The Old Swan at Astwood near Newport Pagnell proved to be a patchy, confused experience.
The thatched building is nice, with loads of character and low beams. Whilst at the bar we ordered a bottle of red wine which was described as Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot a blended wine from South Africa, no name, no vineyard. This turned out to be a young (2010) bottle of wine, we asked for one glass and the barmaid poured it from the bottle. We then went to our table, at which point they brought a decanter and poured the wine into that to serve the remaining glasses! There are two reasons to decant wine: aeration and filtration, I don't think a young South African wine needs it. So far this seemed strange and a little miss-guided, but not a major problem. When we finished the first (unremarkable) bottle we decided to try a different one that had a name, Black Granite Shiraz, and they were about to pour it into the SAME decanter when one of our party pointed this out.
The starters were similarly patchy: two of us had Pan-Fried Mediterranean Prawns in Garlic Butter: five nice prawns with heads in a salty but otherwise fairly flavourless liquid, not a trace of garlic. Avocado with Curried Prawns turned out to be normal prawns with a curried mayonnaise; on the other hand Devonshire Dressed Crab was rather nice.
The mains were much better: nicely cooked venison with a cassis sauce was excellent, as was the steak and the fish Tagine. The puddings were fairly good although the custard tasted like Ambrosia with a little nutmeg sprinkled on top and the bread and butter pudding seemed heavy and overcooked in the corners, perhaps it had been in a microwave oven?
At over £30 per head for the food, the quality wasn't up to the price. Similarly although there were apparently plenty of staff, getting served was difficult. It appeared that several staff only delivered and cleared plates, they weren't employed to respond to requests like more wine or bill. read more