I visited here with Carole C. and a few members of our family for a pub lunch prior to leaving Buckinghamshire for the delights of home. I haven't had a pub lunch in ages, so I was quite looking forward to the experience!
Sadly, I felt a little let down by Ye Olde Swan. In it's defence, they did explain upfront that the delivery van had not appeared, so there were a lot of items missing from the menu. Understandable! The staff seemed a little harassed, as there were a few groups waiting to come in when they opened at noon, us included. It does have a beautiful location and great pub garden for a hot summers day. However, foodwise I wasn't impressed.
When I looked through the menu, I struggled to find a lot of options if you didn't want to eat meat. Even the veggie option was a cheese sandwich - you know what, I don't really dig the whole cheese sarnie thing when I go out - that tends to be something I eat at home - and compounded with the fact that I had had a lovely sarnie two days prior, I didn't want to repeat the experience.
What did appeal was some fish cakes which were part of the meal deal. Unfortunately even the fish cakes had chorizo in them - and thats when I noticed that there was not a single main meal option for veggies or pescatarians alike on the meal deal menu. For me, that is incredibly unimpressive, especially in todays world where a vegetarian isn't exactly a rarity.
So my sisters and I split a fish platter - which to me, was a little under generous for the price - and missing one item entirely which was not acknowledged at all. The fish in batter was unpleasant - thick soggy batter with tasteless fish - just not very good.
Carole C. tucked into some boar and duck egg scotch eggs which she enjoyed. My father also ordered spicy lentil and carrot soup, a soup so thin you would be hard pushed to believe a lentil had some close to touching the side of the pan it was made in. What finally made me decide to downgrade to a 2 star review were my parents sandwiches. Both had plumped for smoked salmon, which I had been tempted by, but I am glad I didn't, as mean-sized portions wasn't even the word for it. One sandwich had literally one scrape of butter across the middle of the bread, the other had lumps hanging off of it. It wasn't for shortage of butter, as my mother was able to top up with the bowl of butter on the table. You could also see more bread than filling - there was barely any salmon. Now, you could argue that this might be down to a lack of salmon - then, just tell us and one parent could have changed the order rather than spreading it across two. Needless to say, none of us were overwhelmed with our meals, and I don't think I will be really that willing to go back. read more