The Swan Hotel, Tarporley – Taste Cheshire Review #Review

Gaile Wundke
22nd July 2015

The Swan Inn is located in the very pretty village of Tarporley, bunting flutters above as you drive though and flowers burst with colour from the many tubs and hanging baskets that adorn neighbouring premises. It makes you feel good just visiting Tarporley, very British and of course so is the pub. Interestingly on the day the government backed down on their new Hunting law revisions The Swan used to be the home of the Cheshire Hunt and many red jacketed pictures cover the upstairs walls in what is the quintessential English Banquet room – worth a visit by itself.

We visited The Swan on a warm and sunny Wednesday evening and at 6.30pm were pleasantly surprised to find the car park almost full and quite a few people enjoying some Al Fresco drinking and dining.

A member of staff took us to our table which was in what might be described as the restaurant area of the hotel. I say that because people were eating all over the hotel and we couldn’t help thinking that the pub area looked a little more inviting but that is just us and pubs maybe.

We were given menus and made a choice from the wine list.  The wine arrived in a very impressive silver Champagne ice bucket and the first of our treats was that the house chardonnay we chose was exceptional. It’s called Five Foot Track and if you get a chance and like Chardonnay order it. It’s very good.

The menu appeared to be a mixture of pub classics and some slightly more adventurous dishes.  To start we chose the peppered tiger prawns with lemon and garlic oil and dipping bread and the warm salad of veal, black pudding, apple and roast celeriac.

When they arrived the prawns were nicely presented in a bowl on a wooden board, with a lemon flavoured mayonnaise and slices of toasted bread, drizzled with a herb oil.  My partner said the prawns were perfectly cooked and very tasty, but felt that at £7.95 the portion size was a little on the small side.  My veal with black pudding was presented on an old fashioned patterned plate befitting the feel of the restaurant. As a dish, I felt that with a bit of fine tuning it could be very good.

For our main courses, we chose the half rotisserie style chicken with sweet potato chips, house slaw and hot pepper mayonnaise and the 10oz 28 day aged Sirloin steak, with traditional garnish, seasonal leaf, bone marrow butter and chips.  When the dishes arrived, they looked impressive.    The chicken was cooked quite well  but the rotisserie flavour was missing and the hot pepper mayonnaise was just as described and very tasty.

The sirloin steak looked very impressive, garnished with three huge crispy onion rings, hand cut chips, a large flat mushroom, whole grilled tomato, a small piece of corn on the cob and mixed leaves. The steak was cooked rare as asked but was very tough but the onion rings and chips were excellent.  The batter on the onion light and crispy from the first bite to the last and the chips were so good that we asked the waiter to find out what they’d been cooked in!  The mushroom was also nicely cooked.

We were offered dessert menus and decided to share the sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream.  We were delighted when the waitress brought our dessert, a generous portion of pudding with an equally generous pool of sticky toffee sauce.  The pudding was very good, moist and sticky and the accompanying vanilla ice-cream a delicious contrast to the rich stickiness.  It was a very pleasant end to the meal and apart from the chips and onion rings, the star of the show!

We enjoyed our evening at the Swan and the staff really want customers to have a good time. We couldn’t help feeling that we were missing something in the restaurant, which certainly filled up by the time we left but as always the grass looks greener on the other side and there was no doubt that people were really enjoying the atmosphere of the outside dining area which is both secluded and a sun trap. So if the sun is shining then find this hidden area and enjoy the best chips and onion rings we have tasted in a long time.