The Swan at Lavenham Hotel & Spa

A bit of disappointment

We booked one of their Lavenham rooms, which are their smallest rooms. It was all we could afford with 175 of vouchers and me making up the difference! It wasn t too small though, it was a decent size, but let down by the fire escape outside the window which guests and staff were using all the time as a short cut to the rooms near us. So it didn t feel private at all and meant that when we were in the room I felt I had to keep the curtains closed all the time.

Not much on the menu we liked the look of if we re honest too many fish options for our taste - but the desserts were lovely. Breakfasts were presented with plenty of choice of cereals, pastries, stewed fruit etc. The cooked options were satisfying and while the poached eggs for the Eggs Benedict/Royale were wonderful and the Hollandaise sauce was perfect, the ham was rather fatty all over. The Full English was OK, the bacon was rather thickly cut and the fried bread was very greasy.

The Cream Tea which came as part of our package was a disappointment. The scones were clearly frozen and defrosted as although they were warm on the outside, when we cut into them they were still cold in the middle!!! We should have complained really as it s not what you expect from such a high class (expensive) establishment. But on the other hand nobody came to check on us to see how we were doing! That actually seems to be a recurring theme throughout our stay food dished up job done!! The staff were all polite enough, just not enough emphasis on actual service . I m sure that the member of staff who was complaining loudly to his colleague in the public space had a genuine grievance but it struck me as extremely unprofessional!

On our second night we tried to bring our evening meal forward to 6:00 and were told we couldn t as the restaurant was fully booked at 6. Imagine our surprise when we got there at 6:12 for our 6:15 table to find only one other couple in there!! Still, our burgers were nice. However it did take a while for them to be dished up and we finished our meals at 6:55. There were a few other tables occupied by then but by no means was it busy but it wasn t until 7:20 that we had our plates cleared away!! Again we enjoyed the desserts immensely.

We had a 35 per head allowance for the evening meals, but unfortunately it was strictly food only so while our food came to less than this each night we still had to stump up 4.30 per large soft drink!!!

All in all, it was a bit of a disappointment as we've wanted to stay there for many years but the reality didn't live up to our expectations.

Could have been better

1 room out of the three I booked was inferior, no dressing gown, small window etc. this lady was a solo traveller therefore had to pay the double room cost for a couple even though only eating for one, and was disappointed.
The staff were polite but forgot things they were asked for on four occasions. The cream tea was extremely disappointing with almost inedibly hard scones. Our initial invoice was incorrect by 140, this was soon rectified.

evening meal

We had very good breakfasts and the meal on the second night, however we were dissapointed with the evening meal on the first night.

Our choice was the flatiron steak and it was not good quality which was difficult to chew and certainly not as good as we have experienced elsewhere. The waiter simply dismissed this saying "it was the cheaper steak option". I often have sticky toffee pudding in restaurants but the one I had that evening was no better that a cheap supermaket version. My wife had ice crream but the price was excessive for three small scoops.

On the second night we avoided the desserts and just had fish dishes with sides and they were very enjoyable