The Swan House Boutique Inn & Restaurant

Our new boutique Inn at Beccles Suffolk

February 22, 2012

Our long planned metamorphosis into a posh B&B or boutique hotel in Beccles suffolk…

Now you can follow our music

It’s a little known fact that everyone thinks they have great musical taste. It’s perhaps a better known that few have. As we are frequently asked what music is playing, I thought we should take a chance and make our selections…

Our new Swan House ‘Delicious Desserts’ iPad App

If you are concerned about your health, click away now! For those still with us, we are both pleased and proud to share our best and most coveted ‘Delicious Desserts’ recipes on our new iTunes App. We have spent months…

Tales from chilly Prague

February 14, 2012

…with the upstairs resembling more a building site, than the Suffolk boutique hotel…

Recent Swan House customer comments

October 8, 2011

“An excellent meal and impeccable service. Perfect for a family celebration”
Hugh Jones, Beccles, 4th March 2012

“We have eaten in many places not only in this country but in many other country’s and this is as good as…

A magically naughty moment at the market

August 20, 2011

All of a sudden in one magically naughty moment, the son lifted the tail of the dress…

The Swan House ‘One minute self-portrait’ Children’s Hospices appeal

June 23, 2011

Swan House Beccles, is launching a fund raising appeal, in aid of Children’s Hospices…

I’m exhibiting at the Tate Modern!

June 11, 2011

…few days away from the Restaurant in Beccles, completed with my first Tate exhibition!

Tales of War Horses in London

May 27, 2011

The problem of how to celebrate my step daughter’s birthday is always a tricky one. Do I give her yet more clothes and risk bursting her wardrobe; treat her to dinner somewhere other than the Swan House Restaurant…

A wonderful meal?

May 7, 2011

“The starter trio was like a party in my mouth. The duck and cod wonderfully cooked…

Assaulting the ‘Hahnenkamm’ with ‘Kaspressknodelsuppe’!

April 29, 2011

Introducing new dishes should be the truly creative edge of restaurant cooking for any…

A happy return to Swan House

March 26, 2011

I was told this evening that Swan House is one of the few restaurants in Suffolk that…

Magical tales from Austria

March 4, 2011

I had a surreal and truly magical experience today, as I was uplifted to the piste in a cable…

Social networking

February 21, 2011

Has anyone stopped tapping on a keyboard, to consider that so called ‘social networking’…

Tales from Switzerland: chilled out in Zum See

January 22, 2011

This has been my 59th ski trip to date, some of which have been pure holiday, most of which I’ve worked as a ski guide, occasionally attended training courses and other times coached.

Tales from Tuscany: Late sun in Sienna

January 9, 2011

Here’s a pic that reminds me of our excellent late summer visit to Sienna last year. Although the city is a wonderful experience and a place I have long wanted to visit, some of the less heralded nearby Tuscan towns,…

Tales of spooky love

December 24, 2010

Before opening the Swan House doors to our Beccles diners this morning, I went for a quick browse around the town’s shops. Amongst the last minute Christmas shoppers and visitors to Beccles, I heard the very unseasonal “You’ve lost that…

Mr ‘Wikileaks’ comes to Town

December 22, 2010

Whilst Julian ‘Mr Wikileaks’ Assange is holed up in Beccles, the world’s press eagerly awaits our response. In a world TV exclusive, our local Beccles market fishmonger was asked how Mr Assange’s presence, may impact on the neighbourhood: “Well if…

Our new website

December 16, 2010

Somewhere early stone-age man almost certainly won a design award for inventing a square wheel. And while 11 years ago we were the first restaurant in the area to have a web presence, our old site more recently appeared almost…

Tales from the kitchen: the Swiss maid

October 4, 2010

Mondays are usually our chef’s day for new menu ideas and inventiveness at the Swan House Restaurant. Recently we were looking for some classic European light lunch ideas for our ‘bar menu’. I considered some Alpine dishes

Tales from the kitchen: Down and out in Beccles

September 15, 2010

Perhaps the all time classic ‘behind the scenes’ tale of kitchen life was told in George Orwell’s recollections of 1930’s Paris: ‘Down and out in Paris and London’. In one unforgettable scene he describes how a head chef, enraged over…

Tales from Italy: Joy in Gioia

September 10, 2010

Just found this pic on my iPhone that I had forgotten about. Gioia in Southern Italy, pronounced ‘joya’, put on this excellent almost Bruegelesque ‘festa’ of music and dance in mid August. Oh for a little of their heat…

Tales from the front: Esme’s excellent evening

September 5, 2010

There are two sides to every restaurant and since working at The Swan House in Beccles, I’m honestly not sure which I prefer. But either way it’s great fun, whether having…

Tales from the front: Funeral

August 31, 2010

My Swan House staff so successfully organised a funeral wake whilst I was in Italy recently, that the daughter came back last night to personally thank and congratulate me. She was so completely bowled over in her praise of how…

Tales from Italy: Courgette flowers for lunch

August 22, 2010

Although Beccles and thoughts of the restaurant in Suffolk should be a thousand miles away from this sun-baked Italian landscape, I’m always on the look out for new ideas to bring back to the Swan House. For lunch today, Carmela’s…

Tales from Italy: I was a fugitive from a chain gang

August 18, 2010

It’s Wednesday early evening and I’ve just planted a couple of lemon trees in the hard baked ground outside Carmela’s house in Southern Italy. Using a pick axe and spade, I feel I now know what it’s like to be…

Tales from Italy: Italian drivers

August 13, 2010

We’re spending a few languid weeks away from Suffolk and Swan House in Carmela’s home in Southern Italy. Situated 30 miles due north of Naples in the foot hills of the Matese Mountains, it’s a region that’s poor by our…