Swan House Tea Room

Me and my family went in for afternoon tea and it was truly awful all round. I had rang beforehand to say I was vegan and ask if that was something they could accommodate, was told yes no problem. I arrived and the lady came to the table and asked who was the gluten free one, I confirmed it was not gluten I couldn’t eat, but eggs and dairy, meat, etc. She left and the chef came out and asked “who is the confusing one who said on the phone they were vegan, but is now only dairy free?” I stated that I was only clarifying to the server and I’m definitely still vegan. She proceeded throughout the conversation then to call me “weird” “abnormal” “unusual “ and a heap of other rude and unnecessary things that made me really uncomfortable. When the platter was brought the server again said “here is the gluten free one.. oops sorry I meant vegan” this basically left me with zero confidence in either the server or the chef on their knowledge of veganism and so I barely ate anything, fully unconvinced that it was actually vegan friendly. The bits I did eat were average to say the least. And the icing on the gluten free cake was this rude, horrible experience cost me £7.50 more than everyone else for the sheer luxury of being vegan, despite nothing actually seeming worth that massive mark up. If you have any sort of allergy whatsoever I would avoid this place like the plague. Average food and horribly rude staff, wouldn’t recommend to anyone.

We had afternoon tea, I had gluten-free, It was excellent. Two lovely ladies looked after us. Would definitely go back.