Kirkby Lonsdale Restaurant Guide

“A regular stop when heading north” – this Lune Valley stalwart near the Cumbrian and Yorkshire borders is true to the Brunning & Price DNA: attractive surrounds (a coaching inn dating from the eighteenth century, featuring log fires and flagged stone floors); “very consistent” and wide-ranging pub food (pies, Sunday lunches and decent veggie options too); and “friendly and efficient staff”. Top Menu Tip – the “crispy beef salad is still amazing”.

A 17th-century hostelry in a “very attractive setting”, with a “popular bar” and “well-furnished restaurant” serving a “straightforward menu” which offers a British take on Mediterranean food. Long-serving landlords Andrew & Belinda Wilkinson retired in 2024 after 43 years running establishments in the Lune Valley, and thus far the standards they set have been maintained. Top Menu Tip – “excellent Boeuf Bourguignon”.

2024 Review: This 250-year-old Lune Valley gastroboozer-with-rooms has the claim to fame of having appeared on Ramsay’s ‘Kitchen Nightmares’ back in 2006. Fast-forward 17 years and several owners, and it’s in the hands of The Oakman Group, and now, say fans, “always worth a visit” – being “probably the best place to go for fish in the Lancaster area” (quite the turnaround, then!).

2024 Review: Run by the Reynolds family for over two decades, this “lovely hotel” in the Yorkshire Dales National Park is imminently “suitable as a touring base” for the gorgeous countryside in these parts. Despite its considerable ambitions in the cooking stakes (a ten-course tasting menu is amongst the offer, which has received a coveted 3 ‘AA’ Rosettes), it remains a “friendly and relaxed” sort of place.

2022 Review: This “delightful tea shop, delicatessen and tea merchants on the main route into Grange” is “every bit as good as Betty’s” – say fans of its “home-made breads, pastries and cakes to die for”. “Large windows give great views across the ornamental gardens”, and “there’s a real buzz from the coming and going of locals, visitors and efficient, knowledgeable staff”.

This “very creative Pan Asian” – one of three restaurants at the swish Gilpin hotel – rates highly for its “theatrical open kitchen and super food expertly prepared by staff who clearly love their job” (“I wouldn’t have thought of a Lake District hotel as being good for sushi, but the maki rolls were really rather good, if definitely more of an American west coast vibe than Japanese purity”). Steady ratings support those who say: “I’m pleased to say that chef Hrishikesh Desai’s departure from Gilpin has not affected the quality at all” (while the menu gives the impression of “ranging more widely across southeast Asia than it did under his direction”).

“Consistently brilliant!” – Behind the white-washed walls of this rural pub-with-rooms, Kevin & Nicola Tickle’s Lakeland venue has a high level of culinary ambition, especially in the evening when a set lunch (for £49 per person) gives way for a 10-course set dinner for £120 per person. “Surprising ingredient combinations, (sometimes VERY surprising!) are well presented and full of differing flavours and textures, all of them very local and fresh” and there are also “some off-piste wine choices”. “It’s a challenge to serve each course to every table, at the same time, but they manage in a very professional way without any delays” – diners “love the friendly, happy service” style. There’s also “a great dog friendly bar with excellent pies, snacks, and good local beer”.

“Just the right balance of superb food and unrivalled service” maintains high ratings for Simon Rogan’s less formal venue in a beamed cottage just around the corner from L’Enclume, where many visitors also stay the night. The Tyre Men have felt it necessary to bless it with a star, but it’s a step-down ambition-wise (and price-wise) from its famous sibling – lunch is a three-course selection for £49 per person, and dinner six courses for £95 per person.

“I think the best meal I’ve ever eaten” – Simon Rogan’s converted blacksmith’s workshop in a beautiful village to the south of the Lakes nowadays carries the weight of anticipation brought about by the third Michelin star that it acquired in 2022, and on most accounts “the drive is well worth it” to sample such “ridiculously good” food that “lives up to all expectations”. At the heart of the experience is a fifteen-course tasting menu for £265 per person (at lunch there’s a shorter selection for £125 per person). It’s finely wrought cuisine, with an emphasis on ingredients from Simon’s ‘Our Farm’ project nearby, and “the intimate nooks and crannies to hide away in and the quiet efficiency of the unrushed service makes it a place where time freezes” (“add in a room for an overnight stay and you have the best romantic getaway”). Sommelier Jordan Sutton is “fantastic and the wine pairing really complements the meal beautifully”. Is there a catch? Perhaps. Although ratings are still enviably high, complaints about value are also steadily rising here. (“A real sense that I was paying over the odds for the three stars. For my partner and I to be offered a glass of Champagne on arrival to mark my 50th to then be charged a huge amount per glass was a low point.”)

“Exceptional all-round” – Simon Rogan’s development kitchen to fuel his Michelin three-star with new dishes is a super-intimate experience of just 6 covers, and by definition aims for diners whose enjoyment derives from interacting with the chefs; exploring the sourcing (much of it from Simon’s nearby ‘Our Farm’ smallholding; and dissecting new ideas that push culinary boundaries). By its very nature, it doesn’t inspire a huge volume of feedback, but all that we have says it lives up to the renown of one of Britain’s most highly regarded kitchens. At dinner, the price of a meal is £265 per person.

This striking Art Deco building was brought back to its former glory in the late 2000s after falling into disrepair and today its dining room is “one of the loveliest places to enjoy a romantic dinner over tables facing out to the sea”. While most attention goes to the exemplary afternoon tea (comprising “perfect sandwiches, delicious scones and cakes”), there was also praise this year for some other “delicious” cooking.

In its current format since 1984 (and originally built in, er, 1688), this pub and restaurant won renewed interest and good all-round feedback in our annual diners’ poll, in part down to a favourable December 2023 visit from The Observer’s Jay Rayner: he praised a listed building that’s “deliciously seasoned with history” and “seriously impressive”, proper “cheek-slapping, belly-pleasing” food – notwithstanding being massively let down by its décor and “eye-achingly awful” website.