Goddard Arms - Swindon

Staff knowledgeable and can make some items vegan if possible. Buttermilk chicken burger is very very good.

I love coming here. Lovely atmosphere and no loud music or tv. The beetroot and smoked cheeze tart is just a tummy!

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.

Fabulous Food and Great Service, the Tribute is kept to an amazing standard. The Lamb Shank is incredible, just fell off the bone. Highly Recommended

1. It wasn’t possible to book a table after 11am. The rudeness when I rang to quickly and politely ask how busy the restaurant was before we set out, and to check our little dog was welcome should have been a red flag, really. Without a word the ‘gent’ who answered just transferred me to an ansa phone mid sentence. However, we took the risk and went.. 2. The table and the windows were really grimy. 3.There were no useable blinds to screen the bright sunlight bothering a few of the seats on tables by the windows.A group beside us were bothered too. 4. The clincher was being charged £7.95 without a word of warning for less than a pint of zero shandy. My sister was told after that the lemonade tap wasn’t working so she was expected to pay for a bottle of lemonade with her bottle of lager. What a great treatment of nominated drivers or those struggling to stay sober! A clear warning about the cost should have been given. I’ve used The Goddards for years but nonw of us felt the place was worth staying in dor lunch so moved on. What a pity. I emailed with my concerns and have received no response after four days. The only reason this review is 2 stars is that buying our drinks covered us for three hours’ parking at The Goddards whilst we ate elsewhere. And it is dog friendly. Check also as I have been told that this is a bar that officially increases prices during busy times. Not something I could verify given how bad The Goddards are at communicating!