"My wife 's sister her husband booked a table at the Old Swan for the four of us as we recently celebrated our 41st Anniversary, both our birthdays. She thought it would be a nice surprise, so we weren 't told where we were going. It was a surprise, all right! We arrived in good time, although the (large) car park had some cars in it, we were aware that there seemed to be few people around. The day was cold, there was a thin layer of snow on the ground, although all main roads were clear. Entering the pub, we were greeted by a young man, who took us into a rustic, beamed restaurant. We sat at one table, but my sister in law quickly found that her seat sloped, she was constantly sliding towards the table, so we moved mercifully near a radiator. There was a huge fireplace in the room, but no fire in the grate, so we felt quite cold whilst we were there. We had a bottle of fizz, looked at the menu, which was one card, plus a supplementary 'festive ' menu. We didn 't want starters, there were a few items on the mains list, but mostly it was pie of various fillings. I chose the 'festive ' one, the other 3 all chose different ones. We waited quite a while for the food to appear, it wasn 't because the kitchen was terribly busy, as we were the only diners in the restaurant! On arrival, my pie was topped with an overdone pig in a blanket, I 'm still not sure what was under the crust. All plates comprised a pie, some mash some kale. We 'd ordered minted peas, they, any other vegetable came as a side dish, with suitable price attached. I thought that the pie was very ordinary, at over £17, quite expensive for something that probably cost a fiver, at most. The kale was stringy, difficult to cut. The ladies chose a pudding each, but my brother in law I just had a beer. After that, we had some coffee. We asked why there were so few diners, were told that they 'd had 25 cancellations that day, they put the non attendances down to the weather. That was a little odd, as we 'd driven several miles to get there, with no problems. The toilets were clean serviceable. About 41 years ago, I took my then fiancee to the Old Swan, which was then reckoned to be somewhat exclusive, rather expensive, so we were interested to see what it was like now, which is where the disappointment kicked in. Not great, I 'm afraid, it won 't survive if customers don 't feel they 're getting value for money, as there 's just too much competition in the catering sector. I don 't know what the meal cost in total, as it was paid for by my Sister In Law. Were unlikely to return, or recommend."
