Swan Inn, Barnby Review

Overall Rating

Have just come back from a Friday lunch at the Swan Inn, Barnby,it having been highly recommended by a few people. To start with, the setting itself was lovely and the service was very friendly and helpful. I do not doubt the quality of the fish itself but there is obviously a BIG difference between the original ingrediants and what happens to them after they have passed through the chef's hands!! I doubt that the chef has heard of "Less is more" and the words "old fashioned" and "heavy handed" probably sum the food up. From the quite vast menu we chose the meditteranian seafood with side salad to start and then lobster thermidor and dover sole with deep fried courgette for mains. I was looking forward to my starter, thinking that the dressing would be more akin to the balsamic vinegar/ olive oil/herbs affair than the vinegar heavy dressing that did arrive and that did its best to mask the taste of the octopus/mussels etc. The sole, I'm sure, was a very nice piece of fish-somewhere beneath the oily film from the courgettes and the slightly burnt taste of the flour. Dont get me wrong, I dont mind cooking fish with flour, I have very fond memories of my dad doing just that many moons ago and its one of the few things he can cook well, but this...And, if youre going to do courgettes like that why not slice them thinly and then fry really quickly (or better still, saute them), rather than leave them in too long so that they absorb all that oil.As for my lobster, I was really looking forward to it having only ever had it once before in a really posh hotel when my company picked up the tab. This, however, was not how I remembered it.It came with a creamy wine sauce with onions and tarragon but the sauce was far too heavy with long strips of onion floating about. Couldnt detect the finesse I expected of the sauce at all (butter/fish stock/shallots/mustard/parmesan/seasoning)and it was served with peas, the seemingly obligatory side salad (lettuce/tomato/cress/prawns)plus a potato salad and some boiled potatoes that tasted absolutely fine but which had nice grey patches on where the eyes hadnt been cut out.Why no seasonal veg as a side? Is it me? Whats wrong with a piece of lemon some butter and black pepper and letting the main ingrediant-all that lovely seafood-talk for itself rather than masking it with heavy-handed sauces/dressings. Maybe its the chef or maybe the cliental. Certainly it seems a very popular place to eat ....but then if you are happy to mask the beautiful delicate flavour of a piece of fresh plaice with a heavy cheese sauce...The venue, service, portion sizes, pricing were all fine but,sorry guys, for me , I like to taste the fresh fish Ive been looking forward to.