Swindon
The Five Alls

The Five Alls

Filkins, Swindon, United Kingdom, GL7 3JQ

Cafés • Steak • Cheese • Salads


"We had a very pleasant stay at the Five Alls while working nearby. The staff were very pleasant and it seemed to work efficiently. The evening meals were good quality. I had the large sized chicken caesar salad £18. I should have had the smaller size. Couldn 't finish it. I should also have asked for no anchovies. It was pleasant, but not a great deal of parmesan. The beer selection on offer was very small for a rural country pub. Only two on offer, and no bottled options. The two beers on offer were ok, but not great. Several lagers available, but not beer. I fully appreciate the difficulty in keeping cask ales, but there are plenty of bottled options available now which keep well. The furniture and surroundings were very comfortable, with lots of old sofas. The furniture in the restaurant was an eclectic, bordering on eccentric mixture but it seemed to work. There is the work of a local artist on the walls which are for sale and are mostly rural in theme including lots of hares. The staff dogs are present in the bar or certainly were when we arrived and the pub is dog friendly. That was fine with us. We both like dogs. We stayed overnight in the accommodation which was very nice. Large roomy space, well furnished, with a large bathroom. Plenty of parking available. We asked for an early breakfast to next day, bearing in mind we were there on business and needed to leave by 7 am. We fully accept that we were not the Five Alls target demographic, and that we had been made fully aware that breakfast didn 't start until 8. The staff and the chef managed to arrange some breakfast for us to take back to our rooms as the restaurant would be shut at the time we needed to leave. That was very much appreciated. The only problem we had, was what to do with our keys and how to pay our bill and get a receipt. Nobody was up at that time. We ended up putting our room keys through the letterbox and calling to pay later in the day. I would happily stay again. Probably more suited to couples and a weekend away than business users."

Goddard Arms

Goddard Arms

1 High Street, SN1 3EG, Swindon, United Kingdom

Pubs • Steak • European • Pub, Bed


"I 've been to The Goddard Arms before and to be honest it 's always only been been mediocre, but the location to our friends and workplace made it the most convenient place to go most of the time. It 's a nice bar and the staff were friendly enough. Me and my children booked for a 1pm lunch, unfortunately we were placed next to 8 ladies of a certain age on their Christmas lunch and I had to ask to be moved due to the language and volume of enjoyment. We were moved though, no problem, and I appreciated that. A few things, especially the food made me write this review as I was so disappointed. I ordered the Hunters Chicken, one of my 'go to ' meals it 's always a classic. Unfortunately, there was no bacon. Instead of BBQ sauce topped with cheese, the burnt and dry chicken was in a pot of white sauce. I had to stir it to check what it was and found the BBQ sauce in the bottom. It looked like the outpour from a painfully swelling... I couldn 't eat it. The skin on fries I ordered, when asked if I wanted skin on fries or chunky chips, arrived as chunky chips. The side dressed rocket and sun dried tomatoes was a small pink of 4 very wilted, dry, old leaves and 2 sas looking tomatoes, I couldn 't/wouldn 't eat it. Peas...fine. Beer battered onion rings , fine, just very small. My 7 year old had 'chicken goujons ' which he couldn 't eat as they were too overcooked and rock hard. The Sundae we ordered arrived as what was basically a biscuit cheesecake with squirty cream and frozen raspberries, no ice-cream. My older son seemed ok with the fish and chips. So disappointing, the chef clearly has no pride in his delivery. The food was expensive at £15 a plate so nowhere near the quality it should have been at. Some other things which just added to the disappointing visit: Our cutlery was dumped on our table unwrapped and unceremoniously. We had 2 pepper pots and had to search the whole restaurant for the salt. The windows are filthy. It was really hot the radiators and mid room fire were on. My 7 year old was provided a massive dessert spoon for hid sundae not a tea spoon which we had to ask for. I won 't be booking my friends Christmas lunch here unfortunately. And I won 't be returning for food at this low quality."