Willows
📍 1.6 miles from Ewood Park
About this Pub
Why it's great for Matchdays
A practical pre-/post-match stop for Ewood Park trips: it's listed by Swansea City's away-day guide as a nearby hotel around 2.3 miles from the stadium, and Expedia's listing puts it about a 5-minute (≈3.1-mile) drive. The pub publishes long daily food service hours, useful for pre-match meals or a late bite after full-time, and CAMRA notes a large on-site car park. If you're staying over, the adjoining Marston's Inn provides rooms. All of this makes The Willows a convenient, neutral base for travelling supporters even if it isn't flagged as a dedicated 'football pub.'
Recent Fan Reviews
Very clean, modern accommodation in a separate building to the pub. The pub staff are extremely friendly yet professional & the food is great. Very varied menu. I had the steak with super sweet peas, skin on chips & a beef dripping & merlot sauce that was incredible. I will return because I stay in Blackburn regularly for work & it's only a 2 mile , very straightforward drive into the town centre. I stayed on Sunday & Monday & the price was great too.
We booked for a party of 17 tonight at 6pm. We sent preorders as advised by the staff but it still took almost 90 minutes after us being seated for starters to be served to us. Some of the main meals had items missing and they had to be recooked. By the time everything was brought out, others had finished theirs. There were huge gaps in the service. My steak was not medium rare as requested but cold and very well done but by that point I was ravenous and just did my best to eat it anyway. Desserts were brought out before the plates from the main meal had been cleared and the whole event just felt poorly managed. The staff were pleasant and some of the food was tasty. The chicken pie was well received and the kids enjoyed their fish and chips. The desserts were lovely but the whole experience was marred by the long delays and items that were sub quality. Thankfully, I had a meerkat code which took a massive chunk off the bill but I doubt we will return. I would like the thank the staff for being pleasant and approachable in difficult circumstances. They did their best but we left unhappy.
We were greeted by a happy barman who served us quickly. We had booked but he told us just to chose a table. We used the qr code on the table to order our food. The shared Natcho arrived with plenty of topping on and more than enough to share. The right amount of time was left between courses, the lasagne was hot and garlic bread soft beautiful meal. My husband had steak n ale pie which came with chunky chips both piping hot. The quantity of food unfortunately made it impossible for sweets. We will be back for a nice treat The price was very reasonable too. We Great
We recently visited the willows for a spontaneous late lunch with my partner and our son. We were greeted and served by Kieron, he was very polite, informative and helpful. My son has a dairy intolerance and he made sure everything was safe for him and treated it like an allergy which was great. Me and my partner got some starters to share and they were stunning. We’ll be back soon no doubt! Thankyou🙂
Have been there today, with my friend for dinner. The food was absolutely awful. We wanted to give a test of quality before for going for a Christmas dinner. We ordered leek, cheese and potato pie and fish and chips. Everything was dry as nun's fun..y! Pie, chips, fish... We asked to cutlery, we asked to give us a napkins. And then we realised the gravy are missing there, should be asked to 🤦♀️ I know its not a restaurant, I am not expecting fine dining, but why would any pub serve lovely "homemade" food, as they supposed to? Just simple, lovely fresh food! And, by the way, hygiene rating is 4. Why not 5?? Disappointed. P.S. Bottle of Malbec was good, saved our evening though 😆