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Detail Pages
The Black Swan, Warrington
Hollins Green
Postal town: Warrington
WA3 6LA
Reviews (Current Rating Average: 7½ of 10) see review guidelines
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about The Black Swan
Now five hand pulls at the bar, offering Doom Bar, TT Landlord, Dunham Big Tree and Lymm Bridgewater Blonde. One was off due to conditioning but the label suggested this would also be TT Landlord.
All back to normal now - head to the bar, order, pay, clear off with your drink. The large beer garden and green area is a massive bonus for the Black Swan and is very pleasant when the sun is out.
On 25th March 2022
- rating: 7
[User has posted 761 recommendations about 606 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about The Black Swan
First visit to a pub following the great lockdown of 2020. We were sat in the beer garden where there are notices to place your order by text, with a mobile number given. All well and good if you know what you want, but sometimes you need to see what's available, especially when the pub has rotating real ales. I was apprehended when trying to enter the pub to have a nosey at the bar but I was allowed to pass to see what was available, and then I had to go back outside to place my order. To be fair the ordering process worked, you text your order, it comes out a short while later with the card reader for you to pay by contactless. Cash, from what I can gather, is not being accepted.
I wonder if the Black Swan have now cut ties with Robinsons, as there were three real ales on and none of them were from Robinsons, which in my opinion is a step in the right direction. They had Cheshire IPA by Dunham Massey, Bridgewater Blonde by Lymm Brewing and Cheshire Cat by Weetwood. Nothing outrageously exciting but better than the line up on previous visits. The Bridgewater Blonde was £3.55 a pint, so I assume the others would have been about that mark too.
All in all this was a bit of a strange experience, I assume you must be able to sit inside if you have booked but when I stuck my head in to look what was available at the bar it seemed to be dead inside. Other than a makeshift one way system to the back door, there didn't seem to be any enforced social distancing outside, the play area was open for business and there weren't any long lists of rules and regulations on display. Strange times we live in.
On 27th July 2020
- rating: 7
[User has posted 761 recommendations about 606 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Rob Hunter left this review about The Black Swan
I am not a regular at the Black Swan, but have been on and off over the past few years. It is a smart modern pub with a big beer garden which is beautiful in the summer. Until fairly recently there were 6 hand pumps at the bar, usually offering a couple from Robinsons in addition to more interesting selections from Dunham Massey Brewing, Mobberley Brewhouse, Titanic Brewery and other smaller breweries.
Following a change of manager last year I have noticed that the hand pumps have gone down from six to four (the other two being physically removed rather than just left blank) and the focus now seems to be on Robinsons ales, with three ales from Robinsons dominating the pubs and one from another brewery if you are lucky. When there is another, it has always been good - Landlady by Dunham Massey and Anchor by Titanic being fairly recent examples. But it seems you can no longer depend on a non-Robinsons ale being available, which is a great shame, as the last Robinsons ale I had in there (Double Hop) was unbelievably bland.
It has always been quite a food focussed pub, but seems now that the real ale is becoming more of a token offering rather than giving customers a decent selection.
On another note, the locals do tend to crowd round the bar, which can make it difficult to take in what is available at the pumps. Perhaps a chalk board listing the real ale offerings would be useful to combat this.
Would previously have rated 8/10 but dropping down to 7/10.
On 4th January 2018
- rating: 7
[User has posted 761 recommendations about 606 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Will Larter left this review about The Black Swan
A large roadside village inn that has become somewhat isolated by the by-pass that leaves the village pleasantly quiet. Unlike the nearby Red Lion, however, the Black Swan is thriving by making itself into a destination pub, with a handy bus stop just across the road. There's a milestone set against the front wall, showing that the pub is 428 miles from Land's End and 589 miles from John O'Groats, which seems to me like a very long way from either end (and I'm sure it was only 960 miles when I did it a few years ago).
Inside there's a long bar occupying the back of the main room, which was presumably several smaller rooms at one time. The pub is so large that there are still many different areas to explore even though it's basically now open plan. Pride of place on the bar is taken by six hand pumps, of which just four had beers available on my midweek afternoon visit (though more were on the way, I was informed). Thwaites Mucky Duck was said to be a popular beer, but I went for the Privateer Red Duke, a 4.8% malty red beer brewed in Manchester, and when there was still ten minutes until my bus back to Warrington, Dunham Massey Green Hop Beer as well. The other beer, untried on this occasion, was Brains Organ Morgan. Both the beers I drank were in very good condition, and I was made very welcome here by staff and customers alike.
The 100 bus from Warrington gets you here in under half an hour, and return buses are at 19 minutes past most hours, 58 in the evenings and 45 on Sundays. Definitely worth making the effort if you're in the area.
On 2nd October 2013
- rating: 8
[User has posted 3751 recommendations about 3486 pubs]