Swans are very popular in England. It seems like every town has a pub or inn with a "Swan" in the name. The Mute Swan, once a popular delicacy, is now endanger and is under protection of the queen. Swans strut around the city parks like they own the place, prideful with their name splashed all over everything and the queen having their back. Swans might be worse than flamingoes. 

Enough about birds, on to the food.

As far as I know, Newbury only has one pub named The Swan Inn. Dan and I had a last adult only dinner there, before the kids arrived from Sweden. 

The Swan Inn has a great vibe. Half of the restaurant still has a traditional feel, while the other half has been modernized and is very bright with large windows letting in natural light. There are bookcases on the wall and this restaurant  feels like a place where it would be okay to linger beyond your meal. 

We ordered off the special two course menu. To start, we shared the Cured Ham and Figs plate, a winning combo. My main was the Grilled Chicken and Blue Vinney Salad. Dan ordered the Pork and Herb Sausages. We ended with two scoops of Honeycomb Ice Cream for dessert. As I've mentioned in previous posts, the Honeycomb Ice Cream needs to find its way to America. I loved it and if anyone can point me to a place that sells it in Southern California, I'll buy you a cone!

At the opposite end of the restaurant spectrum, we ate breakfast at a greasy spoon called Kiki's Cafe.

Kiki's Cafe caught our attention because of their road sign trying to entice tour buses to stop at their restaurant. The restaurant is super tiny, far too small for a large tour group and they have a parking lot that couldn't hold more than a handful of vehicles, let alone a bus. Plus, other than maybe Highclere Castle, we couldn't figure out where a tour bus might be headed. It was weird, but it peaked our interest and after driving past it for a week, we had breakfast.

Kiki's Cafe does a cheap, no frills, hearty breakfast. It's good food and run by nice people. A great local find.