The Black Swan at Oldstead

1. Fantastic experience staying and dining at the Black Swan for part of our honeymoon. The bedroom in the adjacent building was very nice with a 4 poster bed and big bathroom. The tasting menu with drinks package was very tasty and memorable and we loved the attention to detail in the food, surroundings and service.

2. Delicious tasting menu and wine pairing. We had one course which wasn’t to our liking but others loved it so just not for us I guess. For me the rooms are lovely but way overpriced, but if you’re wine pairing and don’t live nearby your options are limited. However, I would definitely go back for the food.

3. Food superb, service excellent, as you would expect from a restaurant of this calibre. It’s what you’ve paid for.
   Two gripes. One, lots of upselling attempts for additional courses or different wine pairing suggestions. Felt it was inappropriate and could be intimidating.
   Second, accommodation is poor value for money. Nothing special and in our cottage we could hear them setting up tables in the restaurant from 6.30am.

4. Food and service were exceptional as can be expected. All the courses were wonderful and beautifully presented. Can’t fault it. We stayed overnight in their cottage and that was clean, warm and very well presented.

5. My husband and I stayed and dined at the Old Swan Oldstead last Saturday and were disappointed. The first 4 courses of the tasing menu were really good but sadly downhill afterwards.
   The Monkfish and Seabass were similar dishes and quite plain.

   The Monkfish was a course on both the meat and pescatarian menu and it felt like the chef had run out of ideas for a further pescatarian course when the seabass arrived also quite plain.

   The two separate dishes of seabass and partridge were served with exactly the same vegetables, presented in exactly the same way. This was lazy and the priority seemed to be around making it easy to serve rather than create Michelin level dishes.

   We ordered the wine pairing option for each course. The wine pairing for the pescatarian menu was lazy. For the course where my husband has partridge breast and I had seabass, we were both served the red wine, Thymiopoulos Alta Xinomavro 2021 which pairs wit Lamb, Pork, Beef, Pork, Sausage and Charcuterie. The lady who served it, whilst looking bored with regurgitating the same script, extensively described how it paired with partridge and then commented ‘oh and it pairs with seabass’ followed by a brief description. This wine does not pair with seabass and this was a lazy and poor choice, especially for a Michelin restaurant.

   The height of disappointment was the last course of puree mushroom and chocolate shard – It was, as it sounds, fairly disgusting and hard to believe that any chef had tasted it before putting it on a menu. When leaving the restaurant, we noticed other diners struggling with it also!

   So, all is all not a good experience and would not return or recommend it. The restaurant is not putting the effort in to providing a good dining experience – which is fine if they were charging prices that reflected the effort they were putting in , but they are not. The price is based on the publicity that Tommy Banks has and he is maybe taking their Michelin star for granted! I wish I had read this honest review before booking it.

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