White Swan at Fence — Restaurant in Borough of Pendle

Faultless food but let down by the service.

The food was excellent, a great spread of plates, some rich, some tart and everything in between.

What did let this place down however was the level of service we recieved (which suprised me given the reviews on here). I don't know if it was the fact we had a late seating (8pm) or just different staff than usual.

A couple of errors on the staffs part:

1. When we hand our umberella over for safe keeping, it really shouldnt just be ditched on the floor next to a busy corridor.

2. We asked for the drinks menu mid-way through, the staff provided it, but then never even bothered to follow up and ask us what we actually wanted to order. We ended up leaving without a final drink and going to the local bar. We didnt once get asked if we wanted another drink or even more water for the table. We had a bottle of wine early in the meal which was left on the window ledge behind us, and not once did the staff top us up or check we hadnt finished it.

3. We had a table of two, and courses were brought out and explained while my partner was in the bathroom.

4. Staff present the cheese board directly in front of people at each table. In my view, this should be covered with a lid so other guests are not breathing all over the cheese. If your serving that many people in one night its really not hygenic to have an open board of cheese for people to talk / cough over.

5. Service charge was added on, but this wasnt explained by the staff, I only realised after we'd left.

If this was just another gastro pub, I'd ignore the above, but given it's £80 / head and a starred resturant you expect a slightly more refined...

This place had been recommended and we decided to book in at The Fence Gate (just a mile down the road) for an overnight stay.

A wet Wednesday night and the restaurant was full! Unlike most fine dining, this gastropub has several beer taps on the bar. I had a Tomothy Taylor and my darlin’ a Prosecco.

The menu was fixed and what you might call a tasting menu with six courses (seven with the optional cheese board.)

A bottle of Malbec ordered and then we’re off:

Aged Comté & walnut croustade. Powerful, intense, delicious amuse bouche.

Homemade bread with whipped butter and paté covered in foi gras shavings. Again, delicious.

Beetroot ice cream with coconut, curry and coriander. Again, intense flavours. Who’d have thought you could have teased so much flavour from beetroot?

Steak tartare with cucumber, egg yolk, dill and horseradish. This worked really well with the Malbec.

Herb fed chicken with asparagus, morels, light and dark Périgord truffle sauces. The flavours were divine. This was also served with BIG chips, probably and inch and a half diameter! The flavours were divine.

To the first of the puddings: Rhubarb and blood orange panna cotte. It had a sprinkle of baby basil leaves!

My darlin’ says this one of the best puddings she’s ever had!

Then: Passe crassane pear with tarragon, honey and single estate olive. This was a perfect lead in to the cheese board. However, we didn’t partake in the cheeses, we were full!

The flavours of the full meal left us sated. We chatted with the staff who were all fairly young and well informed.

This is a comfortable gastropub with excellent food and in no doubt, we shall return bar...

I was so looking forward to visiting this little place after reading all the good reviews and recommendations from friends but unfortunately it was very disappointing… I opted to go on the lobster evening as it’s my favourite dish and the whole night was focussed on lobster, so I felt it was the perfect opportunity for me to sample their food… unfortunately it wasn’t good at all and I am so so disappointed as I do feel they are normally good but on this occasion they really weren’t … we had a cheese cup for first starter and it was delicious and I was excited to taste the remainder of the dishes… the second starter was half of baked potato scooped out then mixed with butter to make a purée was very salty and all i could taste was the creaminess of the butter and what tasted like the cheese from the first course .. I could not taste or hardly find the lobster in it .. then my main course came and it was so so disappointing.. they had cut parts of the lobster from the main to create the starter which just made the presentation look scruffy and the lobster was so over cooked it was chewy .. unfortunately this place is a no from me … I have added some photos .. and labelled them … one is the photos from their website .. one is a picture of my friends meal when she visited last year and one is a picture of my meal .. you can see from the image the lobster is just so overcooked which just left it tasteless and chewy .. and cost...