Tsuchi at The Black Bull Inn

The Black Bull has levelled up since our last trip out to Sedbergh in late 2023. For starters, the fine dining side has its own entity, as well it should. Welcome to Tsuchi (‘soil’ in Japanese, wholesomely). 

What’s changed? Well, there’s staff lured from the North’s most revered restaurant (the three-starred Moor Hall in Aughton) and it shows. The dining space has a touch more dazzle and the whole thing simply flows better. 

Just like the paired wines, the whole experience is equal parts elegant and fun – event dining done properly. 

Nina Matsunaga’s food was flawless last time and it’s flawless this time – a deft blend of Japanese and Cumbrian culinary ideas. Delicate constructions with powerful flavours. Sedbergh is at the gateway to the Lake District so the restaurant’s back garden is essentially the nation’s most fertile region.

In a more literal sense, the restaurant’s actual back garden produces many of the ingredients on the menu. The team grow their own veg, forage for herbs such as the meadowsweet heavily featured in one memorable dessert, and source most meat and dairy from farms just down the road. If local sourcing’s your bag, it’s hard to top Tsuchi. 

It all adds up to a centuries-old, regal feel. One memorable course involves cured teal – the bird the colour is named after, a little dabbling duck which pops up around Cumbria in the winter months – in a handmade Japanese bowl, with a damson sauce, artichoke purée and N25 caviar. 

Individually, the elements are potent, almost unruly, but combine into a symphony of autumnal flavours. And if Henry VIII didn’t eat that exact same dish back in the day, then his kitchen team damn well deserved beheading too. 

A couple of courses come as supplemental choices, and both are musts. Early in the meal, there’s a deeply satisfying and cleverly executed hand-dived scallop dish that teams kohlrabi with gooseberry. 

Pre-dessert, and an even bigger must, is the cheese course. Rather than the usual few lumps and crackers, this is salty, buttery, chargrilled blue cheese on a piece of chocolate-black stout bread, drizzled with honey. The contrast between the two elements make the plate sing. 

It’s the kind of menu that’ll see the awards and accolades flooding in over the coming months. More importantly, it’s all about bold ideas and memorable dishes that could only be made by this kitchen team, in this part of the country, right now.