The Compasses Inn couple to open new restaurant Tallow

Located on a village green in Southborough, in the suburbs of Tunbridge Wells, their new restaurant will have 26 covers on the ground floor dining room as well as an upstairs private dining space for 10.

The menu will use many ingredients from Kent, from where Rob hails, and will follow a three/three/three a la carte format. A nine-course tasting menu will also be offered in the PDR.

Sample dishes will include treacle cured beef, glazed ox cheek, braised baby gem and English mustard clotted cream; Stour Valley quail with Kentish cherries and black pudding; crispy confit lamb, mint pesto and goats’ curd; roast loin of venison, celeriac puree, pickled girolles and potato terrine; roscoff onion and cheddar cheese tart and pickled walnut ketchup.

The decor will feature exposed brick, weathered wood and a log burning stove with the walls painted a rich shade of ‘liquorice’.

“We want Tallow to be a neighbourhood restaurant, the type of place we like to go ourselves. The menu will change all the time so there will always be a new menu for regular diners to try,” says Rob.

The couple, who met while both working in restaurants, previously ran The Compasses Inn in Crundale but left the award-winning pub and restaurant in September after eight years to embark on their new project.

Donna, a native of Australia, is a trained pastry chef and now runs front of house. The pair worked together in Sydney and Brisbane in senior positions before returning to Kent to take over The Compasses Inn, which went on to receive a Bib Gourmand and a place in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list for eight years.

Tallow will open for lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday and will launch on 5 November.