Old Swan Inn
(6/10) 
Let's start with the bad news. Best to get it out of the way. The dessert was terrible. Shocking in fact. Possibly the worst pub pud ever. Three average chocolate brownies don't add up to one good one. And these were mightily average, and also pretty massive. Nobody in his right mind would feel good about eating that lot, not even the Guinness World Record holder for the country pub brownie eating category.
The Old Swan has form in this area. Long ago it used to be highly regarded, not least for its extensive mash menu. OK a mash menu is a pretty daft way to get a reputation but it did the trick. Then there were the nachos - so massive that anyone who could eat the lot got out of paying the bill. True they were gimmicks, but behind them lurked a decent chef whose menu was otherwise very respectable and knocked out with a keen eye for detail. But then the plunge. The menu shrank, the nachos went soggy, even the mash was sold off to a local plasterer for the refurbishment of nearby properties. The glory days of Old Swan had passed.
But then a ray of hope. Woods Brasserie takes over both the Conway Pub in Cardiff and the Old Swan, marketing the pair as gastropubs. Could this be the great renaissance for our beloved Vale nacho emporium?
There are some green shoots of hope. CAMRA beardies will be delighted with the ale, in fact it's changed so often that the choice had changed even when we went to grab a second pint. It'll be pulled in style too: the bar staff are top quality (you would happily have them around for tea with your nan). And they haven't gastroed up the interior much other - the Old Swan's a venerable old lady now and doing a Joan Collins on her would be a seriously bad move.
The food is just impossible to get excited about though. There's little point in running through the menu for you, just spend eight and a half seconds creating a list of typical bar fare in your head and you'll be pretty much there. For the sake of a hint of adventure we had a go at the fagots. If they were a car they'd probably be a Daewoo Lanos, constructed entirely as they should be, fit for the purpose (i.e. preventing your stomach from further rumbling) but lacking any style or individuality. In fact they could easily have been billed as meatballs.
Perhaps I'm expecting too much. But if you're going to bill yourself as a gastropub you've really got to deliver something on the plate to tell your friends about. OK so they did. I've been telling the brownie story for weeks now.
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Comments
They're beginning to take the mick with their cooking times now. Had to wait almost an hour this time, and some of the food was mighty weird (definitely avoid the salmon - sauce is not for most taste buds). Menu size has been slashed too. Real pity.
That's just cost them a Jammy Dodger.
Me and the wife think that this place is positively the best pub we have come across for many a long wandering mile (although our sample size is quite small). The publican was very eager to share her life with us but we were impressed that she was so confident in our counselling powers after such a brief meeting. It is a charming place and benefits from not having disgusting giant TV projectors or loud music (or indeed music of any kind). Local but very friendly. Marvellous!
Bad news about this establishment. We had Sunday lunch at the Old Swan yesterday, our first visit for a while. Ownership of the pub has changed since the last time we ate Sunday lunch there, as has the menu, and the quality of the food, and seemingly the patronage of the locals. We've eaten here lots of times and know that if we want to get a table anywhere near Sunday lunchtime, we needed to get there early. Not so anymore. The place was very quiet, eerily so. We should have picked up on that clue and removed ourselves up the street to Iltyds, but we ordered on.... I loved the Swan because they did a great nut roast. This has changed too. The whole menu has changed, no more 99 varieties of mash potatoes (which may only affect the mash potato afficionados, but is telling nonetheless) but the weekly menu which I looked at was infinitely less interesitng than it used to be in days of yore. Anyhow, cutting to the chase. Nut roast was dreadful, a tomatoey, mush that looked as if it had been previously digested. It was very nice of them to cook it for me since it's not on the Sunday roast menu, but on the normal daily menu instead. And that's the one good thing we have to say about the Swan these days, the staff are lovely and obliging. However back to the food:Roast potatoes were a nightmare....(cooked, we figured, about five days ago and re-cooked daily since then) tough hard outer and nothing much left inside -they deflated once the knife finally made it through the outer layer (quater mass). Purple sprouting broccoli, also overcooked about two days ago, carrots and mange tout were passable although mainly just in comparison to the rest of the dreadful mess that was our Sunday lunch). There was plenty of food, but the qaulity was ghastly. Roast beef was cold which my partner didn't mind too much, but some might. The yorkshire pudding was about a millimetre thick, flat, tough and inedible. RIP Sunday lunch at the Swan in Llantwit Major. So bad - too sad.
its not to unbelieveable that the old swan inn is crashing and burning because the previous owners of the old swan inn were professionals and gave great quality food.....now the new owners of the old swan inn are completely taste dead...their food is horrible, there wine list is dreadfull and the only thing thats even half passible is the great staff service that work there but thats only that way because the previous owners chose them!!!. still the old swan inn used to be full of happy people who'd always come to this fine establishment...but now all is lost and the pub is deing and with the useless lump as the owner im afraid the pub will never rest peacefully
professionals??? it was all brakes brothers rubbish, deep fried. even the 99 versions of mas were all Smash mash! the only taste dead people are the ones that enjoyed this mass produced rubbish! i ate there a few times when the previous owners had it, and vowed never to go back, and now that its under new managment, all the food is freshly made to order, which i dont mind waiting for as i think that good FRESH food does take time. and also, the staff in there now i dont even remember from when the last owners had it, and on discussion from them, they seem to think the food has improved! it makes me laugh when people slag off a business instead of complaining to their faces, but would rather do it online, so they dont have to deal with the response from the buisness owners, which could scupper your argument.
if anyone is taste dead, then its you as you have just shown you enjoy food that comes mass produced from a different country, not local, and that probably arrives frozen in bags!
go to harvester next time!
The Old Swan Inn has changed hands it did in march 2008 to Mr Sean Murphy, who owns four other profitable businesses and who has worked with The one and only Gordon Ramsey in london. The food i believe is better than ever as it is all Cooked FRESH to order, i havent had any complaints hardly in the three years ive worked there and still do work there and if there was anything wrong with your food we would give you a refund, free food, bottle of wine wnything that we as staff could do to help, the menu is smaller and had been reduced as it is difficult to make such a veriaty of food FRESH in such a small kitchen and thus there is sacrifices. all the staff are pretty much the same more so in the kitchen than on the bar (As i work on the bar), anything off the old menus that you particularly like the Head Chief and General Manager David Moll would be most happy to see what we could do for you. I hope any visits you make to our pub will be a great one any problems ask the Staff.
They are famous for many delicious items. They are really mouthwatering. I love them very much. I go there whenever I get chance.
dogs for sale
So cold...and not very welcoming.
You could have had some heating on
You could have had woodburner going
But you didn't.
Too cold to take my coat off.
So we finished our drinks off, wondered a bit more about the noisy man at the bar and went elsewhere.
Just dreadful, just completely missing the point.
I might come back, but not until the sun shines and there are leaves on the trees.....