The Black Swan — Restaurant in Great Britain

New review 19/08/25: the food is about £17+ per main and £8 per dessert, we followed my previous advice to play it safe and have the burgers or the battered fish, the thinking being that they can't make a mess of it but unfortunately I was quite wrong.

The food just keeps getting worse!

We had the fish goujon sandwich, 2 cheese burgers, 1 chicken burger, a Cajun chicken salad, a rump steak, some other bits and some desserts.

The chips were nice and, in general, the portion sizes were good but that's only really a positive where the food is good. The batter on the both the onion rings and the fish was thick, doughy, oily and undercooked, both the burgers were overcooked on the outside and undercooked and very pink most of the way through, the Cajun chicken had no flavour, the medium rare rump steak was bordering on being blue (not nice) and the chicken burger consisted of an exceedingly bland pan fried chicken breast. However, the desserts were enjoyed by most, though the flavours didn't come through with the peanut butter and salted caramel cheesecake, very bland.

The chef has a real talent for making food that looks alright but is actually pretty awful!

Then we have the service - I think the two ladies who attended to us were competing to see who could be the most miserable. Beside this, they did look after us okay, though they never asked how things were - I'm guessing they know, which is why they don't ask. It's probably all the disappointed complaining customers that are making them so miserable.

We would have had a vastly better and more enjoyable meal at Whetherspoons and also saved a packet.

Perhaps we should have complained but our expectations are so low for this place. We only really come for the pub garden and the zip line for the kids and because it's located at the half way point between us and family that we meet here. If we ever come back again then we won't be eating here, we'll get food elsewhere and just come for a drink and to use the garden. However, the zip line is now sagging so is slower. Maybe they've slowed it on purpose for safety but it's less fun so maybe we won't bother coming here at all next time.

Updated review 16/12/23: Sorry but I've got to downgrade my rating for this place, we never came here for the food as it was never great but this last visit the food was pretty awful. We had the Christmas seasonal menu and chose the turkey, the restaurant was not very busy so there's no excuse that they had to mass produce it - the portion was meagre, the turkey was thin and overcooked, the veg was tasteless and overcooked, the pig in blanket was the an inch long and that was bigger than the piece of stuffing we received, the roast potatoes were actually okay but the gravy was thin, weak and watery. However, the pudding was nice, we had the black forest brownie but it should have come with ice cream really as it was too claggy without. Really can't recommend the food here, maybe just have the burger or fish and chips if you need to be here, hopefully they shouldn't be able to screw that up too much.

My old review: This pub gets 5 stars for the attractive garden alone - brilliant for children to play in - zip line, swings, climbing, slides, a tractor; also pleasant for adults - plenty of tables in shady or sunny spots, lots of parasols, a duck pond. The food is okay though the menu is perhaps a touch boring but the desserts and ice cream are very good. The choice of drinks is good, apart from there not being much in the way of craft beer. All in all, it gets a thumbs up - we'll...

Very disappointing Christmas eve. Booked for 4 people after checking the website on my mobile. The £29.95 candle lit dinner with pianist sounded lovely. Upon arrival, we were seated quickly, and we tipped the waitress in advance and ordered our food. After we ordered, we were told by the waitress there was no more lamb, but the chef would prepare another lamb dish. No problem. We were a little surprised not to hear any piano music during the meal, but presumed it would be later. The food was delivered and surprisingly, there were enough lamb dishes. We checked that this was our order, as she was adamant they had run out, but we were reassured this was ours and they found a spare...! The food was nice. Desert was ok too, and the 15 minute wait for teas and coffees a little long, but no problem.

We asked when the bill came about the piano music, and were told they had called in sick.... nothing like sharing this information with the customers. The bill indicated that the food was £34.95 each. So we asked if that was correct, as the menu said £29.95. We showed her the menu and price on the phone, but she said she didn't know anything about that, went off to speak to the manager and came back and said the price was £34.95. At that point, we just wanted to leave, so paid and were leaving when we saw Martin the Manager. by this time, we noticed the menu on the website said 2018. Easy mistake to make, but Martin wanted to prove the website on his computer showed the correct menu. Maybe he wasn't aware that mobile and pc websites can show differently, but he wouldn't accept that the mobile version of the site showed last years menu. He also said about the lack of piano player "these things happen". He is correct, they do, but in the hospitality industry, it always best to try and see things from two sides rather than try to make the customer appear wrong.

Nice place, ok food, candle on the table as advertised, mobile site out of date, no piano player and an interesting chat with the manager. Nothing majorly wrong, but with so many other places around, will not...

I was really looking forward to eating at the Black Swan last night for my birthday meal after not being able to get a reservation in the summer due to the Covid restrictions.

It was very quiet, a bit cold. The Staff weren't friendly or helpful at all from the start.

I opened the menu expecting lots of lovely dishes to jump out at me.

What a disappointment!

At first I thought there must be a part of it missing, where were the starters???

I was told by the surly waitress that there was a limited menu, the best they could do was garlic bread!

The menu was just totally underwhelming. Steaks, burgers and a Sunday dinner menu (on a Tuesday evening) seemed to be the top picks with a scattering of other dishes. It was the strangest unappetising menu I'd ever seen!!!

In the end I opted for a lamb dinner at £17 (not what I had, had in mind for my birthday meal ) It was very average for the price. I could have made it better myself.

With its reputation I expected beautifully presented food. My dish was just lots of potatoes, overcooked, thinly sliced lamb and undercooked veg with a yorkshire pud plonked on top. I asked for more gravy and was told by the young waitress that she would ask but there might not be any, what? She didn't return.

I left half of my food. I was ready to complain when the young waitress came to take my plate. Ha, guess what, she didn't even ask how our food was!

I did eventually say that I hadn't enjoyed my food. I received a gin n tonic to recompense for my disappointment which I didn't want as the rest of the party had finished their drinks and we were ready to leave.

What I wanted was my meal to be deducted from the bill as the rest of the party were paying for my meal.

There's no excuse in my mind for poor service and for the limited yet overly expensive menu. I've been to several pubs in the area over the past few weeks and have never come across a menu with no starters. To me it just smacked of laziness and over reliance on regular customers.

I won't be...