Plum's Upper Room

The quality of the food is great, but our experience just sucked. I enjoyed the dishes that I tried, but there was just too much other nonsense to get past.

First, Plum's is pretty cute. It's cozy and decorated nicely, despite these huge awkward portraits on the walls.

Immediately upon arriving, we got an icy, snobby reception from the hostess / bartender / manager. She asked if we had a reservation (we did). When we said we were waiting for one, she offered us a seat at the bar. The place was really empty so we just asked for a table. Then the waitress took us to a table for 2, since she apparently didn't communicate with the snobby hostess. We had to ask for a bigger table.

Once we sat down, the bartender / hostess / manager comes over and, seeing our large table, asks if we are expecting anyone else.

Umm... yea, we already covered that. And geeeeeeez!!! Could the two of you work this out amongst yourselves, because your lack of communication is really becoming bothersome. Seriously, get yourselves sorted out and come back to me when your head is on straight.

We were presented with sticky menus. I never forgive sticky menus in an establishment that serves $30 entrees. Anyhow, the cocktail menu didn't have descriptions. I asked the waitress about a cocktail that sounded interesting. She told me it was a brandy cocktail and that it was refreshing, but couldn't tell me what else was in it... Luckily, it *was* refreshing.

Appetizers were great. We did the trio of bacon and a cheese plate. Pretty simple, and I was happy with our choices. Unfortunately, for dinner, they were out of EVERYTHING. They waited until after we'd ordered to tell us, which I found obnoxious. In all seriousness, they were out of 3 different entrees. This is on a menu that includes less than 10 entrees. For my colleagues, they'd ordered, ten minutes went by while we thought food was being prepared, and THEN the waitress comes back asking them to make another selection. It was just beyond ridiculous.

When you know you're out of something, tell the guests at the moment you seat them. When you have limited availability of certain things...maybe because they're specials...TELL your guests before they get their hopes up.

What a complete mess. If I were the chef here, I'd move on...he's totally carrying the team.

I like this place. The small downtown Zionsville in general is nice. Lots of boutique shops and restaurant. Brick road gives it that extra special ambiance, plus parking is still free. Its like a quite, smaller, cleaner, nicer version of Broadripple in some way. As for Plums, its on the second floor (I now understand why upperroom), high ceiling, exposed wooden beams, dim lighting, large windows facing the street, and paintings/photos on the wall. Excellent candidate for a romantic dinner date. Food is good, the wife enjoyed the pork shoulder and I was told it was really tender and yummy, while I (being somewhat a good Catholic on a Friday during lent) thought the red snapper with rissoto that evening was pretty tasty, though I would prefer to have the fish in the broiler a few more minutes. The portion of the dishes was on the small side, but not Recess small, and cheaper. The sticky toffee with some caramel we had for dessert was really tasty. They did not have a full bar yet but have a isting of wine and beer and some liquor that I am not familar with. Service was great and overall it was a good experience and excellent choice for a Friday evening dinner.

I wanted to go to Plum's while visiting with my family because they had told me about many outstanding meals they had eaten there. Our server informed us that Plum's got a new chef a couple of months ago, and it seems that this was a very negative change.  We started with the $25 local cheese platter which had a delicious selection of 4 cheeses, fruit, and honey, but only a tiny, tiny wedge of each cheese. Hard to justify so little food for the price. The famed tomato soup was light pink, bland, extremely starchy, and in desperate need of salt and pepper (which weren't on the table). Honestly, I could hardly even taste any semblance of tomato and it looked nothing like the soup in the photo on this website. I had the special, which was poppyseed crepes with cheese and local vegetables. They were tasty but could have used more veggies and less cheese in my opinion (ironic given the meager portions of the cheese platter). Two people in my party ordered the pork shoulder ($26), one received a large portion of delicious meat; the other received a cut that was at least 2/3 pure fat and contained maybe 3 oz of meat at most.  One person very much enjoyed their rack of lamb.  As a side note, the people behind us sent back meat (not sure what) that was cold in the middle.

This place has so much potential with its adorable atmosphere and emphasis on fresh local foods.  They clearly strive to create a complete dining experience. I would love to see more restaurants with these qualities. My entree was quite good but not worth the high price. It was disappointing to see that a new chef may have spoiled Plum's fine reputation.