The Swan Hotel, Stafford

"Very disappointing service"

My daughter requested that we visit the Swan for a meal to celebrate Fathers Day. On arrival we called at the bar to enjoy a pre meal drink. The young man who served us was surly and clearly didn’t want to be there - we think he was nearing the end of his shift, and was quite rude when we asked for a drinks that were either out of stock or now no longer stocked.
We went into the restaurant for our 7pm reservation and were shown to the table. The restaurant was busy and it soon became apparent that there were only 2 colleagues waiting on. Our drinks order was not taken until just before 8pm and our first 2 choices of wine were out of stock. We ordered a third choice red wine which was eventually delivered to the table and opened. Nothing was said by the waiter that this was not the wine we had ordered. We realised that the bottle was not what we chosen and was a much cheaper and lower class than the one we had ordered. There was no colleague to report this to and as we had already been sat at the table for nearly an hour we opened the wine in desperation. Our meal order was taken very late and once again we were told that certain items were not available - we had all ordered roast dishes and the waiter came out som time after the meal had been ordered to state that there were no more roast potatoes and could we have chips or mash instead! As it was now well past 9pm we didn’t want to totally reorder off the menu, so made do with what was on offer. We sat waiting for our order in the restaurant amidst uncleared tables full of crockery and leftover food. The food when it eventually arrived was lovely. We asked for our bill and reported the red wine error. No offer was made for any reduction in cost or apology. I asked the waitress if the gratuity had been put on the bill and she said not, due to the issue with wine. We paid our bill and she put the receipt on the table and walked off to the kitchen with no thank you or goodbye.

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