About this time last year, when the Michelin Star awards were due out, I was thinking of places in the northwest that might get an award. I thought of half a dozen that I reckon are well up there in terms of quality. The White Swan wasn’t one of them. Truth be told, I’d not even heard of the White Swan. Well, that got awarded a star and none of those on my list did. Which perhaps suggests I should stop trying to second guess Michelin. It’s taken us a while to get here for lunch – and the rain threw it down all the way from North Cheshire.
The word “gastropub” is often tossed around by places, without much thought to what it means. The White Swan doesn’t use the word but is actually an ideal place for it to be used. Yes, this is a proper working pub that serves good food, not just a restaurant in what used to be a pub, if you see what I mean. We liked it, even if the mix and match seating was a bit unforgiving on our elderly bodies.
Homemade bread came first. A roll each of delicious bread, with a really good crust. They came with butter and really rich chicken liver parfait. It’s a short menu, just three choices at each course, so deciding didn’t take too long.
A celeriac “risotto” covered a nice runny egg yolk. As you broke into it, the egg flowed out enriching the very fine dice of the nicely seasoned veg. Good concept, good execution. The other starter was as light and delicate as you like. A little cured salmon, a few flakes of white crabmeat, fine shreds of pickled (?) fennel, dots of crème fraiche and a little caviar.
For mains, there was a slice of halibut, perfectly cooked and delicious in itself. The fish is farmed on Gigha, a tiny island off the west coast of Scotland, so is a sustainable source. It sits in a prawn and tarragon bisque and there’s a green olive tapenade to give a bit of a kick to the flavours. A similar sized piece of jowl from a suckling pig looked exactly like the more familiar belly pork and tasted as such with delicious fat and thin, crisp crackling. There was a light parsnip puree and, for a little sweet and sour, a few pickled damsons. There’s no carb with the main courses but it was suggested we might like to share some chips, as an extra. We would. They come as the ubiquitous fat chips. You get four so that’s a quid a chip.
Desserts were both absolutely lovely. Very seasonal raspberries came “as is” and as a sorbet, along with a little mascarpone for richness. And very nice it was too. But the star of this course was an apple crumble soufflé. Perfectly risen and perfectly delicious. They also serve a little jug of custard to pour into your soufflé, which is an inspired idea. And an ice cream, very delicately flavoured with bay.
We finished with coffee which was OK but at least that meant we got to eat a salted caramel chocolate – think very posh Rolo. Now, I don’t often mention prices when I’m writing a review – they are what they are. But this is Michelin food costing just £35 for the three courses (each course had an item that attracts a few quid supplement) but this has to be a bargain in anyone’s book. We did have a minor niggle that there seemed to be overly lengthy waits between courses.
