This is the highest five-star rating I can possibly give, and it's strictly for the restaurant…read moremenu. The food is just out of this world. As starters go, the salt and pepper calamari and beef carpaccio are PERFECT. Fisherman's platter is large and well prepared, and certainly worth a go to get your meal started.
The duck breast is perfectly cooked, and prepared in a complex blend of cauliflower puree, spinach leaves, potato, jus and spices that requires careful eating to ensure that you get a bit of everything in every bite. Thank god it's a menu constant - I'll be going back just for that dish.
This weekend's beef special was, well...special. Again using a butternut puree together with a blend of the typical beef-required accoutrement, just roasted and spiced to a mouth-watering breath stealer.
Ok, this is getting a bit intense. Let me calm down a little bit before we get to the deserts...
The pub burger was just OK - nothing otherworldly - and the onion rings are a complete miss. The "aged" cheddar on the burger is unidentifiable to the taste buds, the bun was sloppy and easily fell apart while eating, and though the beef was quite good and cooked just right, the spice was boring and kind of just like you'd expect a pub burger to be. After everything else, this was a shame - should have been much more interesting and elevated as well as being meaty.
Wine selection was decent, and plenty of the basics on tap and behind the bar. Avoid the restaurant side of the place and just sit in the open-seated pub to ensure that you don't get a side of unwanted pretension along with your steak (and save the 12.5% service for an extra wine, of course!).
Now, the desert... The rumours are true, and the sticky toffee pudding is undeniably the best desert on the menu. The pool of sugary syrup that covers the bottom finger of the bowl is plenty to have every bit swimming in the stuff, and the cake is the right kind of wet-spongy to make you lose your head.
Baked Alaska - interest and complete. But wow, waaaaay too much sugar by desert number two to palate that last 1/4 of that. Just to be clear, had I eaten the sticky toffee last and got to the last quarter with the same amount of sugar in me, I would have made the effort and finished off the sticky toffee...not the case for the Baked Alaska, however.
Disappointed that the ice cream throughout the desert wasn't better - it certainly didn't match the quality of the rest of the restaurant - but if that's the major error on the desert menu, I'll still go back there 10 times out of 10.
This place, by itself, will bring me back to the Lake District time and time again. I've not had such wonderful food on vacation in my entire life....oh, to be those lucky locals who get to eat here every evening...
Hats off to the chef and his team.