The Swan Inn - Beccles

Great value for money , best fish menu I have experienced. Good service, no hussle and bussle.

I recently moved into Barnby and whilst my cousin was visiting decided to eat at The Swan. We both found the staff very friendly, the atmosphere welcoming and the food superb!! Our startes was well presented and plentiful, our main which was swordfish was not only larger than we thought but cooked to perfection. We decided to have another drink at the bar rather than desert but those we saw coming out of the kitchen looked delicious and I intend to sample them next time. The Swan is small but very cosy and as mentioned early the staff couldn't have been more welcoming to two strangers!! Thank you to all at The Swan. A Smith

Been here several times, however has gone down in my estimation. Skate stunk ! we complained but no body really cared. All our meals looked like they had been thrown on our plates, staff not friendly. Really dissapointed as was fantastic in the 80s .Whats gone wrong ? However we now go to the seafood restaurant in great yarmouth its fab.

we go annually during my father in laws visit, this year Aug 2012, we were very VERY disappointed, 1: dead fly in wine glass as we were seated. 2: tables so sticky that you could not easily lift anything off it. 3: adjacent wall filthy 4: one of our starters had a dead fly ON THE TOAST as it was served ! 5: another starter … salmon nuggets … were half the size of previous visits AND 3 of the five smelt off…they were returned & knocked off bill. 6: main course t-bone steak did not taste correct. its fairly obvious for a Thursday evening, (only 4 days booking notice were you used to book 4 weeks ahead, bar5 not busy when it used to be rammed & restaurant 1/3 full when it was always packed)…that they are having a problem, BUT solving the problem by dropping portions sizes, quality & bad food will not solve it but make things worse. Come on SWAN we loved you before we want to again.

Really disappointing, will never go to this restaurant again.the service was moderate, but it was vastly over priced and the food was pretty awful. My husbands turbot smelt appalling, but there was very little apology. The starters had obviously just been defrosted and thrown on a plate with a bit of lettuce. I recommed that nobody makes the same mistake we did and goes to this restaurant.

Truly horrific. Hard to say anything good about the Swan, seemingly a big hit with the over 80s. One can only think that they've just never eaten a decent meal in their life to throw away good money on the total rubbish served up here. And the prices! Having recently eaten at Mayfair's Burgers and Lobster, it was a shock to find Donny Cole's fish restaurant MORE expensive. Frozen prawns, heaped onto shredded iceburg lettuce with a marie rose sauce ( which we were cheerfully told was just mayonnaise with some ketchup in it) ate up around £10, and rarely a more tasteless example have I tried ever. This was followed by three enormous Dover soles, which we were assured people came from miles around to enjoy. So tough (yes, a Dover sole!) we sent 2 back, thinking they were undercooked. They came back burned at the edges, but even more tough. Were they cooked from frozen? Quite probably. They were inedible, and sent back again, so no lunch. All this is inexplicable, as Cole is a well known fish merchant, and his son who runs the family business nationally known for it. When we went, we were sceptical thate Barnby might provide a great meal, but the promise of the ‘freshest fish’ simply cooked won us over. The end result though, was nothing short of appaling. Tasteless, rubbery, disgusting. And dont get me started on the coleslaw or the salad – I nearly barfed. This really was a trip to the nightmarish kinds of meals that were served in Britain some years ago, and rightly earned us a reputation as having the worst cuisine in Europe this side of Iceland. What a horror show. We went there, so you dont have to…

A group of us arrived here one month ago and the place looked charming . We all got to our sets and looked at the menu and the specials board. Most of the appealing dishes on the board were sold out so I ordered a Dover sole and some of the other group ordered Sirloin steak and my wife had lemon sole. Our starters were plentiful and on time but the main was a disgrace! We had no cutlery to eat it and had to wait for around 5 mins for this come whilst the food got became cold. This was terrible service and it was blamed on a young girl they employed as the management no courage to keep his house in check. When we confronted him he was rude and arrogant and replied ‘ no one else has complained’ In our eyes there should be no reason to have to complain with this apparent good reputation.

A group of us went to the Swann Inn for lunch on our way to a weekend away. It's tucked away off of the main road, but don't give up, you'll find it eventually! What a find…if fish is your thing this is THE place. Portions are HUGE, unless you haven't eaten for a week I would skip starters, although they were delicious & 2 starters would have fed 6 of us. I ordered the goujons & there were 4 of them the size of house bricks! Chips came up on a shared plate & I've never seen so many in one place apart from the fryer in a chip shop. Service is friendly but I feel they should have mentioned the portion size as we felt awful leaving so much food.Although out in the garden, they have around 100 feral cats laying around & they receive the leftovers, so we didn't feel so bad. The pub is really old fashioned & quaint & the restaurant part is a bit dated, but overall a great place…if you're heading up the A12, veer off & you won't be disappointed.