Black Swan Inn — Restaurant in Great Britain

Poor quality food and scarcastic bad attitude from management. This place is so overrated

Needless to say dire eating experience recently where the bigoted (aptly described by previous customers) manager (aka owner) told us very blatantly the grey looking reformed fish "wholetail scampi" they dished up for me is apparently "Michelin Star " and of the highest quality whatever it was it was definitely NOT wholetail scampi as they advertise on their menu..

The evening started off by us ordering a bottle of Moet Chandon (special occasion). Ten mins later the "manager" comes out to say "we don't have, will Tattinger do?". a bit taken aback asTattinger not on the menu but we agreed to that. I took a few moments to mull it over to which the manager, clearly agitated by my delayed response, said "does it really matter?" our table was stunned at this comment, then the manager changesmd his stance and said "we might have a bottle of Moet but he will need to check another fridge". clearly he could not be bothered to check prior. so after now agreeing to a bottle of Tattinger, a few minutes later he delivered a pre opened bottle of Moet (bad etiquette not to open champagne directly in front of guests) but quite honestly this typifies the arrogant manager attitude and his clear lack of professional experience.

The food overall was on par to a Wetherspoons. My husband's starter was a tiny portion of poor grade whitebait with a very wilted salad.

The menu advertises "wholetail scampi" but it is not. opening the breaded casings revealed an unpleasant grey matter of what looked like reformed fish. Having shown the chef and management they stood over us masked up and hands folded inferring we were idiots. Apology is not in their vocab. Always an indication of poor management.

Having eaten at this establishment on a number of occasions prior to our last visit, the manager (owner) has always been very rude to me. He is ridiculously neurotic about mask wearing, once pulling me up for not wearing mask from the garden to the out-house toilets. Even on our recent visit they are still requesting diners wear masks as advertised on a board by the front door.

On another occasion, my friend and I asked for a 2020 bottle of white wine (bear in mind the wines here are overpriced and poor quality). At the same time i requested a large bottle of sparkling water to which the manager responded "What vintage would madam like?!!!!"

i have overlooked the manager's rudeness on 2 occasions but tonight was the tip of the iceberg. the manager is offensive in his comments and attitude, as the saying goes...

"sarcasm is the lowest form of wit!"

it certainly won't bring in the punters. Avoid this place...

Where do we begin? So we came to the Black Swan Inn just before 6pm and the manager said they were fully booked. When we looked disheartened he said he’d check with the kitchen to see if they could fit one in and they did so. We sat outside and the garden was beautiful.

While we were sat outside, we overheard Eric (Head Chef) talking to some other customers about his specials. We were so in awe listening we decided to order three mains between the two of us. One 16oz pork shank, and two specials, the cassoulet and venison cannelloni. Surprised at the order between two Eric kindly came out to recommend that we don’t order so much as we’d have too much to eat. We expressed how we enjoyed listening to him and wanted to try a variety. He accepted this and went inside.

The manager then came to say he’d heard we’d made a big order for the two of us, and suggested we move to a bigger table for four so we would have more space. When the food came we needed it! The food was delicious and Eric came out to us after the food was served to tell us a little about it and his family’s recipes.

The challenge was on, and we made a lion’s share of the challenge. We took a little pork home to shred for pulled pork sandwiches! The food was simply delicious. Eric came out to congratulate us but also brought a little bowl of off-cuts for our dog which was really thoughtful.

We can honestly say that the Black Swan Inn is the best pub in Swanage. The service was incredible and the staff kind and thoughtful. If you get the chance, speak to the head chef, he’s a top bloke and he will show you how much he cares about the food. A thorough first-class experience. It really made our...

Update We returned here at year end (December) for our anniversary. We found that this time the manager was pushing all three menus on our table before we had our coats off and had sat down. He also asked before we sat down what we wanted to drink and told us what was on and off the menu. We said that we can order our drinks and that we know what food we want, but he curtly said he doesn’t take food orders, but will send someone to take that order. We found it so rude and disrespectful . We only had two courses didn’t have the usual drinks we normally would have had and we thought the food was more like a school dinner swimming in gravy and overcooked veggies . We shall not return . Ownership change ?

October 2023 ( 5 stars then) We had dinner here last week and you need to book as it was full. The food was really good quality pub grub with generous portions. I had sardines to start and pork belly for main with the other half going for the whitebait followed by liver. All very tasty and filling in so far that we had no room for dessert. A bonus was there was Timothy Taylor Landlord on tap too ✔️. Definitely recommend and we...