Harden's survey result
Summary
This “proper local pub but with Michelin star food” is many reporters’ “restaurant of the year” – with service that’s both “fun and professional, not at all stuffy” and “stunningly good food” from chef Tom Parker, who trained at nearby Lancashire powerhouse Northcote. Top Menu Tip – “the beetroot ice cream is sublime”.
Summary
“Every dish is sublime” – “a real joy” – at this “unpretentious pub” near Burnley with “fantastic cooking” from “brilliant” chef Tom Parker, who “learned his craft at local Northcote and now has a diary released three months at a time”. “It’s a one-hit menu each day depending on seasonality and his mood” – “not exclusively fish but the fish dishes are superb”. The whole operation, including co-owners Gareth & Laura Ostick, is “very clever” and represents “excellent value” – “it’s not really cheap, but much much cheaper than similar establishments of this class”.
Summary
“Brilliant cooking, usually based on locally sourced ingredients, that’s inventive but not too eccentric and always precisely cooked” from Tom Parker has established this “funky” pub-restaurant, north of Burnley, as one of the best in the region. That and the fact that it’s “the only Timothy Taylors pub in Lancashire” (if you are not a beer drinker, there is also a “short but interesting wine list”). And they’re “such nice people” too, with “co-owners Gareth & Laura Ostick running front of house with affable efficiency”. “Tables around the bar have the best atmosphere but the little dining room to the left may be a touch more comfortable”. One downer – one or two reporters are “sad that the restaurant has re-opened with a no-choice menu”.
Summary
“Very classy indeed” – Tom Parker’s “informal” pub-restaurant “shows no sign of slowing down”, having snaffled a star from the tyre men in 2018. A “small menu of great seasonal and local ingredients is cooked and presented beautifully” and, as the only Timothy Taylors pub in Lancashire, there’s no cause to complain about the beer.
For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
Have you eaten at White Swan at Fence?
300 Wheatley Lane Rd, Fence, BB12 9QA
Restaurant details
Prices
| Availability | 2 courses | 3 courses |  |
 |
 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Always | £0.00 | £0.00 |  |
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| Lunch | £0.00 | £55.00 | |
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| Dinner | £0.00 | £80.00 | |
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| Drinks |
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|---|---|
| Wine per bottle | £25.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £4.00 |
| Extras |
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|---|---|
| Service | 10.00% |
300 Wheatley Lane Rd, Fence, BB12 9QA
Opening hours
| Monday | CLOSED |
| Tuesday | 12 pm‑1:20 pm, 5:40 pm‑8:20 pm |
| Wednesday | 12 pm‑1:20 pm, 5:40 pm‑8:20 pm |
| Thursday | 12 pm‑1:20 pm, 5:40 pm‑8:20 pm |
| Friday | 5:40 pm‑8:40 pm |
| Saturday | 5:40 pm‑8:40 pm |
| Sunday | CLOSED |
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