The Plumicorn at The Tawny Review

Opened in 2021 in the grounds of Consoll Hall Estate, the Tawny Hotel consists of over fifty separate rooms dotted around the extensive grounds. Overlooking this impressive seventy acre estate is flagship restaurant The Plumicorn. Having been awarded two AA rosettes at the end of 2023, I was fairly expectant of a quality meal as I rocked up for lunch with my wife and two young children for lunch, on a warm but rainy July Saturday.

After turning through the main gate, the road through the grounds is single track which isn't ideal, but there are occasional passing places fortunately. There's a large car park on site shared between the hotel and neighbouring wedding venue, but what I found odd was the lack of a pedestrian route from the car park to the restaurant. I even asked at the hotel reception building which is adjacent to the car park to be told no, you have go out and walk through oncoming traffic to reach the restaurant. It seems to me a peculiar lack of foresight to build a smart restaurant building but not think at all about pedestrian access.

Externally, the metal clad restaurant does look impressive and that theme continued inside with contemporary decor and lighting, and a huge triple height window overlooking the impressive outside grounds below. It's what you might describe as an 'Instagramable' venue, and indeed I did see at least one other guest walking in whilst filming themselves, why not I guess.

On arrival there wasn't anyone standing at the restaurant entry so we asked at the nearby bar (which you have to walk through anyway to reach the restaurant) and our waitress found our reservation and showed us to our table. On offer at lunch is a slightly bottom heavy three course menu with a lot of starter options (eight) but only four mains, although there are also a range of sandwiches and flatbreads available too.

The children's menu on paper though was one of the best I've seen for a while, a full three course offering including an enticing selection of hand stretched pizzas for the main course. Drinks wise, there's a comprehensive selection of options including a decent wine list and a small (but better than average) offering of non-alcoholic cocktails. I had my usual Hendrick's and tonic during the meal, whilst my wife enjoyed an English Garden mocktail.

Lunch began for me with the fried chicken, served with 'Guchajang' according to the menu (presumably Gochujang) and a ranch dressing. This was a poor dish; I could see externally looking at the chicken it was as dry as the Sahra (a decent kitchen wouldn't have sent it) and that was proven when eating. The sauces were quite nice, but you'd get tastier fried chicken at any branch of KFC.

My wife had a less offensive venison salami dish which was fine, whilst my daughter had the mini garlic and cheese flatbread from the children's menu which was tasty, although despite the name, it was very large for a kids starter (although that meant I could try a piece, so every cloud). For my young son we'd asked for a side of chips as a starter, these didn't arrive with the other dishes and our waitress (not the same one who took our order) looked a little perplexed when we flagged this. Clearly the original waitress or the kitchen had screwed up, but in fairness a portion of chips did swiftly arrive only two or three minutes later. Unfortunately the chips were not well made, not crispy and not flavoursome, a pretty poor effort.

After some disappointing starters, I was hoping the mains would deliver the knockout two rosette level cooking I'd been waiting for, but sadly that wasn't the case. My cod dish was interesting; the cod was plated inside a ring in the middle of the plate (not seen that for a while) but it was overcooked and under seasoned. The sauce was fairly acidic but not unpleasant, and I did enjoy the cherry tomatoes which packed a lot of flavour and were the highlight of the dish.

Aside from the cod, the only other main course choices were steak and chips, a salad and a risotto (none of which my wife fancied) so she went for the beetroot sandwich which was fine. The kids though did both enjoy their margherita pizzas from the children's menu which were well made, albeit quite a lot smaller in size than my daughter's 'mini' garlic flatbread she'd had to start.

Despite being less than enthralled with the savoury dishes, we pushed on (as always, what heroes we are) and ordered dessert. I opted for the chocolate cheesecake. It wasn't really a cheesecake at all, it was a little chocolate mousse dome served on top of some crumbled gingernut biscuit. The flavours were lacking but the biggest issue was the portion size; genuinely (and please bear in mind I've eaten a lot of tasting menus) this was comparable in size to the dessert on a twelve course taster, it was a bit of a joke to be honest to serve something so small on a three course menu.

My wife had the same issue with the smallest Eton mess you've ever seen in your life; not only was it barely visible on the plate, but the meringue was chewy and poorly executed. It was actually quite surreal when the dishes were served; I'm sure the restaurant would argue the more expensive dinner menu has larger portions, but at nine pounds a pop at a restaurant where the food isn't exactly stellar, I'm perfectly entitled to expect a full size dessert. Even the homemade ice cream from the children's menu was grainy and not enjoyable; my son will happily devour any half decent ice cream, but he didn't finish this. I tried some and I don't blame him; you'd be better off with the value vanilla ice cream from your local budget supermarket.

And so, after we collected our bill (complete with an automatically included 12.5% service charge), a very disappointing lunch came to an end. Service throughout (aside from a couple of slip ups) was fine, the staff were pleasant and the attentiveness was good also in terms of being asked for more drinks and so on.

The biggest issue here by far though is the food; I thought the standard of food served (and the portion sizes) versus the prices charged was ridiculous to be honest, I think someone is taking the mick. Sure, maybe the food is better at dinner, but you have to be able to cook competently at lunch also in an award holding restaurant, and that just wasn't the case here.

As a nice venue for a quick lunch bite for resident guests, the place is fine. But does it pass muster as a fine dining destination venue for people not staying at the hotel? For me, absolutely not, and I don't think I'll be returning any time soon without some fairly radical changes.