The Swan — Restaurant in England

Good food but terrible atmosphere with new unannounced live noisy music at the time of booking or on their website that leaves people unable to have any conversation at the table. We had even trouble placing our order as the waitress was unable to listen to us and was clearly also annoyed. As a result, their clientele is also changing from quiet nice family-friendly environment to loud trouble makers.

Some of the drinks were very bad, like their non-alcoholic Margarita. After returning their terrible drink, they still charged it and they said they couldn’t take it out from the bill.

Staff are completely inattentive having to call them multiple times.

Parking is a total mess, they do not enforce people to park correctly and often they block the exit and take two parking spots.

Terrible, not coming back after being regulars and being dismissed in the way they did.

UPDATE: I find the Swan Team reply very unfortunate. It seems to be telling us how we should feel about the place. Their answer seems to pretend to know the interaction of our family members had with clearly intoxicated people that had already too many drinks shouting ('singing?') at other tables next to our grandparents and laughing at us when reacting to their constant yelling. But it is very telling that this defence of their new clientele versus a quiet well-behaved family may be the new normal in what used to be our local quiet and sophisticated pub.

Indeed, the Swan is right that this may no longer be a nice place for us and other families that used to like this place for its quite family-friendly feeling and instead is becoming yet another bad-taste regular bar. And no, the staff did not know how to prioritise serving, if you justify bad service with 'they are busy with other customers', its a terrible strategy and you must be doing something very wrong. The transition of The Swan is now complete, not sure if it is new owners or simply they have evolved (de-evolved?) but while one would find dishes like pork belly before and a nice environment, now it is becoming like a pub chain. Notice that most of the good reviews mention a quite place, not any more. The bad reviews also mention the parking issues. There are other very old pubs where they put more attention on what is going on with their parking places.

This answer from the Swan Team is disappointing and the opposite of how a manager or owner should react or reply. Their staff did not come a single time to our table to ask if we needed anything. Instead, we had however to stand up to chase them to ask for drinks, sauces, etc. Yet, their answer below is unapologetic and rather sarcastic and condescending. Please, do not tell us how good is your Margarita if we simply did not like it, its fine if others do.

Of course, it is expected that those drunkards around will love the live music, it is consistent with the replacement of the previous clientele and it is fine if this is the new customer profile The Swan wishes to attract: likely more profitable the more they stay and drink. Thanks for...

Our family have visited the Swan previously on a number of times in the past and he service and food has been exceptional.

However on this occasion the experience was very much different. We booked The Swan as some family members had not been seen for a long time and their trip from Scotland was being topped off with a visit to The Swan on Sunday evening before they returned home to Scotland.

The front of house service and welcome was lovely and once seated the girls were very attentive with menus and drinks orders. Starters and Main Courses were ordered and the Starter came in good time. After the starters were cleared away we were so engrossed with banter and conversation we hadn't realised that an hour had passed and there was no sign of the Main Course. After some light hearted banter with the service team the meals finally arrived and that's where it all went sadly wrong.

Out of eight meals only part of one was edible, the Burger. The fish was cooked in batter to such an extent that the fish inside had completely disintegrated, it was like a lump of sticky, stodgy glue. The roast chicken dinners were atrocious, the chicken was completely dehydrated the roast potatoes and vegetables resembled something that had been incinerated.

When I approached the service team they were extremely apologetic explaining that they had had some issues with the kitchen and that the food was not at the standard it should have been. I was given the option to have the table cleared and start again or to find an alternative place to eat. As I walked away from the bar area I was addressed by a membe rof the team who advised that f we were to re-order, we should avoid the fish and roast options.

Sophie the assistant manager was a credit to the establishment. She handled the situation with complete professionalism and understanding. Clearly there had been other issues during the service and the issues were known. I am disappointed that the junior team were left to field the issues, the General Manager/Owner should have been onsite.

We were absolutely disgusted by the quality of the food served and knowing that there was a problem, it would have been better to advise diners that there was a kitchen issue and limited the menu to burger only and for senior manager to have been onsite to explain.

I fully appreciate the issue recruiting but it is no excuse for lack of leadership or poor quality food coming from the kitchen.

We were so impressed with Sophie and her front of house team. The girls were so apologetic and near to tears, they were clearly stressed and were under pressure through no fault of their own. We left leaving a tip of £40 for the girls as we felt they were put in an uncompromising situation.

Swan Management - Get yourself sorted out, wed like to dine with you again and enjoy the standard we know you...

Due to the Swan staff’s inability to accept our previous criticism and unapologetic response I write this additional review to re-iterate our distaste with our experience here at the Swan.

Me and my partner arrived at a very busy day whereby our service was appalling. Understandingly waiting was expected but my partners dish arrives after 45 mins and was not the same in any way as presented so this was sent back. I had ordered a chicken Caesar salad which after an hour still had not shown of which we were issued apaologies and complementary drinks would be provided. This would have been nice but 20 mins later no drinks and still no food. After asking several people we received our complementary drinks of which my girlfriends glass was dirty with lipstick traces so this was sent back to which the staff was rude about , look understand your busy but where is the attention to service? After an hour and a half our dishes had both arrived and my Caesar salad looked pretty good but as I cut into the chicken it Was completely pink raw. At this point I made the staff aware and explained that this is totally unacceptable especially after the wait after which the managers agreed that we would not have to pay for our meals.

Your response to our review was that we were told from the start we would need to expect a massive delay which is not true, and also that we walked out of the restaurant without paying which is a little insulting considering your manager advised us not to pay. Our overall experience could have been overshadowed by a. ability to recognise your mistakes but your response turned strait to sarcasm which proves further that the service you provide has very little emphasis on customer relations. The service was very poor this day which can sometimes be understood but your response is unacceptable and written as to take no responsibility so shame on you.

I would not advise anyone to visit this place, there are plenty of nice restaurant in the area and although this one has a nice view by the river , nice is not part of...