The White Swan Review

It's fair to say I'd never previously had a bad meal at The White Swan, the renowned award winning pub (restaurant) in the village of Fence near Burnley. Would my fourth visit to one of the top gastropubs in the UK yield another top class meal? I was certainly hoping so as I rocked up for dinner with a friend (around twenty months since my last visit), on a mild July Saturday.

The welcome on arrival was friendly enough and we were shown to our table in the corner of the main pub dining area. The space is very much as I remember; it's not exactly modern and spacious but it's a perfectly comfortable room to enjoy a quality meal. It's just a single tasting menu option for dinner, but they had adjusted the menu slightly to account for my friend's shellfish allergy (including the printed copy) which was good to see. Drinks wise, there's a fairly comprehensive selection including a solid wine list. I had a Bilberry Sour cocktail as an aperitif which was OK (albeit not worthy of the £15 price tag for me) whilst my friend was happy enough with a pint of San Miguel lager.

Dinner began quickly with a nice little Comte cheese croustade nibble and a bowl of shellfish broth (with an alternative for my friend) which was very tasty indeed. The bread came next which was well made and accompanied by some decent butter including a goats cheese variation. Although the initial food had been good, we were about to start the first proper course of the meal and none of the staff had thought to ask if we'd like any wine with the meal. This in truth was a little bit frustrating and a rare case of a restaurant not wanting to sell wine to customers, but we were able to flag down a waitress just in time and order the wine flight.

Next up was a take on duck cottage pie which was delicious, as was the fish course consisting of wild bass, pickled cucumber balls and a lovely sauce. The main meat course was chicken with girolle mushrooms and cranberries. This was tasty enough but considering it was the main meat course on the menu, I did find sous vide chicken with mushrooms a little bit uninspiring.

First of the desserts was probably my favourite course of the meal, a delicious and interesting combination of caramel, ice cream, miso and mushroom. Last of the courses was a bowl of strawberries, elderflower and verbena. This was nice summer dish with some very pleasant flavours. To finish, we had a couple of pieces of cheese from the impressive-for-a-pub cheeseboard, accompanied by a glass of Pineau des Charentes for me.

And so, an enjoyable dinner came to an end. Overall, although I thought one or two courses could have been slightly more interesting, the standard of cooking was high and the meal as whole was probably the best I've had here in four visits. There were niggles in other areas though; after the unusual occurrence of not being offered any wine before the meal, the wine flight was enjoyable in the end, but the staff did manage to forget to bring my final wine before my last course. The apology from our waitress wasn't particularly sincere and although she promised to take £5 off for the inconvenience, when we received the bill, that hadn't been applied sadly which left a bit of a sour taste.

Like every restaurant prices here have risen considerably in recent years, but this is certainly still at the lower end of one star tasting menu pricing in the UK although admittedly this meal didn't feel quite as good value as previous visits. That said, there's still no automatically included service charge (we did leave a healthy tip though despite those service issues) and the bill was accompanied by a very nice little chocolate dome petit four, which is always a welcome touch.

In the end despite some little niggles, we still had a very enjoyable evening. I have no problem proclaiming The White Swan remains a top class restaurant serving excellent food, and I'm sure I'll be back for a fifth visit in the not too distant future.