The Swan With Two Necks

First time visit but definitely won’t be the last! Amazing food and service, best meal we’ve had in a long time, couldn’t fault it.

Amazing atmosphere, good and service. We will be back.

Visited on a Sunday lunchtime to celebrate a family birthday. It was busy. Very friendly, helpful service. Excellent starters, but two of our main courses were very disappointing. 8oz rib eye steaks were small and thin (no way were they 8oz uncooked weight) as well as overcooked (medium rare had thin pink band at centre and medium was cooked through. My wife's hand cut chips were overcooked to the point that around a third of them were inedible. One fillet steak and a Sunday roast were also ordered, which were very good. Didn't want to make a fuss at the time, but gave email feedback, which was responded to.

Our server Beth was so lovely and attentive all night, nothing was too much for her, she really made our night special, thankyou.

The swan with two stars. I was there for a birthday meal on Friday with lots of anticipation, and left very underwhelmed. The food was nice for the most part, but far from the best meals you can get for this price point in the area. The Bombay nicoise had very little 'madras' to it, the pork belly dish was on the colder side of luke warm, and why oh why do [gastro] pubs never give you enough greens: the fish and chips arriving with a thimbleful of peas and the steak coming with a token offering of a single small mushroom and little else. But the main let down was the service. The table was ready 20 minutes late, our first mains arrived an hour and a half after sitting down, and one meal arrived 10 minutes after the others. All the while we were left entirely to our own devices, the waiting staff inattentive and listless, drifting on the periphery and often more concerned with chatting with each other than checking on tables. In short, this was comfortably the worst service I have received eating out in many a year. A shining example of how to make your guests feel like a commodity. We won't be coming back, and hope that others don't leave also feeling that they had just thrown a load of money down the swanny.

So... This place is super classy and really lovely. The staff were accommodating despite the fact that we walked in looking like we had been dragged through a hedge backwards. We had travelled over an hour to have dinner at a local garden centre, that wasn't doing food by the time we go there, after we got stuck in a lot of traffic. So we ended up here in our not smart at all gear with our dog. The staff were great and our waitress was a lovely lady from Newcastle but I missed her name. The food was divine! My mother in law is intolerant so pretty much everything and we both had the steak. I had it with fries she had chunky chips. The parsley and garlic sauce was to die for and my steak was cooked to perfection, I also added buttered greens because why not splash out . The steak starts at £25 per person so not the cheapest dish. My husband had the burger and father in law had the streak and ale pie. No one had any complaints and it came out quickly as well. I forgot to take food pictures because quite frankly I was starving after the ridiculous drive beforehand. The carpark is pretty big too, plenty of spaces. The atmosphere was good, I'm anxious and originally felt out of place because of how we were dressed but as I said before the staff we delt with were so lovely and I soon felt fine enough to wander to the facilities which were also lovely if that's a thing you needed to know anyway 100% recommend. It was lovely and the dog loved the fuss.

Food presented well and tasted incredible. Friendly staff and lovely environment to be with friends/loved ones. The Pizzetta is 10/10!!

The food was good but not worth the hefty price tag. Because it really is quite expensive - £5 for 8 olives is pretty disgusting. And the pea puree/mushy peas portion was laughable - probably no more than a teaspoon in the world's smallest dish. The piece of haddock, though, was a beautiful piece of fish, and cooked to perfection. All mains are around £20 and rather small portions - definitely more style over substance. And when you order belly pork with CRISPY CRACKLING, you expect the "crispy crackling" to be part of the piece of meat, and not a single crushed-up pork puff (probably from a packet from behind the bar). It was crumbled on top of the uneatable, tough and gelatinous strip of rind on the spiral of belly pork piece like the merest dusting of snow. It actually took about 5 minutes to even notice it was there. And it's a personal gripe of mine to see a service charge added to the bill. I believe waiting staff should earn their tips, that way you get more attentive staff. Because there were several times when we wanted to get a member of staff's attention, but often they seemed miles away and not paying much attention. However all the staff were very friendly and polite, and helpful when on the case. I know you can ask for the charge to be removed, but we kept it on because we didn't want to make too much of an issue, and they all seemed to work hard. I know it's not a pub any more; it's a gastro pub, and they're providing a more fine dining experience, but it left me, and most of our party, unconvinced. We couldn't really decide if we'd enjoyed it or not! And that's not good - especially when we'd spent around £50 per head. So would I go again? Yes, but only if someone else was paying.