Historic 17th-century stone pub offering relaxed rooms & a traditional pub restaurant.
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The location was lovely, amazing views and a fantastic beer garden. Unfortunately the service and the beds let us down on our stay. My husband and I booked a last minute night away for my birthday. We wish we hadnāt have bothered. We paid extra for a superior double room. This includes an extra large bed. The bed we had was 2 singles, with 2 single mattresses pushed together! And when I said it is the most uncomfortable mattress we have ever slept on, I mean it was physically painful! So bad in fact that we were up, with our bags packed at 5am, counting down until 8am so we could check out and go home to get some much needed sleep.
The customer service was similar to the mattress, practically none existent and and painful.
The main issue was clear that they were understaffed and could not cope with the level of trade. There were only 2 members of staff on a Saturday evening and this included the dining room and bar area. The first frustration came when we were seated. It was a good 15 minuites before we were given a menu.. to then be told a list of meals that were not available. We made our selection and patiently waited, and waited and waitedā¦ for our order to be taken. When the waitress came over I asked if the chips that were served with the steak pie would be thick cut chips or fries as that would effect my decision as to whether I would order it. Her response was āUrm, itās a proper pie, with pastry and steak and .. chipsā . Excellent, glad we cleared that up. I took my chances and ordered it anyway.
Along came the starters (eventually). My husband was lucky to not suffer third degree burns from the salad his prawns were served with. It was clear our food has been sat waiting under a hot light for a long time waiting for service. We laughed about it. Whatās not to enjoy about volcanic cucumber.
It would have been nice to cool our mouths down with a drink but unfortunately we didnāt receive a drink until 75 minutes after we were seated. (Maybe my own fault, my dad always did tell me to make my drink last whilst dinner when I was a kid). We eventually waved down the waitress to order some drinks.
Then we were waiting for our mains. The bar manager (we presume) .. came over to clear our table. Well sort of, he took the place mats and cutlery that we werenāt using and placed them on the table behind us for the next group to use! (This is after we had been at the table for over an hour and had stacked our plates on them). He then came back and took our plates from our starters away and asked if we would like a drink. We explained we did order some but it doesnāt look like they are coming.
Moments later, the waitress was back for a reminder as to what drinks we had ordered. We told her again and off she went.
On returning. My drink was completely wrong. I again had to call her over to ask what was in it. I said āthis does not take like Disaronno. What is in it?ā. Her response was āoh what did you want? Iām not much of a drinker and they confuse meā .. eventually the right drink came.
The service was slow and awkward to watch. At no point was there an apology for the long waits or poor service, it felt like we were inconveniencing them by being there.
Long story short, we do not recommend staying here unless you are keen to experience a faulty towers remake.
Also the pie was...
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We went for a meal last night and had a terrible experience. My parents spent Ā£130 on an anniversary meal for us with accommodation. I had my eyes on the chicken wings for a started, burger and apple pie for desert. We were informed that they didn't have any chicken wings or apple pie because they couldn't get any due to problems at the moment. This i understood, but i enquired as to whether they could do anything else as the other options were extremely limited and i didn't fancy soup or liver. the only other deserts were ice cream on its own or eton mess. In response to my enquiry, i was met with hostility from the manager who informed me that there was nothing they could do. I asked whether i could swap the starter for a drink instead or order another main and add the rest of the extra money for the dish if necessary. He then said abruptly and in a very off hand manner that "it's not negotiable and it's very simple. You have to pick something on the menu and that's that". I felt very surprised that he reacted this way to me simply enquiring as to whether they had options. If they really couldn't do anything, he could of expressed it in a much more respectful way. After all, i wasn't asking for miracles and a simple, "I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do" would of sufficed rather than the aggression we were met with.
On sitting down with my wife, she said she'd lost her appetite due to the bad customer service and wanted us to drive home. I felt that we might as well order something as we were sat down and had already paid for the meal in advance. This is also why we believe they felt like they could treat us this way. Because they already had their money. So i ordered on behalf of me and my wife as she was too disgusted to even look at the menu.
I picked some options that they did have left and they were nice enough with the exception of the bland fis h and undercooked chips. I had to make do with 3 miniscule scoops of ice cream for the desert apparently costing Ā£6 on the menu. My wife got the eton mess which was decent enough.
It was all in all an unpleasant experience and we were apprehensive about returning the next morning for the prepaid breakfast because of the bleak atmosphere created by the staff who quite frankly made us feel like we were asking them for the earth everytime we enquired about anything.
I asked for some milk as we'd run out in the room to which the lady at the bar said she'd bring us a jug, we were brought enough milk for one person and there was two of us standing there so i asked for some more. It felt like common sense to me to bring enough milk for at least 2 hot drinks. The lady was nice enough though making an effort to be pleasant. My main complaint was as a result of the rude manager who quite frankly didn't care about us ever returning. I was hoping to have a good night and perhaps buy a lot more drinks than we did. If the manager learns some people skills, i think they'll be able to improve their services and create a friendlier...
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08.02.2022, 2nd Review. This place very quickly became one of our favourite to go places and this trip was our best yet ! Bailey and Scott are amazing hosts and make us both feel so welcome and look after us superbly well. The food is incredible and the breakfast really does set you up for the day. The inclusion of beans was long overdue and made it excellent.
1st Review. We arrived too early on the Sunday afternoon so made ourselves comfortable in the very cosy and warm bar, near to the log burning fire while our room was being cleaned. All staff were extremely helpful and we were served in the main by Scott, who couldn't do too much to make you feel welcome. We both decided to try the Roast Beef Sunday Roast and it was unbelievable value for money. It consisted of perfectly cooked beef, real roast potatoes, a Yorkshire Pudding, potato mash, carrot mash, mixed veg, cauliflower cheese, red cabbage and finished with lovely gravy. We were taken to our room (9) and it was very spacious and clean. The bathroom was a good size and again was very clean. There was a large TV in the room which seemed to have a mind of it's own ! But this certainly didn't spoil our stay in any way. The bed was really comfortable. It ticked all the right boxes for us. We went down for breakfast the next morning and were warmly greeted and served a splendid Yorkshire Breakfast consisting of a thick rasher of bacon, 2 chipolata sausages, black pudding, grilled tomato and mushrooms. Our stay was getting better and better. On the final night my partner went for the Steak and ale pie with chips and veg, while I went for the lamb rump, which came with veg and mash potatoes. We ordered extra sides of chips and battered onion rings. Everything could not have been better. So, in conclusion, we have had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend at the Black Swan, the food and drink were superb and the staff were extremely helpful and attentive. I'm already looking forward to a return visit. Thanks everyone at...
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