Green Quarter, British, Modern Restaurant Guide

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?

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.

James Cross is celebrating his tenth year at the stoves of this well-established Lakeland foodie mecca, where he has won acclaim for his “unique” cuisine: “incredible dishes with different inspirations, but with a nod to both Nordic and Asian influences” (the result of past stints at Noma, Per Se et al). The stripped-down interior is of a piece with the cuisine and staff are “very welcoming and friendly” too. Top Menu Tip – “The freshly baked bread is out of this world (we were given the rest to take home); The A5 Wagyu was incredible and they made us feel so special as it was our tenth anniversary”; “exceptional vanilla ice cream to finish”.

“The Lake District is not short of good places to eat at, but this stands out in an area of brilliant restaurants!” – so say fans of Ryan (chef) and Craig (manager) Blackburn’s well-established destination located in the former office of poet William Wordsworth from the days when he was the local stamp distributor. The main event in the evening is the ‘Journey around Cumbria’ tasting menu with eight courses for £95 per person: “superb food that thoroughly deserves its Michelin star” all delivered by “knowledgeable and warm” service. Top Tip – “priced at £55, it’s very good value for lunch: rabbit cannelloni is good, the steamed halibut superb, the hogget full of flavour and the rhubarb dessert delicious”.

“A smart but ultra-comfortable Lakeland hotel with a stunning restaurant from ex-Fat Duck chef Ollie Bridgewater, who has really put his stamp on the menu over the last year, with cooking that is original, refined and absolutely delicious”. The venue itself is “spread over a couple of dining rooms, with well-set tables complete with white tablecloths”. This is “clever cooking” such as “gnocchi with identically shaped mousses of the local St James cheese – a remarkable dish with an intense truffled jus gras”; or “Lobster pappardelle – thin pasta with some herbs rolled in, excellent sauce and Oscietra caviar”. The menu is based around three courses with an ‘Origin’ menu for £90 per person; or a ‘Source Culinary Journey’ for £120 per person. As well as its evident gastronomic attributes, it’s also often recommended as a “romantic” destination too.

“Great Rogan food, but in a more relaxed setting!” (“Like L’Enclume on its day off!”) – no report has a bad word to say about the cuisine at this spin-off venue from the Lake District’s most renowned celebrity chef, which occupies the light-filled dining room – complete with floor-to-ceiling windows and skylight – of Linthwaite Hotel, overlooking Windermere. Chef Mark McCabe (the former chef-owner of The Ethicurean in Bristol) took over at the stoves here in early 2024, and reports say “you can taste the individual flavours making up each course”. One could argue for the award of 5/5 for the food-score here – our sole reservation is that no reporter nominates it as their best meal of the year, just that it was “altogether highly recommended”.

This rural gastropub-with-rooms in prime Lakeland tourist territory is “still good after very many years”. The concise menu has “a strong focus on vegetarian and fish dishes” (although one visitor’s husband “had a hankering for a few more meaty options”), but in any case it’s all “very tasty” and “the bar with the on-site brewery (Barngates) is excellent” too.

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.

“A dog-friendly bar with good beer… an outstanding restaurant… and just up the road from my house!” – so says one delighted Lake District local about Kevin & Nicola Tickle’s “staggeringly good” pub, where a simpler lunchtime menu gives way at night to a ten-course offering for £120 per head. Ratings went from strength to strength here this year as a couple of diners nominated it as their best meal of the year. Kevin spent 10 years at nearby L’Enclume and was also head chef at Forest Side in Grasmere.

2024 Review: “Amazing stay and experience, the dishes were out of this world” – early praise for this January 2023 Lake District newcomer from the high-profile Edinburgh chef. It occupies an Art Deco hotel on the banks of Haweswater Reservoir, now transformed into a self-named fine-dining outfit focusing on local seasonal produce serving some of his signature dishes (shiitake mushrooms on toast; 11-hour slow-roast pork belly; sticky toffee soufflé). There’s also the more informal Brasserie 37, named after the year the hotel was opened. More reports please!