RestaurantsDorsetLyme RegisDT7

Harden's says

Harriet Mansell opened a second Lyme Regis site in July 2021, just months after successfully launching Robin Wylde during lockdown; this wine bar and tap room is a 40-cover cellar space over 400 years old, just down the road from its big sister, and focuses on low intervention wines and small plate food.

survey result

Summary

£67
  £££
3
Good
3
Good
4
Very Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

This wine bar in a 400-year-old cellar provides a “relaxed ambience” for chef Harriet Mansell’s “truly original and special local food”, much of it based around foraged ingredients, with which she made her name at the much lamented Robin Wylde before it closed in 2023. She offers her full gastronomic experience at seasonal ‘Garden Table’ dinners.

Summary

£62
  £££
3
Good
3
Good
3
Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“What an unexpectedly good find!” – a 400-year-old cellar housing a “wine bar doing small plates of very good”, “fresh and locally sourced food”, alongside “enjoyable cocktails, mocktails”, “and a decent wine list described as ‘low intervention’”. “Service is efficient and unobtrusive”, “staff charming”, and “everyone is obviously enjoying themselves”. Owner Harriet Mansell also operated her stellar restaurant Robin Wylde near here until September 2023, at which time it closed as its lease expired. Harriet is currently looking for a new site, but may offer special evenings here in the meantime.

Summary

£35
    £
3
Good
3
Good
3
Good
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

This 400-year cellar serves “tasty small plates of interesting food and a good wine list, featuring lots of natural wines”. It’s the little sister of Harriet Mansell’s nearby restaurant Robin Wylde, operated with the same local and sustainable ethos.

Summary

£32
    £
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

Harriet Mansell opened a second Lyme Regis site in late July 2021 (after our survey had closed), just months after successfully launching Robin Wylde during lockdown. This wine bar and tap room is a 40-cover cellar space over 400 years old, just down the road from its big sister, and is ‘somewhere you can pop into for a glass of wine and some nibbles, or a long meal of shared plates’.

For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at Lilac?

Cellar 57-58 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3QD

Restaurant details

No dress code

What the Newspaper Critics are saying

The Daily Telegraph

William Sitwell found a “deliriously good” 400-year-old cellar “with a menu that sings with the ingredients of this part of Dorset – produce that grows along and around the Jurassic coast”.

But it was chef-patron Harriet Mansell’s “saucing wizardry that elevates it to the sublime” – her refusal of the “signature splash” which many chefs deploy, which allowed each of her sauces to “stand proud and unique and magnificently tasty”.

Highlights of the meal included a South American-influenced sea bass crudo that was a “tango beneath the cliffs of Chippel Bay” and a plate of gnocchi on a “nettle sauce that delivered the beguiling flavour of an English woodland”.

William Sitwell - 2024-07-14

Prices

Traditional European menu

Starter Main Veggies Pudding
£11.00 £18.50 £8.00 £4.00
Drinks  
Wine per bottle £30.00
Filter Coffee £3.00
Extras  
Service 12.50%
Cellar 57-58 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, DT7 3QD
Opening hours
MondayCLOSED
TuesdayCLOSED
Wednesday5 pm‑8:30 pm
Thursday5 pm‑8:30 pm
Friday5 pm‑9 pm
Saturday5 pm‑9 pm
Sunday12 pm‑3:30 pm, 5 pm‑8:30 pm

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