Coombeshead Farm
Lewannick, Cornwall
*As of April 2023, a three-course menu (£45) is now the order of the day for lunch and dinner, with more flexible and extended opening times. Watch for a new review coming soon.*
Coombeshead is a working, developing farm, not some kind of bucolic model for latter-day Marie Antoinettes to saunter round. Owner Tom Adams is making new decisions all the time about what livestock to keep, what to grow that will best suit the soils, and how to present the bounty of the land to its best advantage. The accommodation aspect of the business, one of its principal attractions (not least for the excellent breakfasts) has been rationalised for more straitened times, and the fixed menus have dropped a course, but also dropped in price. Outdoor café tables under an awning supplement the principal dining space in the barn. Bread has outgrown its status as mere nibble and become a course, served with fresh farm curds, sunny-yellow Jersey butter, preserved beetroot (tasting sweet and candied), and a carrot and broad bean purée. Main course could be a hefty leg of guinea fowl, served with stewed tomato and string beans, plus dressed salad leaves, while our inspector's dessert – a perfectly rendered frangipane tart of haskap berries with clotted cream – felt like the best kind of farmhouse cooking. Pastrywork is reliably excellent, witness a lunchtime slice of courgette and Berkswell sheep's cheese quiche. As for wine, it's a matter of browsing the cellars for yourself and picking out something suitable. The aperitif could be a hibiscus-scented Negroni. Some visitors feel that the laid-back service doesn't quite befit a place now enjoying global custom, but it's all a matter of expectation. If you've arrived hot-foot from Bristol airport, take a long, meandering wander around the fields. Smell the wild garlic. Look at the chickens. Calm down.
Dining Information:
Accommodation, Separate bar, Wheelchair access, Parking, Family friendly, Dog friendly, Credit card required
Lewannick, Lewannick, Cornwall PL15 7QQ
01566 782009
