I love a Sunday roast, especially at a nice country pub and next to a roaring fire. So, when I was deciding where to visit this weekend, I was drawn to the rave reviews of The Swan at Nibley in Yate, which has a 4.5 star rating on Google and many a review of how delicious the pub’s roast dinners are.
We pre-booked for around 3pm and this was just as well, as when we arrived the pub was already very busy with tables full of diners tucking in. The pub itself has a small car park to the side, which makes it a good spot for those travelling along the busy main road – and it’s also surrounded by plenty of countryside, ideal for an autumnal stroll.
Inside, the pub is nicely decorated, but parts of it do feel a bit bland and dated. There is a huge fireplace, with cosy sofas to enjoy before you head to your table and, as we arrived a little early for our booking, we did just that. The staff welcomed us in with huge smiles, checked our booking and offered us drinks and a seat on the sofa straight away – they were very attentive, and this continued to be the case throughout our visit.
We ordered a pint of ale on tap and a bottle of fruity Old Mout cider – they were out of Thatchers Gold and, despite offering Thatchers ‘Stan’s Big Apple’ on the menus they handed us, were not offering this either. Our two drinks came to around £11.50, and you can expect this sort of pricing to continue when it comes to food, too.
When our table was ready, we took another look at the menu – staff told us of several changes, mostly when it came to desserts. Our server didn’t ask us if we had any allergies or dietary requirements before we ordered, but we could hear others after us being asked, so it may just have been a rare slip-up on this occasion.
We ordered a starter of houmous, oils, focaccia and sourdough, which was priced at £5.95. The dish was quick to come out, and our server also brought a spare plate and cutlery – but we just grabbed a chunk of bread and dipped it in.
Strangely, despite the separate oil and houmous we had been expecting, a big bowl of houmous was delivered on a plate, surrounded by about ten chunks of hot bread. The bread was delicious – especially the focaccia, which was seasoned with thyme.
The houmous tasted fresh and herby, and that too was delightful. We were excited for our next course – we wolfed down that bread very quickly.
I ordered the roast leg of lamb for my main, which is priced at £19.50 and comes served with ‘seasoned roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese and fresh market vegetables’ according to the menu, which also states that the pub’s roasting joints are all from Bristol-based butchersRuby & White – so I had very high hopes for my meat, at least.
When it arrived, I have to admit that the look of disappointment on my face was more than obvious to my dining partner. One large Yorkshire pudding, described by diners on tables next to ours as resembling a ‘top hat’ sad proudly on my plate, next to three very small potatoes, a single carrot, a single parsnip, some green cabbage and a decent-sized (though not memorable) amount of lamb, and gravy.
In a separate, and notably hefty bowl, sat cauliflower cheese – this was a dull cream colour and contained cauliflowers that weren’t at all soft, as well as leeks and onions (or spring onions at least) which overpowered any semblance of cheese and made much of my meal taste of some sort of French onion soup.
The Yorkshire pudding, though bordering a novelty size, didn’t have much of a taste to it, and on the contrary the potatoes were extremely salty. The best part of my meal was the meat (which was lovely and tender) and veg (cooked perfectly) – and there was nowhere near enough of either to satisfy me. I was glad I’d had the bread starter.
I could have happily done away with the cauliflower cheese altogether, and had more vegetables. For £19.50, I expected a lot more from my roast. But for locals, I suppose it does its job.
My dining partner, who isn’t a massive roast dinner eater, thought this would be the perfect opportunity to test out the ‘other mains’ on the menu – and went for the very delicious-sounding grilled chicken and mozzarella burger, which is priced at £17.50 and according to the menu contains ‘pesto, aioli, and is served with thick cut chips’.
Remembering that nobody had asked us about our dietary needs/allergies, we were saddened to see that the burger also contained tomato and lettuce – it would be good to see that clearly stated on the menu, too.
The chips were extremely hot on arrival, in comparison to the burger, which my dining partner described as ‘underwhelming’, adding that you couldn’t really taste the pesto and aioli. He didn’t finish the main, and was again pleased he’d tucked into some bread earlier on.
Finally, menu changes aside, we ordered desserts – a Bramley apple crumble with custard (priced at £7.50) and a ‘Boozy Affogato’, consisting of Marshfield Farm salted caramel ice cream, double espresso, Frangelico liqueur and crushed Biscoff biscuit (priced at £8.50).
The apple crumble was huge – it literally filled what could only be described as a large cereal bowl, and sat next to a good sized jug of very vanilla-tasting warm custard. I’m a huge fan of a crumble, especially after a roast dinner – but this one was more spiced fruit with a very small crumb topping. And it was extremely wet and watery the further into the bowl you got, however the apples themselves were rather hard.
It was an unusual consistency and, while the spice taste was nice, the texture and portion size just wasn’t great. It’s not often I struggle to eat a crumble, but I couldn’t stomach much of it, I’m afraid to say.
The Boozy Affogato on the other hand, while rather messy to manage, smelled and tasted (according to my dining partner) really nice – though, again, wasn’t a standout dessert.
When we received the bill, it’s worth noting that a ten per cent service charge is added as standard (it states this at the bottom of the menu). It is optional but I, and several others in reviews online, would point out that there are many a pub in Bristol who aren’t adding service charges as standard to bills, and who are delivering much higher standards of Sunday roast.
However, I agreed to pay on this occasion, as I believe the best thing about my visit to The Swan at Nibley was the extremely warm, welcoming and attentive staff on the day.