Swan, Amersham

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!

12 May 2008 06:41