The Swan in Braintree

The roughest pub in Braintree with clientele to match! Smokers stood in entrance smoking-so I became a passive smoker! Poor drinks & customers were an inconvenience!

great place for a quick drink on the way through town!! looking forward to the new management. looking forward to the new look

Lovely friendly pub, nice atmosphere

Great banter with everyone. Very friendly.

What can I say.. Spot on 🍻🍻👍👍🤣🤣😇😇

We stopped by this beautiful old pub with a toddler. We spotted what looked like a little play area. On arrival the toys there were broken and dangerous to play with. Benches and outside tables were dirty, which of course understand it has been raining but were extremely dirty. Lots of rubbish dumped everywhere old radiators, tables and chairs and broken items. Very unsafe environment. Real shame as the garden area could be beautiful. Would love to see it restored

This pub has and is coming on to be a great pub

We went for a simple, one course lunch, mid week in June. The lady behind the bar was really welcoming, informative and helpful; chatty and friendly. We opted to sit in the garden to the rear of the pub, where there are basic tables and chairs and some soft seating; a boules 'pitch' and a small stage for outdoor performances. The pub dogs were wandering around, friendly and not pushing for attention. There was some road noise, but trees and a small children's play area masked us from the traffic. Basic outside toilets and you helped yourself to cutlery and condiments from a table, leaving your dishes on another table as you left. It could have done with a bit of freshening up, but a pleasant enough place to sit. We had been feeling hungry and so had ordered an extra helping of fries but, as it turned out, the portions were generous and tasty. Good simple pub food and good value. It seemed to us like the staff were trying to build up business again after Covid, and doing a good job of it.

Not for me. Shame. Lovely building and out side space. Under utilized

Under new management give it a go

Great pub! Awesome live music. Happy, smiley staff! Top quality beer (especially the black stuff!) Warm, friendly and fun atmosphere every night - definitely worth a look in! Ed 2021: Alas none of this is any longer the case

Popped in for a drink. Sat in the rear garden, tables filthy, ashtrays overflowing. Table service offered

2019 has been a busy year at The Swan, closed, offered for a new landlord, shut down, cleaned up a bit and reopened. It's hard to establish what The Swan would be without it's regular drinkers apart from the nights some guest noise attract a few more customers. The Swan does not know what it wants to be. the venue is great but suffers a low reputation which is sad as it's central location should make it a money spinner, I feel it would be better to skip the evening drinkers and target ladies that lunch and passing day traffic, it would just take some vision, better music and baby-buggie friendly polices. Pity the owners don't understand the internet nor modern trends.

It's now under new management it's a lovely place will definitely visit again 👍

Friendly staff good service lively pub!!

Good atmosphere and friendly landlady

There's no food but it's good atmosphere

Brilliant venue for music gigs and brilliant members of staff. They are very friendly and it's a very quick service

Good food, nice staff and lovely interior

Always a good choice for live music at the weekend and now after so long a missed opportunity The Swan is cashing in on the morning passing coffee trade - something that should have been addressed before now. A great old building of historic standing within central Braintree the pub is well worth your time and custom more than just a swift half enroute to another watering hole.

Great hosts and good atmosphere

The boss is a living legend! Friendly staff, great food, large seating area out back, live music.. All in all, one of the best pubs to let your hair down & have a laugh in the area. As long as you can get over yourself & see through the, admittedly, less than sparkling finish to the exterior & actually take a moment to look deeper than the surface.... You'll find this place is all character & heart: & if nothing else shows you this, then have a word with the Governor (Character & heart personified). It's never going to be everyone's idea of what constitutes as a blinding cup o' Rosie-Lee, but it might be yours & how are you ever going to know unless you give it a go for a night & see for yourself?

Looking very tired inside, the staff were quick with service and unfortunately that is all I can say.

Well as The Swan is probably the oldest pub in town it deserved a revisit when it announced that it would do food again - the curry was better than expected and the beer was not over priced. Personally I avoid the place on live music nights but have recommended it to others in Braintree, it takes all sorts I concede. I nice place for late drinking if you are connected it seems - I'm not one of the "in" crowd sadly - not here anyway. But this is a nice building and wish more could be made of it if only there was the desire to take it in a new direction - but I guess Braintree isn't ready for that yet. In years to come - maybe.

Great pub good friendly staff and live music of an evening