The Unicorn Porthtowan — Restaurant in England

Such a shame that this previously fabulous place has gone completely downhill. We come to Porthtowan regularly and have been eating at The Unicorn for a few years which has always been very good. We booked today for New Years Day and it was the worst experience I’ve ever had. As most people in there today had the same experience, waited hours for food. We ordered our food to be told about twenty minutes later one of the items was not available, the pork belly. We waited nearly 45 minutes for our drinks. Our starters came and were nice. We were then told that something else we ordered wasn’t available, sausage and mash. This was over an hour after ordering. We asked to speak to a manager who didn’t come to speak to us for another hour. Having let her poor staff, who were in tears deal with the countless disgruntled and let down customers. People were coming in, seeing the chaos and leaving!

We were given our food for free to be fair and offered a voucher for a future visit. Won’t be going back. However as I tried to explain to the manager it wasn’t about money or free food. I was deeply upset for her poor staff and the standard was terrible. She did not take feedback well which was disappointing and telling when I asked if she had recently taken over. We hadn’t been for a while. She took over in June. We kind of guessed this as it was a stark difference to previous visits. Such a shame as it has always been a go to for us when in Porthtowan. Having two places that serve food and drinks, Unicorn and Blue Bar it’s a competitive market. We always frequent both but will be sticking with The Blue Bar from now own. Felt very upset for the poor staff and we did tip them as they really...

We had a table booked for my mums 50th birthday, and popped this in the booking form so they’d be aware of the occasion. We turned up having booked, our table was unprepared - tables had to be moved to accommodate us (we’re only a family of five so unsure why this wasn’t sorted). Cutlery was forgotten which caused a little wait. One of the starters had been forgotten however was brought out quickly - the waitress was really friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, we had an hour wait in between starters and mains which was not acceptable. This was only made worse as a table next to us arrived and ordered after us, and received their meal before we did. We had to ask where it was, to be told it would be with us in ten minutes and was next on the pass - we couldn’t help but feel we were heavily forgotten about. We came to understand other tables had similar issues. Once the food arrived, it was tasty and a great standard. The half a rack of ribs was disappointing though as myself and my sister only had four ribs on our plates, so this didn’t feel as though it was worth it as an adults meal. The pickled slaw wasn’t a favourite of any of ours and was unfortunately left on the plates. The experience was heavily disappointing, especially because it was my mums birthday. The disorganisation and slow service could be slightly understood due to how busy the place was, especially as they were celebrating the 5th birthday of the restaurant, but this isn’t a customers issue to have to deal with. The music playing was definitely not expected - background music is absolutely fine no matter the genre, but was far too loud. This experience has definitely not made us want...

This should be SO much better! Location amazing, venue is nice, food was very good, but service poor. More specifically, front of house management (with lots of young inexperienced staff) was absent or incompetent.

Waited 20 minutes to take drinks order - gave up, went to bar myself. Ordered drinks refill from table and eventually went to the bar to collect it myself. Two out of four meals turned up, and had to chase the other two. Finished meals, tables not cleared, no desserts or coffees ordered, had to go to the counter to pay the bill. And this is on a quiet Monday evening when there were no more than 4 tables eating and there were at least same number of service staff.

After the meal I decided to offer polite and genuine ‘constructive’ feedback on our experience to the manager, who decided to take offence to the fact that I was pointing out one of the kids that had been hanging around in the bar throughout our meal who was grabbing more time and attention from the staff than the customers they were being paid to serve. Katie (the Manager) then decided she was more interested in giving me a refund on the meal (I guess to make me ‘go away’) than listening to my feedback. I didn’t request a refund and I actually didn’t want a refund, I wanted them to hear what I had to say, take it on board and act upon it. I really want to see a business with this much potential fulfil it. 4.2 rating and no more than 6 tables eating during peak August season is nowhere near achieving what it should. Next time I come back, I genuinely hope that it is better, and has become something I would recommend to others and be prepared to go out of my...