The Old Black Swan — Restaurant in England

Worst mixed grill ever. Bloody steak red and raw with white greasy lump of fat in the middle. I don't know how they cooked the chips, brown greasy limp and cold. Everything on the plate was at a different temperature. Cold peas ( yes cold) broken sloppy egg, hard lumps of I suppose gammon, seemed like a few left over lumps, one thin and greasy and another bit thin and greasy. As for the sausage, two tiny chipolatas black, cold and hard. Sliced mushrooms, cold and greasy. It really was a dreadful meal. I told the bar man who said they had teething problems as they had only been taken over a week, errr no excuse there sorry. We had already paid and were not offered anything in compensation. He told the chef and came back and said the chef agreed that my meal was not cooked properly. Server was full of apologies, blah, blah, not good enough sorry. I said all the food seemed like it has been cooked at different temperatures abd another sorry, chef said sorry. I just wanted to get out of there. Other diners seemed to be happy enough, so good for them. But every diner should go away satisfied. My plate was half full of cold greasy fatty food. Geniune review, my opinion. Must say I felt a bit sorry for the server (owner) he kept saying sorry, sorry, but what good is that? Maybe another "chef"....

Very disappointed with our last visit{today at lunch time]. We have been many times and have had no problems with our food order. Today we ordered steak pie off the menu with potatoes and vegetables. The pie was luke warm so after nibbling at our food we brought this to the attention of the lady behind the bar who took our meals away then five minutes later appeared with the same meals that had been re heated. I ended up eating off my partners original plate and he mine. We were in shock to be given back the same meals that had been thrown into a microwave and more gravy poured on top. The meals we purchased were over eight pounds each and we would have expected the meals to have been served from fresh with the first meals binned. As a waitress who has worked in three pubs I have always binned meals that have been complained about and replaced them with a fresh portion of everything on the...

MAY 2025 - CLOSED - AGAIN

Once more what was the heart of Bedale closes; 3 Licensees in as many years?!?!

A real shame as this pub has so much potential but it seems from what is being said locally that it’s just too expensive to run.

It’s not for want of trying - the local landlords are doing their best to keep the pubs in Bedale going but they really need mid week support from locals; 3 pubs closed in six months should be a wake up call - ‘ if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it’! Fortunately two of these have since reopened - for now!

It would be a brave person to take the Swan on now and someone with very deep pockets but fingers crossed a workable solution...