please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Ah, a warm, cosy welcoming pub with a vast selection of real ales, presided over by a jovial landlord and his mildly flirtatious wife. Good company, comfortable and with a secure atmosphere... Ah hang on I was thinking of somewhere else - this is an average chain pub with average beer and when I visited it a couple of months ago had an unpleasant smell of raw sewage in the seating area.
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The best pub on our short trip around some of Brentwoods pubs. yes, the beer was just the very common Greene king IPA, but the pub was friendly enough and the besr of an everage bunch.
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As mentioned by others on this site, this was once a smashing pub with everything going for it. It is now the worst pub I have had the displeasure to visit in Brentwood. Truly abominable. My recommendation ? Give it as wide a berth as you possibly can. Not even worth using as a shortcut through to the back of the High Street !
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was a brilliant proper pub with an excellent selection of ales, lager & good bar snacks all being served by happy staff.Pub games & music with a mixture of random seating...then it was refitted and became a normal 'lager' pub..just like all the others on the high st...just ok now
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This was one of the best pubs in Brentwood, however, it is now rather disappointing. The Swan was the point of call for my pals and I in Brentwood as well as many BT colleagues. It had a proper pub atmosphere a good range of beer; both ales and lagers along with pleasant staff.
There are no longer any guest ales, and while some of the staff do their best, when I was there they were being guided by an over officious supervisor who was abrupt and was more concerned with dealing with silly issues than customer service.
The Swan has become, like many chain pubs, style over substance.
I'm going to try The Victoria as mentioned by a previous post.
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Good pub for the high street, better than some of the others around town.
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went in yesterday (sunday) afternoon , as was meeting up with a few ex work mates , and the lads i was meeting dont like football so we came here , a few real ales on tap , my friend was on "bonkers conkers" which he said was nice , i was on lager as fancied a change , this was ok , my other friend was on soft drinks as was driving , he ordered scampi and chips which came up in pretty good time
the staff seemed friendly enough to me
the only downside was all the chavs using the pub as a alley way to cut through from the road round the back to the high street
good pub though , has changed a bit though since my last visit
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We visited on a Sunday afternoon, only about half the tables were occupied but we waited 50 minutes just for sandwiches. The female bar staff were polite, friendly and the chap who brought the food over apologised for the wait.
We visited again on a Monday afternoon, when a different set of staff were there. We ordered the same sandwiches and enquired as to how long the food would be. The barman checked with the kitchen and told us 25 mins. The cutlery I was given was dirty and when I asked for replacements I was told, "I can't make any promises but I'll see what I can do." How reassuring.
After waiting for 35 mins and noticing that there were only three occupied tables in the whole place, I went to ask how much longer the food would be. The barman who'd made the earlier smart-alec comment told me I was wrong about the wait time his colleague had given me for food. His attitude was rude, sarcastic and dismissive. When I said we were running out of time before we had to go, he said, "Whatever."
When the food finally arrived, my sandwich was wrong. The barman didn't apologise or offer to get me the correct one. He literally swooped the plates off of the table and walked off, saying "I'll tell you what, you can have your money back and go."
To our absolute astonishment he wasn't finished there. He said we'd not waited as long as we said we had, "because you've been talking about it for the past 10 minutes for a start" On the contrary, I had the till receipt to prove we were telling the truth. His colleague then appeared and agreed that what I'd said about the food wait time and what I'd ordered was also true. Again, no apology and nothing but hostility and sarcasm.
All we'd done was give this place a second chance after receiving very slow service the first time around. We'd made a point of finding out how long the wait time was and we'd allowed an extra 10 mins on top before asking about our order. We'd not shouted, been rude or unreasonable, yet the way we were treated was absolutely appalling.
We eat at pubs and restaurants at least twice a week, and have done so for many years. This pub goes down as the worst customer service we have EVER experienced.
The only reason we give this pub any rating at all is because the staff on our first visit did at least have manners.
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Far be it from me to question the wisdom of Greene King, and perhaps the Swan's been losing money hand over fist recently, but i have to say i was distraught to call in a fortnight ago to find that the place has been significantly altered for the worse. Gone are the kegs of guest ales and comfy seating and in come big tables, high chairs and lots of menus - the look and feel of the place is now bland chain pub, and i can't believe i'm the only punter dismayed by this. For so long an oasis of affable supping in bleak central Brentwood, the swan's been hollowed out and blandified horribly, but if you like wine you'll enjoy the many shelves of shiny bottles which occupy the space those pesky ale barrels used to reside in. It may not have been thw world's greatest pub but i was fond of it and could rely upon it as a decent alternative to the soulless holes in the same street - i suppose it's the longer trek to the Victoria on the Ongar Road from now on, a pleasant boozer that now represents the best option for the swan's refugees like myself. Surely i'm not the only one?
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I returned to The Swan on Dec 5th 2009 with a party of 8 friends. Sad to say we were forced to leave by the presence of a 'DJ' playing loud and distorted music, making conversation impossible. I hope this isnt the shape of things to come.
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All I can say is than God for the invisible Landlady and her iron hand! I have never even seen her and knew nothing of her existence before looking at this page.
Definitely the best pub in the centre of Brentwood. Keep on keeping the kids out.
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It is an absolute pleasure to go to a pub that is comfortable and with the added bonus of feeling safe. The landlady may be over zealous according some peolpe, but little gets by her and she does not put up with any bad news customers!!! This is a great pub for adults, with no loud music, no hoodies or idiots hanging around the bar! This pub is perfect for the mature customer who would like a quiet drink, great atmosphere and a good chat with friends. Myself and many friends have always been made to feel welcome by staff AND management. Dear brewery - dont change a thing!!!
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Dont care about the supposed activities of the landlady and I would rather not see children in pubs no matter how well behaved they are. This is most definately an excellent pub. Usually a large selection of well kept real ales on pump and stillage. With a mixture of clientele with stone flag floor and no hideous fruit machines with flashing lights. very popular pub.
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This is how a pub should be: good ales, efficient staff, no loud noise, few chavs (although there was a murder there a few years ago). The contrast between the clientele in Romford and Brentwood pubs is noticeable (although Brentwood is becoming worse)
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Recently the 16-year old son of a good friend of mine was asked to leave the semi-deserted pub one Saturday afternoon - this despite the lad sitting with 3 grown men who were drinking beer, yet he was himself only drinking soft drinks. This attitude is not conducive to attracting clientele!
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Far and away the best pub in the high street, although that really isn't saying very much. Always a good selection of ales on offer and the bar staff are very efficient. Recent refurbishment has greatly brightened up the interior. Decent garden too.
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Definitely the best pub in Brentwood High Street,it's pretty basic inside and all the better for it,there's a good selection of guest ales, friendly service and customers who appreciate a bit of peace and quiet
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Pleasant traditional pub for the more mature drinkers.
Good selection of real ales and wine. Efficient bar staff, and plenty of them a welcome change from the other big chain establishments in the town.
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The Swan maintains the feel of a traditional pub with a good selection of ales. The staff are young and do as they are told by the management, which is very efficient, maybe too efficient as to not notice or possibly doesn't take the trouble to look at customers and recognise them. If you say hello, you get glard at. But still the rest of the company there is great, the choice management makes for music is of a generally high quality - except they have decided to put it on earlier on a Sunday evening than previously done, 7pm which also means it finishes early, the muscicians tend to get an audince only for their second set. All a bit odd. If evening meals were re-introduced on a sunday evening as they used to have that would work with the early music start. Despite my management moan there is seldom trouble and the place gets very full Friday and Saturday night
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nice pub this one. friendly atmosphere and good for a few beers and a chat. good garden when it's warm enough too
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nice 'old style' pub. good place to sit with a few friends for a chat and a good beer. nice range of beers & ales. does get very very busy at the weekend though.
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a well run pub on the main high street. brilliant management and team. beer festival bank holiday weekend and am looking forward to this as the swan is definately becoming a mecca for real ale drinkers!!
anonymous - 17 Aug 2006 20:59 |
a lovely tarditional, real ale pub. has big beer garden and offers a quiz night and very good live music sunday eve. a refreshing change to see a well run pub that operates a no tolerance policy with regard to bad behaviour and bad laguage. great atmosphere to sit and enjoy with friends and family. congrats to manager and team!
anonymous - 29 Jul 2006 16:26 |
a good traditonal pub with a nice paved back garden and live music at weekends (duo's normaly).
Clientele was a bit old for me (40's/50'S)and not being into real ale's the place was not really for me, but saying that i had one of the pints of carling ever and a very pleasent experience. worth a try!
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Good boozer. Live music on a Sunday evening, large paved beer garden out back. Always has a couple of guest ales on. Friendly staff.
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a good selection of real ales as commented on previously , the pub itself is a olde type pub but the atmosphere is good and the staff seem friendly havent visited on a night time so cant comment about the bouncers but is becoming a mecca for beer tasters
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A nice selection of real ales, complete with guest beers and 'beer festivals', and occassional live music (including an excellent Beatles tribute duo) are the plus points. The latest management team and the introduction of heavy handed bouncers at weekends are definitely not. Suffering from the current malaise of catering for booze tourists from surrounding towns instead of locals.
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Very expensive for what it is. However nice mix of people and atmosphere. Rob the barman is fantastic!! All the staff need a payrise...and no, I don't work there..
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Beer is always good quality
caroline - 10 Oct 2003 18:21 |
Staff can be a bit odd. I ordered a pint of stella, barmen came back and asked for the money. I gave it to him but he didn't come back. My pint was waiting for me at the other end of the bar! How queer!
Lee - 15 Apr 2003 14:31 |
A pub for 30+ crowd with the towns best range of beer and some nice bar-food. Unfortunately after a recent redec' they seem to have filled the place with 100watt light bulbs and so you are advised to squint or wear sun glasses. There's no music which makes a change. The landlord & his staff seem to have personality bypasses - getting them to smile is a well known but extremely challenging local past-time. Worth a go. Finally expect to be repeatedly & very annoyingly asked to leave at 11:10 by an extra from the Sweeney.
Dan - 5 Apr 2003 11:12 |
If you want to avoid loud music and bouncers, and prefer real ale, an occasional open fire and sofas, try this....
djkay - 18 Mar 2003 11:41 |
