please note - reviews on this site are purely the opinion of site visitors, so don't take them too seriously.
Handy pub near station. Lovely setting on the river. Quick to offer you a table on the assumption that you're eating, but they'll accept drinkers too. 3 Windsor & Eton ales plus a guest.
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Several rugby themed real ales on (maybe because of the World Cup). I went for a West Berkshire Brewery Good Old Boy - Decent beer - £3.90.
The pub was geared more for eating and there was only a small bar area to sit at a table not cluttered with dining paraphernalia .
Nice old pub, in a stunning Thameside Location.
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3 handpumps, all Greene King ale
although did have bottled Fullers Honey dew which was refreshing but steep at 4.80 per bottle.
Probably won't go back unless they can show a little more imagination in choices of cask ales..
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STAFF SULTRY AND HAVE THE NOT BOTHERED ATTITUDE.
OTHERWISE DRINKS OKAY APART FROM ONLY SHITTY GREENE KING ALES -AND HAS A NICE GARDEN AND TOILETS WERE CLEAN.
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The staff here don't appear to overly welcome drinkers, it is more of a foodie pub.
Having said that , We realised it was a Greene King pub having looked at the three real ales on offer and confirming with the young lady who went to check with a colleague. There are no signs making this one obvious that is owned by GK. I wonder why. Anyway. We immediately left.
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Well that person the last two posts were about has been sacked as well as the manager woman who ive never even seen before. Sat at bar now having nice pint of Swan ale and being filled in on all the gossip by the barman !
Apparently its owned secretely by Greene King! Scoundrels.
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I'd have to agree with the comments below, the assistant manager comes across as quite arrogant and rude if not outright racist towards the English.
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We now all go to the Cross Keys. You will get much BETTER service without being skept waiting to be served or to be served by some obnoxious Polish woman who sulked and flapped around because she had to serve us. This I am told is the assistant manager, Kasia.
There is never any senior managemnt evident, staff sseem sultry and not interested.
We used to come here as a group but last week was the last time and we will simply spend our money elsewhere.
After the refurb we thought maybe things would change, terrible bar staff still and poor management at every level. Disgraceful . Could be such a lovely welcoming place. Sadly not.
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Refurbed but no better. There are nice niche bars and all that but still no gaffer, staff who have been on the wrong course, food planned by an accountant and chilled, too many electronic tills and rubbish beer. The riverside location is good - until the boats arrive and all you can see of the river is twits in vests and tupperware floatabouts.
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Did not actually stay for a drink at this pub that has a high recommendation from websites, forums and locals, however I did pop in to ask if they could show the cricket in the late afternoon. They were unable to due to having no sky tv. The outside beer garden over looking the river seemed nice and I over heard the manager Mel telling another customer that is there is soon going to be a refurbishment of the pub. Don't ask the eastern European barman for directions as hard as tried to be helpful his English and local knowledge was not up to scratch....There was a quiz machine present in this pub.
gumbo - 15 Aug 2011 14:14 |
Awful food, tasted like preprepared frozen food. Badly presented, tasteless, bad quality and not much on the plate. Not value for money, expensive drinks and the most miserable, rude, unhelpful staff I have ever come across.
Not recommended
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See 6th June 2010 below. Nothing has changed
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Awful service, awful food, great location - staff super stroppy without provocation although plenty to complain about. Avoid at all costs. Expensive too!
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Really don't know why we came back here - last time I was here I ordered a Ploughmans, and when I complained that there was mould on the Red Leicester, the waitress argued with me telling me that RL was supposed to be like that!
Anyway, this visit reaffirmed that they are still serving up the same old overpriced meals of sub-standard quality. Chips are grim. Glasses are dirty. Service is sloooooooooow. Utterly disappointing as the location is so lovely. Really really needs to pull its socks up and stop ripping off its customers.
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I..GIVE..UP!!! Over the last four years, our family has repeatedly found ourselves at this beautiful riverside location - initially because the food, ambiance and service were very good. Oftentimes, even though it wasn't our 'local' we looked forward to going there on the days that our activities prevented us from eating during regular pub hours. Regardless, we loved it well enough to bring visitors from abroad as a matter of course. NO LONGER!! The food, which was once prepared with care and quality has fallen to beyond dismal standards. Todays so-called Sunday roast ( a last-ditch option after a series of earlier disappointments with more adventurous meals ) was the last straw. Pallid beef in tasteless brown gel, microwaved veg and a single HORRIBLE slab of potato graced my plate. Ugh. My daughter's scampi were knobs of breading with iodine-tasting shrimplets, and my son's horribly overpriced burger didn't come within an inch of it's cold roll's edge. Service was brusque, which I consider acceptable (even preferred) but only if it is professional and attentive. It was neither. All this said, please understand I would never write such a review if this weren't the very last of a series of similar disappointments. Two or so years of real pleasure have been followed by almost two years of rubbish. Time to call a spade a spade. This pub has seen the better of it's many long days and absolutely deserves to be given the care of new management. It probably won't happen as this establishment receives so much transient traffic that it doesn't need to be good, but I'll say it, "Shame!!" Oh, and if you like GK beer, it's served well, but that's not really saying all that much now, is it?
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Keg Aspall's cider.
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Most welcoming riverside pub. "Can we tie up for the night outside?" "Of course, Sir. You're most welcome." Brilliant! Superb mooring. Step off the boat one pace into the beer garden. Any closer and Narrowboat Rangitoto would have been in the bar! Good food and ale with a delightful outlook over the Thames which people would travel a long way to enjoy (we sure have!).
Only one snag - next morning the hired hand appeared with a waterblaster to clean the beer garden. Our pristine narrowboat got splattered with stogies. However, he did let me use the 'blaster to clean off the mess when he had finished.
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Good but busy riverside pub, plenty of parking nearby, only Greene King but reasonably good food (if you order steak and ale pie, have a double)and excellent service.
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Good but busy riverside pub, plenty of parking nearby, only Greene King but reasonably good food (if you order steak and ale pie, have a double)and excellent service.
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Hello DeggyT, I have finally made it.
Clearly trading on it's riverside location - the prices are high, the Greedy King ale is greedily marked up compared to the other two GK outlets in town (and then served through sparklers!) and the food didn't look like much to write home about given the prices - I couldn't find much to like about this place, bar the view.
The Cross Keys is a much better choice if you want a pint by a river, in my opinion. I wouldn't bother with here.
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Went in the Swan today for the first time in a couple of years; it hasn't changed much over time. The comments from recent reviewers sum it up well.
It's a pity that places in this type of location aren't run with a bit more vision or passion. I guess the pubco that owns it are happy with their returns, but probably don't realise its full potential.
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Well it's 9/10 for the view and little else, minimum wage foreign labour serve Greene King and old Speckled Hen, all very indifferent.
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Large rambling riverside within metres of the train station - very busy with all the best seats taking (overlooking the river). Although we didn't have any food I get from the previous comments that is an 'indifferent'pub which judging by the rushed staff this may well be the case. Beers were GK IPA and Speckled Hen. Not my sort of pub.
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2.30PM last Friday, due to local motorway traffic problems found myself experiencing the virginal event of driving through Pangbourne for the first time. When, suddenly I was attracted by the Thames riverside location of the Swan and immediately swung into the car park to find that it was the size of a postage stamp, and not helped by some Hooray who had succeeded in almost occupying 3 spaces with his Land Rover.
Beer was OK and both the Speckled Hen and IPA were passable. Did not eat, which looks like a result after now seeing the previous comments. But the best thing about this pub is the location. It has a large outside table area adjacent to the Thames, which we braved despite it being Autumnal and can imagine this being very pleasant in summer. Although god knows where you park, especially if Chelsea Tractor Man is in�
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I stopped eating at this pub about a year ago as the food was worse than your average motorway service station and the drinks are more expensive than the other pubs in the area. The riverside location is good but the car park is small. Is good to pop in for a couple of drinks on a summer�s day, but avoid the food, as there is much better available elsewhere.
Mrbig - 21 Oct 2007 20:20 |
I WILL NEVER EVER GO BACK TO THIS PUB AGAIN. Just had lunch at this pub today - possibly the worst meal i have ever eaten. Bangers (wild boar and apple no less) and mash - which translated as overcooked supermarket pork sausages on a bed of microwaved powdered mash with half microwaved vegetables on the side. It arrived suspiciously quickly (especially having ordered at 12pm...) When we complained, we got a shrug of the shoulders and an explanation that "the vegetables are like that because they were cooked yesterday. Never ever again. The setting is OK but everything else food, service and price (�9.50 for that meal!!!!! ha!) ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL!!!
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I visited on Sunday 15th September. I agree with the previous reviewer that the pub must be trading on its location by the riverside.
Whilst our food was fine, the service ruined the experience. Specifically:
- The barman started having an argument with a colleague in a foreign language mid-way through serving me;
- My food turned up suspiciously quickly after ordering. It was then another 10-15 minutes before my girlfriend's meal arrived.
I'd like to say that this was probably just unlucky, but the fact that the people sitting on the two tables either side of us experienced mix-ups with their orders suggests otherwise.
anonymous - 16 Sep 2007 20:26 |
I visited the Swan for dinner on Sunday 19th August 2007 and I have to say that it was the worst meal that I have had in any pub, restaurant or indeed cafe for that matter - anywhere.
We ordered the so called 'Black Tiger king Prawn marinated in ginger & garlic, coated in a light tempura batter' - these were brown and over cooked and it was not like any kind of tempura batter that I have ever had. The salad was also wilted.
Two of our party also ordered burgers which were totally inedible, not because they were over cooked but because they were just, well, disgusting. They were rubbery, tasteless and in buns that you could break windows with. The onion rings were also burnt.
The next dish in the line up of disappointment was the special of the day - fish pie. This came out in a dish that was about 2 centimetres high and consisted of mash potato and 3 small cubes of fish! Not only that but it had clearly been micro waved and was welded to the edges of the dish. The accompaniments consisted of 2 new potatoes and 2 brown pieces of cauliflower. The decoration was also truly unbelievable as someone had taken a pepper mill and ground it all over the plate - voila!
This pub must be surviving on the location alone because there is no way that people would come back to such incredibly awful food.
The pub is a great place to sit by the river and have a drink but I strongly recommend that people avoid disappointment and eat elsewhere.
Run down pubs on council estates that advertise 'Big screen sports' look like culinary geniuses in comparison to this lot.
anonymous - 20 Aug 2007 18:19 |
Good location, adequate food, ale and service. pleasant for Sunday lunch. Perhaps a little pricey?
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Meh! Take it or leave it
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Excellent pub.
Cracking location on the Thames, excellent food and good range and choice of ale. Family friendly and houses a quiz machine. One for Quinno to cast his eye over.
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I visit here regularly in the early evening. The 'Old Speckled Hen' ale (Morlands) is almost invariably good, though the available 'wine by the glass' card has contracted somewhat over the last year. The staff are personable but tend to be transient and service can be a little on the slow side. The clientele is varied (as it should be). It is a popular eating spot (though I have eaten there only once). The interior has two open fires (welcome in winter) and the seating is comfortable and varied. Equally, it succeeds as a splendid summer riverside pub. However, it is not an idyllic unspoilt country pub and has the omnipresent one-armed bandits and muzak (though they seem to have only one tape). There are 'No Smoking' areas (though I expect that that will be irrelevant soon with the changes in legislation). One tip - the car park is inadequate and difficult (two entrance but one is very steep with a risk of 'tail scrape'). Park in the station car park opposite (nobody seems to check for fee paid tickets in the evening) or travel by train. Overall, a good pub.
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Lovely pub and best enjoyed early afternoons on a warmish day.
Bit on the pricey side but lovely location.
Don't bother sitting outside though if you are terrified of spiders, the blighters descend on you from all angles!!!
Louise - 22 Oct 2004 14:35 |
Real ales on swan neck and sparkler so all come out fizzy and stirred up. Good location but food a bit microwave/boil in bag and interior has been changed since it was the Swan Hotel and is now usual chain pub fittings.
Pauline Metcalf - 20 Jul 2004 12:47 |
This is a fantastic pub, in a beautiful location just beside the river - perfect for a relaxing meal whether you're just passing through or anything. The meals are relatively inexpensive for the high quality and service is always friendly and helpful. It can be quite full in the summer so be prepared, but it is worth it. I'd definitely recomend it to anyone!
Brian - 10 Feb 2004 01:25 |
Excellent scenic location for the summer and nice evenings. Situated right on the Thames in very pretty Pangbourne. Perfect pub to head for as the end of a drive, or en-route to Goring-on-Thames. About 10-15 minutes from the busy M4 J12 but easy to find from it.
The car park is very small, and difficult angles. Chances are you won't get in the car park. Almost impossible to drive past and then turn around without going several miles onward (the road becomes sandwiched between Thames and railway just after the pub). So best advice is to pay the 20p (daytime) and park in the public car park in Pangbourne and walk the 100m to the pub. Easy flat walk.
In the summer this pub is packed. I have been there and not been able to get a seat many times, so be warned.
This is one of those memorably nice locations, as is Pangbourne itself. After visiting Pangbourne... I had to move here! (no, I'm not connected with the pub).
Rob - 7 Feb 2004 15:55 |
