The Swan Inn

Really disappointing, will never go to this restaurant again.the service was moderate, but it was vastly over priced and the food was pretty awful, definitely not the “fresh fish” that they advertise. My husbands turbot had gone off and smelt appalling, when I took it to the waitress to smell she actually gagged, but there was very little apology. The starters had obviously just been defrosted and thrown on a plate with a bit of lettuce. I recommed that nobody makes the same mistake we did and goes to this restaurant.

Truly horrific. Hard to say anything good about the Swan, seemingly a big hit with the over 80s. One can only think that they've just never eaten a decent meal in their life to throw away good money on the total rubbish served up here. And the prices! Having recently eaten at Mayfair's Burgers and Lobster, it was a shock to find Donny Cole's fish restaurant MORE expensive. Frozen prawns, heaped onto shredded iceburg lettuce with a marie rose sauce ( which we were cheerfully told was just mayonnaise with some ketchup in it) ate up around £10, and rarely a more tasteless example have I tried ever. This was followed by three enormous Dover soles, which we were assured people came from miles around to enjoy. So tough (yes, a Dover sole!) we sent 2 back, thinking they were undercooked. They came back burned at the edges, but even more tough. Were they cooked from frozen? Quite probably. They were inedible, and sent back again, so no lunch. All this is inexplicable, as Cole is a well known fish merchant, and his son who runs the family business nationally known for it.
When we went, we were sceptical thate Barnby might provide a great meal, but the promise of the ‘freshest fish’ simply cooked won us over.
The end result though, was nothing short of appaling. Tasteless, rubbery, disgusting. And dont get me started on the coleslaw or the salad – I nearly barfed.
This really was a trip to the nightmarish kinds of meals that were served in Britain some years ago, and rightly earned us a reputation as having the worst cuisine in Europe this side of Iceland. What a horror show.
We went there, so you dont have to…

A group of us arrived here one month ago and the place looked charming . We all got to our sets and looked at the menu and the specials board. Most of the appealing dishes on the board were sold out so I ordered a Dover sole and some of the other group ordered Sirloin steak and my wife had lemon sole.
Our starters were plentiful and on time but the main was a disgrace! We had no cutlery to eat it and had to wait for around 5 mins for this come whilst the food got became cold.

This was terrible service and it was blamed on a young girl they employed as the management no courage to keep his house in check. When we confronted him he was rude and arrogant and replied ‘ no one else has complained’
In our eyes there should be no reason to have to complain with this apparent good reputation.

A group of us went to the Swann Inn for lunch on our way to a weekend away. It's tucked away off of the main road, but don't give up, you'll find it eventually!
What a find…if fish is your thing this is THE place. Portions are HUGE, unless you haven't eaten for a week I would skip starters, although they were delicious & 2 starters would have fed 6 of us.
I ordered the goujons & there were 4 of them the size of house bricks! Chips came up on a shared plate & I've never seen so many in one place apart from the fryer in a chip shop.
Service is friendly but I feel they should have mentioned the portion size as we felt awful leaving so much food.Although out in the garden, they have around 100 feral cats laying around & they receive the leftovers, so we didn't feel so bad.
The pub is really old fashioned & quaint & the restaurant part is a bit dated, but overall a great place…if you're heading up the A12, veer off & you won't be disappointed.