Welsh pub of the year? The only reason I can fathom that The Swan was awarded this accolade was…read morethat the competition organisers forgot to tell any other pubs there was an award in the first place.
It's not terrible by any means, but if you're going to plaster 'Pub Of The Year' (hereafter referred to as POTY) over everything, it makes you think you're in for something special, and you're annoyed when it's anything short of amazing.
The decor in the restaurant was a bit 'Changing Rooms'. I imagine Lawrence Llewellyn-Bowen had a jolly old time painting the plum-coloured feature wall, complimented by the light fitting that looks like an enormous crushed up ball of tinfoil. Unless you're sitting in one of two tables next to the windows, good luck seeing that 'amazing view'.
We both ordered the same cocktail of smoked salmon, crab and crayfish tails - when it arrived, although well presented, it was lacking any crab whatsoever, with no explanation from the waitress. We didn't complain, since it looked like we got double the amount of smoked salmon, which was good quality and tasty, so, meh. It's just that I'd expect the POTY to at least inform you of this before it's served to you, to check if that's ok.
Grey mullet on sweet potato mash was well cooked, but the mash was slightly too buttery, and the radishes added little other than a cursory crunchy texture. The shark steak was odd, with a sort of jelly-like, buttery texture, but the chips that accompanied it were light and crispy. Sticky toffee pudding was fine. I asked for a scoop of ice cream with mine (I would always serve STP with it) but the presentation wasn't what you'd expect from the POTY. I'm a fatso bum and ate it before I remembered to take a picture, so you'll have to believe me on this one.
Staff were courteous and friendly, and our bill came to £65 for 3 courses each and one beer. We had ordered a glass of wine and a beer in the bar downstairs whilst we waited for our table, but they weren't included on the bill. I took this as a sign that they were complimentary, since they didn't have our table ready, but I wasn't hanging around to find out...
NOTES:
Sunday lunch looked decent value at £20 for three courses. A la carte was a bit more expensive, at about £30 for three courses. A couple of the specials had sold out by 7.30pm.
If you do go, be clear about where you'd like to sit - there was a bit of confusion over our table booking for Sunday night. There's the restaurant upstairs and the pub downstairs. Clarify, because the staff might not.