On a recent trip to Manchester, my luvley wife, daughter and I went on a coach trip with a group of…read morefriends to Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lake District. Though it was a cloudy and breezy day, the temperature was quite reasonable for walking the hilly streets and popping in and out of all of the shops. Such a lovely town. With all of that walking, we quickly burned off our light early morning breakfast and stopped in at a patio bar on the main street for a couple of glasses of bubbles and a soda for our daughter while we decided what to do for lunch. I had done some research on the several chippies in town, looking to go beyond the normal fish and chips to scampi and chips. I read that the best scampi is had with full tail langoustine, and that some "scampi" actually contains fish pieces. I asked the bartender her opinion of the best shop in town, and right away she mentioned one that I had read about, Vinegar Jones. In fact, it was right up the street. We made a bee-line for the shop and so had a lot of others as the line snaked out the door. Wanting our fix bad enough, I got in line and ordered fish for the ladies and scampi for myself while my luvley wife and daughter headed upstairs to see if there was seating available, despite the sign on the counter that read "Upstairs Full". They found a table just in time so as I paid for our order, I was told it would be delivered upstairs shortly. The upstairs room is smallish, but had comfortable seating and a nice view out over the main street. Our orders arrived quickly, and the large pieces of fish were ever so gorgeous, piping hot and glistening on beds of chips. It tasted so fresh. But the star of my show was the scampi, full tail tasty nuggets of beauty. With little packets of tartar sauce and a full bottle of malt vinegar in hand, we were in chippy heaven. We had two other meals of fish and chips during our stay in Manchester, but none matched the quality and fresh taste of Vinegar Jones. Cheers!

Friendly, welcoming staff were more than happy to educate an American on the finer points of…read moreBritish chippie offerings. I was well fed and happy! No complaints. Definitely want to visit again next time I am in the Lake District!

I had lunch here on Wednesday. There is a proper restaurant section, at the back of the pub. They…read moreadvertise the fact that they have won awards for there food, on the menus outside. The two bar meals areas were pretty full, so I ate outside. This is in July. I only had to wait four minutes for my order to arrive, beautifully cooked haddock in batter, proper chips and mushy peas with mint.(see the photo!) I thought that it was reasonable at £7.95 and one of half a dozen cooked lunches at that price. They also do a two course meal (for the over 60s) for £5.95. There are also a good range of lighter options for lunch. Puddings however were disappointing, they sounded great, but were £5.45. One of the things which I should have born in mind is that, because it is such a tourist hot spot, normal prices are generally suspended. As a result the main courses were cheap, but the puddings the usual!! I enjoyed my bitter and there was a good selection of real ales, and also wines. The Queen's Head also does bed and breakfast. It costs £45 per person per night at the moment, according to the village website.

Wonderful pub. First visit in ten years or so and it hasn't disappointed! Not always a good idea to…read morego back to a place that you have great memories of. This is thankfully an exception to the rule! Food is still excellent - difficult to think of where I've had better fish and chips - and the real ales on offer are delicious. Mustn't wait ten years to go again!

If you are at Dove Cottage, I highly recommend stopping for lunch here. My wife had the Fish &…read moreChips, which were great. I had one of their originals: Topped with tuna, mushrooms, crispy bacon, and roasted mediterranean vegetables, their rarebit is topped with gruyere, cheddar, and goats cheese. An excellent meal after a morning at Dove Cottage!

I got the salad and it was so flavorful and I really enjoyed it. It was kind of hard trying to…read morefigure out how to get a seat and order but it was really good food once we got sat. (It's not table service, you have to order at the bar ).

We're staying in Grasmere so I hopped onto Yelp to see where was good to eat. We stopped here for…read moredinner on a raining evening and the restaurant was packed so opted to eat in the bar area. We ordered a burger and the fish and chips. My husband had the burger and it was surprisingly large and cooked beautifully. I had the fish and chips and it was fantastic! It was served with mushy peas and the best tasting tartar sauce I have ever tasted! The service was great; fast and friendly. We thoroughly enjoyed our dinner and then headed off back into the rain! I definitely recommend trying this place out if you're in the area. The restaurant is around the back/side and the lodging entrance is at the front.

Nice place to sit outside for a meal and drink when the weather is nice! Food is good, though not…read morereally anything special in my opinion. Big Boy Burger has a double patty, well done, and a bit of a different flavor that I couldn't quite place. Perhaps one of the patties has some sausage in it? Pretty good but pretty much all patty. Small amount of other toppings but they didn't really come through in the flavor. Lamb Duo was nice - with two kinds of lamb preparations, mashed potatoes, broccolini, and a gravy.

Very nice bar with quick service, young guy working the bar didn't get his name but he was really…read moregood. Had a nice helping of shepherd's pie and a good pint of cider for lunch and set the rest of the day on good footing.

Friendly staff, great beers & food, dog friendly…read more This is a proper pub, just like they should be. Lots of seating inside and a good few tables outside for that rare day of sunshine. The beer is excellent, their commitment to this is demonstrated by their own onsite brewery and the great selection of handpulls. The food is good standard pub fare with a few more modern options like nachos and curry on the menu too. Fish and chips was a popular choice with our group along with steak and ale pie. They have specials on the blackboards every day. There is a small car park and more spaces along the lane so no problems parking. They are dog friendly and the whole place is generally full of well behaved and gorgeous ones. Staff are friendly and helpful so all in all a great place to stop if you are in the area.

The Watermill is a traditional pub, with different rooms spreading out from a double sided bar in…read morethe centre. It's also a microbrewery, and names all it's beers after types of dogs. Hence you have names such as Collie Wobbles and Shih Tzu faced. I had a half pint of Dog'th Vader, a dark and tasty stout, and very nice it was too. We didn't have any food, but it was a Friday night, and the place was stowed full with people having dinner, so it seems to be very popular. The guy who served us probably could have been a little bit friendlier, but he probably gets stick to death of stupid people like us laughing over the dog themed names. Or maybe he was just feeling a bit ruff.

AVOID THIS PLACE! If you want your reservation mysteriously…read moredisappeared, or if you enjoy dressing up for dinner only to be turned away at the door -- this is the restaurant for you. We called at 8:30 PM to ask if there were any available tables for the night. The guy on the phone clearly confirmed two options: 9:30 PM and 9:45 PM. I even asked if 9:30 was the earliest available, and he confirmed it was. I then confirmed the 9:30 PM reservation, to which he replied, "See you later at the restaurant." When we arrived -- 15 minutes early, by the way -- and told the host about our reservation, he looked completely shocked. He denied ever receiving a reservation call. I showed him my call log (see attached screenshot), which clearly shows we called the correct number. He admitted he was the only man working the phones and that it was indeed the right number -- but still insisted no reservation had been made. Even though the restaurant had empty tables, he refused to seat us, was incredibly rude, and paid us no attention while continuing to serve others. No apology at all. No effort to resolve anything. Just left us standing there. Absolutely absurd and laughable experience. Never again.

The food was delicious with excellent service and a cozy ambiance. Ate here twice while visiting…read morethe Lake District.

We stopped for a quick lunch and the food and drinks here were pretty good…read more We tried the olivers light ale and stout. Both of them were pretty smooth. I also ordered the chicken liver pate and the chef's burger. Amazing the food were pretty good. The patty in the burger was very tender and juicy. The only part I didn't like was the service. I understand they were kinda busy but still I think they could offer better service.

Whilst staying in Coniston on holiday we chose this pub for a lunch time meal rather than the…read moreevening. With it being half term it suddenly filled with families with disrespectful children & dogs. On arrival barely anyone in and not knowing the brewery ales, the landlady offered us several taters. We settled on Blackbird & Bluebird ales. Both strong but likeable. We decided to both have the Cumberland sausage with mash and green beans. The green beans where hot but barely cooked the rest was ok for a pub meal. Our overall experience was not special but nice to see lots of images of Donald Campbell & Bluebird. A very traditional Lakeland pub.