Beautiful Swan or Ugly Ducking?

I have been trying to review The Swan & Edgar for over a month. They cancelled on me three times due to building work not being finished – and the upstairs restaurant still wasn’t open when I eventually visited. It wasn’t exactly a good start, though I was intrigued by the fact they weren’t finished because they were ‘laying the floor, made entirely of scrabble tiles’. So far, so weird chic.

Finally, arriving at the bar, nestled in a residential road in Marylebone, I was pleased to see it was actually finished. Kind of. The décor was definitely verging on the underdone side of things: newspaper lined the windows and doors, there were no blinds or curtains, the walls were a sort of mottled colour reminiscent of exposed plaster and there were bare floorboards.

The scrabble tiled floor was in the toilets, and it looked pretty cool. The bar was made out of books stacked together, finished with a wooden plank. It was definitely different and striking, though seeing Jackie Collins snuggling up to Chaucer was a rather alarming sight. That said, it all works, and when it got busier the place had real warmth to it and I didn’t want to leave.

I arrived pretty early, around 6pm, but it was dead quiet. The bar was so small, seating a maximum of about 16 people, that you noticed the silence immediately, especially with the music volume so low. Then after the cricket finished (the MCC is spitting distance away) it got really busy. There was a definite buzz, which was nice, but the bar felt very full with only about ten people in it. It didn’t detract from our evening though; I just think a little more time getting the atmosphere right would be time well spent.

Food and drink-wise, this place is great. We tried a number of bar snacks and dishes from the small but perfectly formed menu – cocktail sausages in honey and mustard sauce, a three cheese pastry parcel, a pint of prawns and an English deli board. All were delicious, fresh and with generous portions.

Service was a little woolly – we thought we’d start with a glass of Prosecco, nicely priced on the menu at £3.50 but they said they didn’t have any. Then they found it, but it was warm. So we decided on a bottle of Rioja. They brought the wrong one – despite me telling them twice which one we wanted. And when it got busy they struggled to serve everyone quickly enough. They meant well, and everything was done with a smile, it was just a little amateurish.

And that’s the point about this place. All it needs is the benefit of experience. Time will allow it to find its niche, and encourage the staff to get the balance between friendly and efficient; and the atmosphere will grow as its reputation does. The Swan & Edgar is unique, and will in time be something really special; I reckon it just needs a little more love and attention to settle into its skin. It’s still an ugly ducking at the moment, but the potential for beauty is definitely there.

The Swan & Edgar
43 Linhope Street
Marylebone
NW1 6HL