The Swan Lyndhurst — Restaurant in New Forest

more like hospital food! :( We went for lunch here last week as it was a place we often pass and the garden looks lovely - sadly the food and service not so much. I ordered a King Prawn Cocktail - described as "succulent king prawns in a smoked salmon and chive mayo with soft bloomer bread and butter" what arrived was a few prawns that were disconcertingly warm as if they'd been microwaved to defrost them, definitely not king sized, and no sign of the smoked salmon and chive mayo - tasted just like Hellmans mayo. The bread was a slice of toast and when I queried it, they brought me another slice of bread that was warmed up - got the impression that the bread was possibly stale and they tried to disguise this by toasting it. My husband had Beef Pie of the Day - described as "delicious pie filling topped with golden pastry, served with buttery chive mashed potato, glazed seasonal veg and a rich beef gravy" - now he never complains about his food but this was too bad even for him! He's actually been served better in hospital and that was what it looked and tasted like. The beef was tough as old boots, the mash was certainly NOT 'buttery' and the veg wasn't so much 'glazed' as overcooked and watery. Also ordered a glass of Aperol Spritz which was an eyewatering £10 for the glass - this tasted of just soda water. When I took it back, the guy behind the bar said he would just 'top it up with soda' - when I explained that this would make it worse he took it round the back and brought it back with a load of ice in it. Aperol spritz is supposed to be 2 parts Aperol, 3 parts Prosecco and dash of soda water - he said and I quote "oh its fine now, its just these types of glass that make the fizz stay at the bottom, I've added ice and it should be fine now"!! seriously?!! We did get a refund for it all as it was so appalling and we could't eat it, but I'm disappointed as I really wanted it to be good there. It's a great location and lovely garden but I can't...

Having had a poor experience at The Swan in March we had been given a £40 voucher and decided to book for lunch today. We were shown to our table which was tightly jammed into a corner with litte room, made worse by the proximity of the adjacent table, which had a party of 6 already seated. We asked to move for our sake and the other party's sake, and were told that as it wasn't busy we could sit anywhere. So we chose a table in the bar area and there we sat...and sat...and sat. The pub was not particularly busy - only 4 or 5 of the tables were occupied but no one came to take either a food or drink order so, eventually, I went to the bar to place our order, only to be told there was a 45 minute wait for food. While waiting for our food we noted 4 families come and go having been pointedly told there was an hours' wait for food. A family at another table complained that they'd been waiting half an hour for their food and were told their food would be another 20 minutes but they could have free drinks. Weirdly, our food arrived 20 minutes after ordering but none of it was as advertised on the menu - I chose the Crispy coated buttermilk-style burger layered with Violife cheese, Asian style slaw and a Sriracha glazed mushroom and fries. I'd already been advised it would be a soya burger, which was fine, but it arrived in a bun with a piece of iceberg lettuce, topped with a slice of Violife cheese, together with a handful of fries, served on a small side plate - no slaw or mushroom. Contrary to the unreasonable delay in getting our food, a member of staff came and wordlessly cleared our table as I was chewing the last mouthful. He didn't ask if we'd finished, or whether we wanted dessert. We will never visit...

So disappointing. Pub was almost empty when we arrived at 5:30 but we checked if we were ok to order food as a number of tables were reserved. Barman said ok so we found a table which was grubby. Noone came to clean the table, or checked we had menus, cutlery etc or to take an order so we used the app. On the menu the vegan burger was described as 'buttermilk' style (faux chicken) served with grilled mushroom, sriracha, slaw & side salad. According to the app there were no buttermilk burger patties so I chose the soya option, and I substitutued the side salad for chunky chips. When my food arrived I had a burger with a slice of vegan cheese, ketchup, mustard and a bit of soggy lettuce (none of which was on the menu or listed in the app), about 6 chips and nothing else. My husband ordered the gammon which came without the pineapple promised on the menu, and with an uncooked egg (well, the dog enjoyed that!). The food was fine, but neither of us got the meal we expected. We also had to wait over 45 minutes for it, despite seeing 2 other couples who'd come in after we'd ordered being served first. On questioning a passing member of staff after about 30 mins (during which time noone else had acknowledged us, cleaned the table or brought cutlery) we were told "it's just being plated" which I can only assume was an outright lie because when our (incorrect) meals finally arrived after another 15-20 mins they were piping hot. Oh, and our dog didn't think the empty dog biscuit jar on the bar was...