Cumbria is far from short of good places to eat – the lakes and dales here take in Michelin-starred restaurants, innovative vegetarian cooking and even a restaurant and cinema combination with ease. Here’s our guide to places to put on your map of the area.
On its 2nd Michelin star, Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume is an idyllic combination of location, exciting cooking, ingredients sourced mainly from the restaurant’s own six acre farm (whatever’s to hand dictates the menu and not the other way around) and, remarkably for such fine dining a very relaxed atmosphere with almost rustic charm. It is far from cheap but if innovative, theatrical food is your thing get saving. They also have 15 gorgeous rooms.
Baha is a stylish restaurant in Windermere, whose reputation is spreading far beyond the Lake District. The theme is Pacific Rim inspired street food, and the menu is both vast and wildly delicious, offering up smart, original ideas from a passionate and talented chef.
Sister venue to L’Enclume is Rogan & Company, also situated in Cartmel – a sleepy village straight out of an Enid Blyton book. Once inside the venue is much like the menu, modern and understated. As you’d expect from one of the most exciting chefs in Britain, Rogan & Company serves up exceptional food. It takes a special touch to take familiar ingredients and turn them into awe-inspiring dishes without resorting to gastro-molecular gimmicks.
The Joshua Tree is a homely, family-run bistro and restaurant housed in a sixteenth-century building nestled close to the River Kent. It specialises in coffee and exquisite fish and meat dishes, and hosts regular food events include a late-opening Starter & Pudding club, which is about Tapas-style small dishes, some from the main menu and others produced especially.
A vegetarian restaurant and boutique cinema in the little town of Ambleside, Fellini’s bills itself as “unpretentious fine dining.” The day we went, it delivered on this balanced promise. The dishes are focused, confident. Riffing around Mediterranean flavours, each is a harmonious combination of ingredients that have always been friends. The staff were relaxed and friendly, there were plenty of diners in jeans – but at the same time, the place feels like a bit of a treat. There are crisp white table cloths and real flowers, a thoughtful wine list with plenty by the glass. You won’t find any wet dogs under the table here.
Pentonbridge Inn is a Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms in north Cumbria. Eight courses of bunkum-free fine dining from head chef Chris Archer.
1863 offers a seven-course Lake District tasting menu that overdelivers at every turn. Cumbrian ingredients, clever ideas and classical cooking techniques.
Gilpin Spice is the two AA Rosettes Asian restaurant at the stunning Gilpin Hotel in the Lake District.
Farlam Hall is an idyllic hotel, based in the Cumbrian market town of Brampton.
Pastoral fine-dining in the Lake District at this Michelin-starred restaurant
Michelin-starred dining at the Farlam Hall Hotel in Cumbria.
A fine-dining restaurant combining Japanese influences, with seasonal British produce.
This modern bistro and bar, open for dinner Wednesday to Sunday, serves up classic British pub fare reimagined to its most indulgent.
Dramatic landscapes and beautiful wilderness surround this Michelin awarded restaurant and hotel.
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