Hardens Guide to the Best Restaurants in Ambleside
Hardens guides have spent 33 years compiling reviews of the best Ambleside restaurants. On Hardens.com you'll find details and reviews of 24 restaurants in Ambleside and our unique survey based approach to rating and reviewing Ambleside restaurants gives you the best insight into the top restaurants in every area and of every type of cuisine.
Featured Ambleside Restaurants
1. Langdale Chase
British, Modern restaurant in Windermere
Ambleside Road - LA23
Positioned on the edge of Lake Windermere, the restaurant at Langdale Chase is closed at the time of writing while it undergoes a multi-million pound refit, with re-opening planned for late 2023. In July 2023, owner Daniel Thwaites announced the appointment of chef Michael Cole to steer the kitchen for the main dining room, whose floor-to-ceiling windows overlook the lake and the Coniston Fells.
2. 1863 Restaurant with Rooms
British, Modern restaurant in Pooley Bridge
Elm House, High Street - CA10
“Fair prices for food that’s consistently pleasant to excellent” wins ongoing praise for this converted blacksmith’s – nowadays a restaurant with rooms in the centre of this scenic Lakeland village on Ullswater. Cumbrian born chef Phil Corrie offers a choice of three-course à la carte menu and seven-course tasting menu (the latter for £105 per person).
3. The Punch Bowl Inn
British, Modern restaurant in Crosthwaite
This “consistently enjoyable” and much commented-on gastropub – originally a village blacksmiths from 1829 – wins plaudits for its “helpful and friendly staff” under owner Richard Rose, and for its signature “cheese soufflé that always hits the spot – which is why they keep it on the menu”; other dishes also go down well, not least a “raspberry soufflé to die for”.
4. Rothay Manor
British, Modern restaurant in Ambleside
Rothay Bridge - LA22
This “beautiful country house hotel restaurant” has long held a reputation for “wonderful food in a really wonderful Lakeland setting”. It “continues to offer high-class, interesting cuisine in the chef Daniel McGeorge era”, with “innovative and delicious cooking” – “so seasonal, the entire meal evoked autumn on a plate”.
5. The Forest Side
British, Modern restaurant in Grasmere
Keswick Road - LA22
“Simply outstanding in all areas” – Andrew Wildsmith’s “luscious” Lakeland hotel occupies a stone-clad Victorian mansion and it’s, say fans, “well worth the hype and prices” thanks to its “wonderful and romantic setting”, “exemplary service” and “faultless cuisine” from chef Paul Leonard and his team, all combining to create a “top gastronomic experience” – “we’ve been going here for several years since it opened, and it gets better and better: worth the journey!” That said, the pricing is a sticking point for some reporters, who feel “it’s good but not outstanding judged against the strong local competition, and heartier appetites than mine may not be satisfied”. For those of more modest tastes, though, it may be a blessing that you are not constrained to a tasting menu format (although an eight-course menu is available for £140 per person): the entry-level option is a four-course meal for £85 per person.
6. Allium at Askham Hall
British, Modern restaurant in Penrith
Askham - CA10
“The most incredible wine list – in the league of the best three-star restaurants, with the added advantage of being relatively reasonably priced” is “coupled with a five-star level of food” from chef Richard Swale (who has held a Michelin star since 2019) at this dazzlingly good operation. It occupies a Grade I listed mansion dating from the 1200s, which has been inhabited by the family of the current owners since 1724. Converted to a restaurant with rooms in 2013, it offers an “amazing all-round experience”: “we had a stunning 1952 Pomorol, and then sat in front of the lounge fire with a gentle Cognac!”
7. Zeffirelli’s
Vegetarian restaurant in Ambleside
Compston Rd - LA22
“Such a pleasant place to eat with lots of customers who don’t even realise they’re in a vegetarian restaurant” – this Lakeland fixture of four decades’ standing is part of a town-centre complex incorporating a cinema and jazz bar. Pizza and pasta are staples of the vegetarian Italian menu, and for £28.95 you can book a complete evening out including a two-course dinner and reserved cinema seat.
8. Old Stamp House
British, Modern restaurant in Ambleside
Church St - LA22
Ryan Blackburn and general manager brother Craig’s decade-old venture – the poet Wordsworth’s office when he was the local stamp distributor – is a truly “first-class” affair; the “cellar-type interior gives a cosy atmosphere”, while the “unique” tasting menu of locally sourced food (acclaimed by the tyre men since 2019) is abetted by staff who take “evident pleasure” in their work. Is it cheap? Well, “a full-blown evening tasting menu at £95 per person seems really quite reasonable” to one reporter… “anyway, it raised the bar for cooking in Cumbria for me”.
9. Fellini's
Vegetarian restaurant in Ambleside
Church St - LA22
2022 Review: Below a cinema, this popular ‘Vegeterranean’ (vegetarian with a Mediterranean twist) has long been a feature of this Lakeland town. Prices are very reasonable.
10. Lake Road Kitchen
Scandinavian restaurant in Ambleside
3 Sussex House, Lake Road - LA22
Chef James Cross returned to the Lake District after doing time at acclaimed eateries Noma, Per Se and Simpsons to set up this new Nordic restaurant with suitably Scandi styling (wooden plank walls, sheepskin throws on the chairs). The dinner-only dining room turns out eight- or twelve-course tasting menus, and wins raves for the “absolutely faultless cooking, amazing service and atmosphere”.
11. The Samling
British, Modern restaurant in Windermere
Ambleside Road - LA23
2023 Review: Set in 27 acres, this country house hotel is one of the better-known luxury destinations in the Lakes and boasts a dining room whose floor-to-ceiling windows provide magnificent views of Windermere and the surrounding peaks, where chef Robby Jenks presides over the kitchen. It inspired very upbeat (but relatively little) feedback again this year, with nominations as an ideal romantic choice or for its impressive afternoon teas. For a full meal in the dining room, lunch is a four-course affair for £60 per person, and in the evening the sole option is a seven-course tasting menu at £115 per person.
12. Holbeck Ghyll
French restaurant in Windermere
Holbeck Lane - LA23
2022 Review: Ratings weakened this year at this luxurious Lakeland hotel, whose wood-panelled, traditional dining room provides a splendid vantage-point for gazing over Lake Windermere. One reporter felt that the “competent, but potentially excellent, cooking was not value for money, due to willing but overstretched service” – perhaps signposting that the blip was due to the tribulations of the times?
13. Drunken Duck
British, Modern restaurant in Ambleside
Barngates - LA22
Also home to the Barngates Brewery – whose brews are on tap – this rural pub is a popular destination on the Lakeland tourist trail. It didn’t generate much attention in our annual diners’ poll this year, but such as we received was ‘all good‘ (although some feedback suggested “mains aren’t as good as the starters and puds”).
14. The Jumble Room
International restaurant in Grasmere
Langdale Road - LA22
Chrissy & Andy Hill’s vibrant Lake District veteran has been turning out “fantastic food” of a relaxed but appealing bent in a “lovely atmosphere” for over two decades now.
15. The Yan
British, Modern restaurant in Grasmere
Broadrayne Farm - LA22
2023 Review: “Well-cooked food”, most notably the Grasmere Herdwick lamb that appears in various guises – the signature shepherds’ pie, a slider in a brioche bun, a Greek-style roast shoulder – is par for the course at this family-run restaurant-with-rooms. Breakfast is a particular hit, too.
16. Hooked
Fish & seafood restaurant in Windermere
Ellerthwaite Square - LA23
2023 Review: This “tiny restaurant in Windermere specialises in expertly cooked fish and seafood”. Established in 2010, it changed hands three years ago and now shares ownership with Bowness-on-Windermere’s Urban Food House. On the debit side, it can be “a bit lacking in atmosphere” (one reporter discerned a “retail shop feel”) and a couple of reports diagnose service issues relating to “post-Brexit and pandemic staff shortages”.
17. Henrock
British, Modern restaurant in Bowness-on-Windermere
Linthwaite House, Crook Road - LA23
The “outstanding” if “lesser-known and more relaxed cousin of the Lake District’s most famous culinary destination” – L’Enclume in nearby Cartmell – “Henrock is a fabulous option for those struggling to save up for (or not quick enough to book)” at the former. You still get real “Simon Rogan excellence”, “overlooking Lake Windermere” in the “lovely Linthwaite Hotel”, complete with “brilliant artwork, great views, delicious and innovative food, and delightful staff and service”.
18. Source (fka Hrishi), Gilpin Hotel
British, Modern restaurant in Windermere
Crook Rd - LA23
“Never failing with the quality of food and service” – ex-Fat Duck chef Ollie Bridgwater did well to hang onto the Michelin star at the Cunliffe family’s Lakeland hotel, where he succeeded Hrishikesh Desai (who previously ran the dining room as Hrishi) just a matter of weeks before it was due to be re-rated. Despite the constant updating of the property, it is a relatively traditional space. There’s a three-course à la carte for £90, or a six-course tasting option for £120 (£200 if you go for the accompanying wine-tasting accompaniment). There is also a less informal option of the Knipe Grill at Gilpin Lake House, which is a waterside building elsewhere on the estate. And see also Gilpin Spice.
19. Gilpin Spice, Gilpin Hotel
Indian restaurant in Windermere
Crook Road - LA23
This modern Lakeland dining room – an Asian dining alternative in this luxuriously updated small hotel – is nowadays presided over by Aakash Ohol, who – prior to the departure of Hrishkesh Desai in December 2022 – was sous chef of Hrishi (since relaunched as Source, see also). Notwithstanding the odd disappointment registered this year, feedback suggests its diverse dishes (inspired by countries along the Spice Route) can be a useful relief to the native fare generally prevalent in this neck of the woods; even if “sometimes it’s difficult to choose and the dishes come as and when they’re ready”.
20. Fellpack
British, Modern restaurant in Keswick
34 Lake Road - CA12
Food and fell-running trips combine at the multi-tasking adventure brand’s bistro, whose eclectic dishes race all over the place and are “better than pub fare” (though the venue does enjoy a “quality pub ambience”) plus “good value” to boot. Their growing local empire includes Airstream-set burrito joint the Fellshack, cocktail and burger bar The Round, set on hallowed fell-running territory in Keswick’s Market Square, and (most recently) small hotel The Hazeldene, located on The Heads, a few minutes’ walk from the bistro.
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