Swan, Amershamback to pub details please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
We took a late, last minute table here and regret doing so. My wife's starter of sardines was bland whilst mine of deep fried brie was over cooked (very little cheese left) and the bread crumbs tasted of old frying oil.
My steak "tournedos" looked as though it had been assembled in a hurry. The "bruscetta" was an doughy slice of un-grilled baguette. My steak was under-cooked and, despite apparently being fillet, was chewy and far more resembled a sirloin. It took an age to arrive too, and as such, I elected to not ask for it to be cooked a bit longer and just to get through it.
The food is not cheap here and the quality most lacking. Service in the restaurant was pleasant but nothing special, however the service at the bar was slow, I have to say.
A disappointing way to spend my hard-earned.
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Old Amersham is blessed with a selection of great pubs. The swan is absolutly the worst of these pubs for the main reason of service. Terrible service.
I cant speak for the resturant service, but on a friday or saturday night when the place is busy, the staff make it as clear as possible that they dont want to be there and they dont want you there.
Such a shame as to have a full selection of good pubs to choose from of an evening, in Old Amersham would have been perfect. As it stands, the swan is the only one i now avoid.
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When I found out that our company had booked The Swan in Amersham for our annual Christmas party (always held in late January early February), I was delighted as a resident of Old Amersham it meant that I only had a 3 minute walk to the pub!
On arrival the pub was empty but it still took 20 minutes to get any service at the bar, the service was all downhill from there and got worse as the evening progressed
Due to the quality of the food served it was I suppose a blessing that the portions were so small as they would not have been sufficient for my 6 year old nephew let alone an adult!
There was a problem with each course served to every person at the table, the general consensus was that the chef had purchased the �1 microwaveable ready meals from Iceland, halved each one into two portions and served them to us.
(It is the first time that I have seen instant Smash and Bisto gravy served in a restaurant!)
The food was extremely disappointing.
I realise that profit is important but not at the cost of good service, quality of food and value for money, these are areas where there should be no compromise
One of our party suffers from a mild form of autism and being partly deaf wears a hearing aid, when he tried to buy drinks at the bar he was told that he was too drunk to be served and the manager refused to serve him,
He was perfectly sober and unfortunately due to the embarrassment on his side, he left it and did not make an issue of it, this injustice was brought to the attention of a staff member but no apology came forth
I was disappointed and saddened for Old Amersham as this poor quality and service does no favours for the commerce in the old town
Staff were lethargic untrained and incapable of doing the job
Of the 31 covers in our party, 31 people will not return to the Swan for a meal or drinks
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Nice pub good location, service terrible. The girl behind the bar did not know how to serve a Pimms she asked what I wanted with it!! We were taken to our table ordered drinks and then waited more than half an hour. There were lots of families with young children eating it was noisy and we were just forgotten, after our main course, we were not brought a dessert menu and then when we were we waited an hour for someone to take our order, at which point we decided to leave. The food was good. I think we would have had better service from McDonalds.
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It's quite rare for me to leave a pub disappointed. But that happened this evening. 6 dishes were not available from the menu, the card machine is currently broken. I ordered haddock and chips. The haddock looked good but there didn't seem to be any chips. I found a total of eight hiding under the fish. I asked for some more but was told I'd have to pay. I thought about asking how much eight more chips would cost but decided it'd probably be best to eat up and move on. Wont be going back I'm afraid. There are much friendlier, livelier places to visit and certainly better food options available in Amersham.
I remember walking past signs as a kid that pointed to over 40's disco's. This feels like that kind of place. Without the music.
And as pointed out in other reviews here the staff just can't be bothered. Shame. Real shame.
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The surroundings were clean and pleasant, but it was noticeable that it was not particularly crowded - this alone should have rung alarm bells! We ordered our meals and after some delay they arrived. However my son, who ordered the Sunday beef, promptly asked for the potatoes to be warmed up, as they were stone cold and uncooked in the centre. My wife's potatoes were warm.
I ordered a rare-medium sirloin steak, and was rather disappointed to find that not only did the steak have quite a large amount of fat, but was more medium than rare and also a little tough. In fact we all found the meats to have excessive amounts of fat.
We then ordered desserts. My wife ordered a Summer Fruits with sorbet. However eight blueberries and two strawberries is rather pushing the summer fruit description! Also there was a considerable delay for the desserts - we were told that a machine had failed in the kitchen.
All in all we were quite disappointed with our meals; the serving staff were helpful but it was also noticeable that we were not asked if we had enjoyed our meal, I think some of our comments (e.g. the cold potatoes) spoke volumes.
I wrote to the manager of the Swan two weeks ago - sending him/her the details above, I have not received any reply. I am totally in agreement with the comments by jenandowen and I have told several people of our poor experiences of this pub. I am surprised by the 'high' rating that it has got; certainly the standard has fallen. DO NOT GO TO THIS PUB!
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when you walk into this pub/eating place,as they like to call it,you think this looks good.But as others have said thats where it ends,it under performs on so many levels.The service is all over the place,with vague staff who just dont seem remotely committed,food is always missing from the menu and its very ,very average with top prices.sorry.
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Having lunch at this pub was one of the worst culinary experiences we have had for some time. When we walked in no-one greeted us, despite someone who looked like the manager sitting doing his paperwork on a table in front of the bar.
Once we located someone to seat us we waited for anyone to come and give us menus or take a drinks order. It never came, so we went to the bar ourselves and asked for menus. Twice. When they did arrive we made our choices, asked for someone to take our orders and then we were listed what wasn't available on that Saturday. That was 75% of what we wanted to order. We reselected and ordered. Waited. After some time another waitress came and told us at least one of the items we had ended up ordering was, in fact, not available. I ordered a sandwich, which by this stage I didn't even want, but the pre-Christmas meal was getting spoiled so I went ahead just to choose something.
Then another waitress came up and told us sorry, in fact we had the wrong menus and 'we're not doing sandwiches today'. Not doing sandwiches? How laughable. I felt like going and offering to butter the bread myself. So I ordered a ceasar salad, which I definitely didn't want and it turned up over-soaked in bottle ceasar sauce with some fried croutons. I can't remember the exact price, but it was over �6 for this.
Meanwhile the kids were moving around, thoroughly bored by now. We noticed poorly done and cheap renovations, including something downright dangerous near our table. The boxing over pipes by the end of the table was ripped off with nails sticking out. The carpet near our table was filthy.
Once the food was successfully ordered it arrived fairly quickly and was ok, but nothing better than mediocre. I don't think we were ever served a drink, and went up to the bar, where we saw the manager-like person pouring over spreadsheets and not observing anything else.
People of Amersham, come on! You deserve better than this poorly run, character stripped place. When we left we were asked by someone visiting Amersham if we could recommend somewhere for lunch. We said, "not here".
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This pub looks superb now - its just undergone a major refurbishment!
The new menu combined with the unique contemporary interior makes this a great dining destination.
Friendly staff and great service - will definitely visit again!
anonymous - 22 May 2007 16:03 |
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