The Swan — Restaurant in Uttlesford

I stayed at The Swan for a wedding over the weekend and the whole experience from beginning to end was abysmal. We had three separate rooms for our family - only 1 had no problems (and we were only there to sleep). My brother and sister in law turned up the night before the wedding to solely sleep and turned up to dirty bed sheets which had blood on them. We turned up the next day for the wedding, ordered prosecco and were provided little bottles, over the course of the day it became SMALL poured glasses (ranging in size, definitely not 125ml) and when we enquired at the bar we were told that they had run out and this was what we could have. We proceeded to just buy a standard bottle, having compared how much we had paid at the bar it was clear our bills were all varying to degrees. The next day after the wedding when we came down for breakfast there were two members of staff working - a gentleman, who with his attitude clearly thinks he owns Greene King itself, and Carol. After being seated we waited 30 minutes for our coffees (there were two other tables?!) we watched them go and push a button on the machine for coffees from our seat... I enquired whether there was oat milk and was meant with a blank stare.. at which point I thought this is hard enough, I will just take a black coffee. It took over an hour for our breakfast to come out, it was a fry up... nothing complex and even then why offer the option of cooked eggs when no one in our party got the eggs they requested - we were told by the self important man that there was a computer error hence the breakfast delays, but, given Carol was taking them by hand and walking into the kitchen I can hardly guess at this error? When my in law's then proceeded to order more coffee, Carol took their mugs and asked to put the new coffee in them, based on the waiting time they agreed but I fail to see how you do not have two clean cups? The whole breakfast saga was tragic. You knew you had a wedding this weekend and therefore if you cannot cope you should have provided a staff team to manage it. A competent one at that because the chap who gave the 'air' of manager clearly was out of his depth and had never run an event before. When I spoke to him after breakfast about my room - I had gone up to have a shower and found my shower ceiling coming apart and mouldy, he then told me it had been closed for 6 months and only required a lick of paint... well if you had been closed for 6 months why couldn't you have done the lick of paint then? He was exceptionally rude and did not apologise at all, it was disgusting and the floor of the shower was dirty. I told him I had refused to have a shower in it - the door had been closed when we turned up and god knows what spores are lingering in that air if indeed it has been like that for 6 months and he just reiterated it wasn't dangerous and it required some paint. At this point I just wanted to go home for a shower so paid for my room and wanted to leave. I paid the £95 and checked this is just for the room for 1 night, he said it was and I paid and left, however, my inlaws paid £170 for two nights and had a mould free bathroom with a bath? They actually had the superior room so I do not understand how we ended up paying more especially seen as no itemised bill was presented to me on paying just the card machine with a number on it. The whole stay from beginning to end was unapologetically poor, if you know you have a wedding on, staff it as such, if you cannot cope with changing bed sheets, do not offer that many rooms, if you cannot make a fry up, do not offer a breakfast service. The very fact you would even OFFER a room that was not up to scratch just goes to show you what cowboys the management are in this 'establishment'. As a manager I would have been in there making sure that shower was clean and painted, not pulling excuses out of thin air rather than apologising. Cannot quite understand where this 8.8 review from booking.com came from... I think they need to return there post covid and re...

We had a Buyagift 2 night hotel voucher given as a present and decided to spend a couple of days in Essex. In the past, when we have used Buyagift vouchers, we have sometimes felt that the hotel reserves their worst rooms for Buyagift customers, but that definitely wasn't the case here. On arrival, the receptionist was friendly and welcoming and our room was clean, well equipped and comfortable. If you are sensitive to noise, it is worth being aware that if like us, you are given a room at the front of the hotel, being in a room above the bar meant there was a certain amount of background noise until closing time, but this was not particularly intrusive. Only being a few miles from Stanstead Airport, meant that some aeroplanes flew directly over the hotel and the single paned sash windows didn't dampen the noise particularly well, and being directly opposite the church with an hourly chiming clock, meant we could hear that as well - but all of this was just background noise to us and did not disturb us at all. Our room had a powerful shower over a long and deep bath, with plenty of hot water. We had an evening meal in the bar on our first evening and the service was excellent. My wife chose the pie and I chose Katsu Chicken Curry, both of which were well cooked and presented and very tasty. There was a choice of real ales and I enjoyed a very good pint of Timothy Taylor's Boltmaker, while my wife enjoyed a very nice red wine. Breakfast was served in the bar area and there was a good choice. My full English was overall very good. I found the sausage a little underwhelming, but I have had far worse sausages elsewhere and everything else on my plate was spot on. I like full flavoured coffee so I wasn't a big fan of the filter coffee served with breakfast - but it was hot and wet. Overall, we had a very pleasant stay and found the staff to all be attentive, cheerful and polite. The hotel was clean and well presented and the bar area had a good feel to it. If I was planning to stay in the area again, I would definitely return...

First evening meal here for a while. The car park was almost full when we arrived and there was a really good atmosphere inside.

It was warm, although the large open fire was not lit. There were families here and in previous occasions I have seen well behaved dogs in the bar area (it's so lovely to find a pet friendly pub).

There seemed to be a lack of staff, as we had to wait for bar staff to appear behind the bar in between serving at tables. There were people waiting to be served all round the bar.

The meal we wanted was unavailable due to not having the main ingredients, which was a shame.

Over the years, this has been a very hit and miss pub to go to. Hopefully it's just a New Year blip.

Update Feb 2023 Visited again for a meeting in a room just off the main bar. The bar was well staffed and our meal was delivered promptly. Much better service tonight.

Update May 2023 We popped in for a midweek lunch, and took the dog with us. There were a couple of parking spaces available. Service and food was fantastic. Everything we ordered was available and made to our preference. Even the dog had a sausage and met some of the customers. Toilets were fully stocked and clean.

10 March 2024 Returned for Mothers Day dinner (lamb shank photo) which was lovely.

We were able to park in the pub car park. All food ordered was correct and well presented. Waitress was polite and efficient with getting our order taken and served. We had also asked for a takeaway meal, which was served at the end of our meal. The toilets were well stocked, clean and tidy. The restaurant area was clean and tidy even though all tables were full.

The only disappointment was the plastic flowers...