The Black Swan Pub & Restaurant, Crawley

Really well run pub. The service is allways great here, lovely quiet bear garden and the food is really good. My only criticism is Hall & Woodhouse pricing is a bit high.

Delicious food excellent service from Josh who couldn’t have been more helpful. But on the pricey side but you get what you pay for!

Made a late booking for 15.30 and told that roasts are on a first come basis. Which was fine.
Got there and was seated and that was about it.
After sitting there watching staff walk past us for 10mins.
I decided to go to the bar and get my own drinks.
I asked for 2 pints of coke, i was informed that they could only do
diet coke or coke zero on tap
Odd as they are nearly the same thing.
However they did have coke in bottles. I said fine i will take 4 bottles. They was kept downstairs in the warm (because everyone likes a warm coke)
As i left the bar area i approached the check-in area where the manager and waitress spent there time ignoring me, to ask if i could order 2 roast dinners.
I was told at that point that they had run out of roast dinners.
To which i replied why didnt you let me know when you seated us.
They stayed quiet.
I said your attention to anything is zero to which the manager replied 'thankyou'.
Totally obnoxious , lacking in communication skills.
To be offered a drink would have helped , but couldnt manage that.

The pub is always warm and welcoming. The staff are friendly. Can't fault the bar staff and how helpful they can be. They made a big effort to get a table booked for today.

But I'm always disappointed when it comes to the food and the food service. Not for the first time, the person bringing out the food has been confused by the order. Today it wasn't complicated, four beef roasts. Yet only one came out to a table of four. Que confusion and the meal was taken back. Eventually four meals were bought out. Food was tasty and well cooked.

Plates were never cleared away. I appreciate we were in the section where there is no table service but that doesn't excuse dirty plates being left for an hour. Eventually we stacked them on a spare table. No one checked the food was okay.

Second bit that confused us today was desert. We ordered jam sponge pudding. Not 100% sure it was jam sponge. It was more like sticky toffee pudding. It wasn't unpleasant but was a little odd, like the two recipes were combined. And the custard was cold.

Such a shame the food and the food service let's the pub down as generally it's a nice place to have a drink.

Extremely busy which is great, however we had booked in advance requesting a quieter area for my child due to additional needs. We were sat underneath a speaker.... I let someone go infront of me at the bar as just ordering a drink for the server to then offer to serve someone else on the other side of the pillar before me. Meals took some time to come out without notice for the delay, dessert was wrong but not the end of the world. Working in hospitality I know how busy it can be but I was really disappointed for my first visit. Not sure if I'd rush back if I'm honest. Hopefully in time you'll be able to accommodate more staff to help you through busier times.

Beautiful food! Fish & chips + fish burger, delicious - thank you! Great atmosphere and a lovely, warm, cosy feel inside the bar/restaurant. Dog friendly!

Can't wait to return :)

Unfortunately it appeared that there weren't enough staff to serve. The majority of the staff were lovely but there was one very sour faced staff member who would not smile. The food took ages to come out. We were a party of 15 and the first served were almost finished before the last meals and the veg came out. I asked for salt and pepper but it never came.

Great evening had by the both of us!

Good was great and plentiful. Ordered the hoisin wings and cheese garlic bread to start which were really tasty.
Fish and Chips was equally tasty!

Service was fast and the waiting team were very attentive.

Deffinitely ordering the burger next time, Look forward to visiting again.