advance as we were told that they were always so busy, they never took bookings but served customers on a queuing basis. We arrived at around 1.45 on a Sunday and expected a bit of a wait but were pleased to be told that we could practically be served straight away if we sat outside in the sheltered garden area. This was fine with us as the two small children with us could play on the swings whilst we waited. As nobody had come to the table 15 minutes after deciding what we were having, my husband asked a waitress if we should go to the bar to order, she said no and she would fetch another waitress to take our order. We waited as we watched several waiting members of staff walk past us, a few wiping down the tables in the virtually empty garden. My husband asked again about ordering in case they had forgotten about us. There were plenty of empty tables inside and there was no queue at the carvery. Again he was told the waitress was on her way. After 45 minutes of watching 'busy' waiting staff standing around and chatting, my friend went up and asked. The waitress then appeared, no smile, no sorry, just a face like thunder. When she bluntly asked us what we wanted my husband joked that he couldn't remember, she barked that we'd only been there a few minutes and that it was my husband's fault she hadn't been out because she's been told what coloured shirt he had on and he'd put a jacket over the top of it! Her whole attitude was rude, surly and extremely unhelpful.

My friend and I ordered rare, pan-fried rib eye steaks cooked in garlic, white wine, mushroom and cream sauce, this could be served with chips or jacket potato, with peas, which my friend had, or 'chefs selection of potatoes and seasonal vegetables' for an extra pound, which is what I opted for. What we got were thin, stringy, tough as old boots, unidentifiable pieces of grey meat covered in a flavourless half a pint of cream with a couple of fried mushrooms plonked in for good measure. My 'chef's selection' was two small, overcooked new potatoes, no sign of the roast spuds we were promised by the waitress, and some vegetables which may have been seasonal when they were probably first prepared several months ago. The peas were so overcooked half of them were actually brown, the other half were so shrivelled up it was impossible to tell what they were. It was absolutely revolting, as were the three cremated, thin Barnsley chops smothered in 'chip shop style' gravy, and the large frozen Yorkshire pudding served to our husbands. Mine was served in a dish that was so chipped and cracked it should never have been used to serve food to a member of the public on health grounds. Excluding drinks, these four dishes and a child portion of fish and chips came to £70, which we had to pay before we received our meal. There seemed little point in complaining, partly because we had already waited for over an hour, but also because of the couldn't-care-less attitude of the staff. We will never eat at the Swan again and we'd never recommend that anyone else did either. The quality of the food is appalling. Personally, I would rather have a smaller portion of food that was good quality, well cooked and tasty, than a pile of inexpensive, flavourless and badly cooked rubbish. It was clearly not just us who felt this way, the other two tables who were eating outside at the same time as us also left a huge amount of food on their plates and looked less than satisfied with their experience. Judging from the most recent reviews of the Swan on this site, it seems to me that the place is running on its previously excellent reputation.

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