The Gallery Restaurant at The Swan at Lavenham

Lovely setting. The gallery is beautiful. BUT: For the price, I expected more refined, well-executed dishes. We ordered the halibut and the sole. The halibut dish was completely lacking in flavour, very disappointing. The sole was overwhelmingly salty. The leek side dish seemed to be nothing more than boiled leeks drowned in double cream. We didn't say anything not to be annoying. But, the worst part was the “fruit crumble.” When we asked which fruit it contained, the waiter wasn’t sure and guessed apple. Instead, we were served a large mix of various fruits that didn’t work together, topped with a generous amount of stale, poor-quality granola with seeds. It was not a crumble at all. The only good element was the ice cream, which clearly wasn’t made in-house. We haven't eaten it. Overall, the experience did not live up to the level advertised in your social media photos. The (very slow) service tried to mimic that of a fine-dining restaurant, but the food simply did not match that standard.

Lovely setting, but the service was extremely disappointing. We waited 15 minutes for our drinks order to be taken and a further 45 minutes for the drinks to arrive, apparently due to a technical fault — though no apology was offered. Our hors d’oeuvres arrived before our aperitif drinks, which says a lot about the lack of organisation. The food itself was fine, but staff appeared poorly coordinated and inattentive. After the main course, no one came to offer desserts and we eventually had to ask for the bill. Again, no apology, just an explanation that there was a function on — something that should have been managed by the restaurant. A real shame, as the setting is lovely, but the service seriously let the experience down.

Had lunch here yesterday. The food was good, but let down by the lack of service. Our pre-lunch drinks arrived 60 mins after we ordered and were half way through the main course. After that we were left and no one came to offer us puddings or coffee. Huge disappointment really, it used to be so good!

Sensational food, lovely people, three different places to sit. Indoors or outside. Couldn’t fault it. Bravo.

Mother's day lunch was cracking. No skimping on the beef! Duo of lamb very tasty, veg cooked perfectly. Helpful staff. Didn't seem to be any booze in my (free) cocktail, but it was very refreshing. Overall great food, and great value for money x