Ambleside Restaurant Guide

“In the area, Zeffirelli‘s is rightly celebrated” – this Lakeland fixture (est. 1980) has been a feature of the town centre for nearly 45 years and is part of a quirky site incorporating a cinema and jazz bar. “Although it‘s a vegetarian restaurant, often people eat there without realising there’s no meat on the menu! The food’s well-presented and doesn‘t make a big fuss about being vegetarian”. “With lots of friendly staff, it’s deservedly popular”.

“As a certain tyre company might say, worth a journey!” – Ryan & Craig Blackburn’s “hidden gem” in the Lake District provides “award-winning dining in a former Post Office” (where a certain William Wordsworth was once the local stamp distributor) and their eight-course tasting menu for £105 per person is some of “the best value fine dining to be encountered in the UK with an unfussy, relaxed ambience” to match. Its six-course lunch menu for £65 helps also make it “a brilliant local” too. Top Menu Tip – “The rabbit cannelloni is good, the steamed halibut superb, the hogget full of flavour and the rhubarb dessert delicious”.

2022 Review: Below a cinema, this popular ‘Vegeterranean’ (vegetarian with a Mediterranean twist) has long been a feature of this Lakeland town. Prices are very reasonable.

“A stunning favourite” – James Cross consistently produces “absolutely faultless cooking” at his well-accoladed but “very friendly” destination in this Lakeland town, whose distinctive if sparse, wood-lined interior hints at the Nordic influences of his CV, which included a stint at Noma. The entry level option is five courses for £80 per person, but you can push the boat out with more elaborate eight-course and twelve-course selections (“so much food!”). “Each dish is carefully crafted with the best ingredients… don’t forget to mention the amazing bread that you get to take home!”

2023 Review: Set in 27 acres, this country house hotel is one of the better-known luxury destinations in the Lakes and boasts a dining room whose floor-to-ceiling windows provide magnificent views of Windermere and the surrounding peaks, where chef Robby Jenks presides over the kitchen. It inspired very upbeat (but relatively little) feedback again this year, with nominations as an ideal romantic choice or for its impressive afternoon teas. For a full meal in the dining room, lunch is a four-course affair for £60 per person, and in the evening the sole option is a seven-course tasting menu at £115 per person.

2022 Review: Ratings weakened this year at this luxurious Lakeland hotel, whose wood-panelled, traditional dining room provides a splendid vantage-point for gazing over Lake Windermere. One reporter felt that the “competent, but potentially excellent, cooking was not value for money, due to willing but overstretched service” – perhaps signposting that the blip was due to the tribulations of the times?

This famous Lakeland watering hole, a 17th-century inn at a remote crossroads with views to distant Windermere, has long been a favourite for hikers, tourists and locals (including Tom Barnes, former executive chef at L’Enclume, who has been quoted tipping its “cosy” interiors, “beautiful food and amazing beers” – the latter from its own microbrewery). The robust meals are priced to a pleasingly straightforward formula: at lunch, starters are all £15, mains £25, sides £7 and puds £14; dinner is £45 for two courses, £65 for three courses, coffee and petits fours.

Opened way back in the heyday of Britpop (1996), Chrissy & Andy Hill’s Grasmere stalwart started out serving homemade cakes, but its menu has expanded over the years to take in everything from handmade pastas to curries and ‘Jumble Room mainstays’ like Chrissy’s classic gingerbread with hot toffee sauce. There’s “always a buzz” in the eclectically decorated restaurant but, for one longtime fan, it is the “great food that keeps us going back”. PS – The owners also run bijou B&B the ‘Randy Pike’, on the outskirts of Ambleside.

A short stroll from Grasmere, the Manley clan’s warm and welcoming bistro-with-beds (plus cottages and glamping pods) has a self-proclaimed ‘muddy boots attitude’ in tune with its location on a converted sheep farm, slap bang in the middle of the Lake District National Park. The “really very good food all round” makes “excellent use of local produce where possible” (including eggs from their own hens and ducks) and is strong on hearty and nostalgic “Cumbrian favourites”.

“Tiny restaurant that has been providing good-value fish cookery in Windermere for over 10 years”, where “excellent seafood including oysters” is backed up by “friendly service” in fairly “basic” surroundings.

“An offshoot of L’Enclume” – the Lake District’s most renowned chef, Simon Rogan, presides over this scenically located dining room – part of one of the best known hotels in ‘The Lakes’ and whose conservatory situation and outside terrace aim to make the best of its superb outlook over the surrounding hills and of Lake Windermere. Chef Mark McCabe provides both a ‘short’ (for £79 per person) and ‘full’ (for £125 per person) menu – both are “well-priced sets considering the quality of the dishes”. The aim is not a replication of L’Enclume; the food is “innovative, but not excessively elaborate” providing “top-quality local produce and excellent service in a beautiful setting”.

“A real treat for overly stressed adults looking to unwind!” – the “high class” dining room of this “lovely” Lakeland hotel provides a very accomplished all-rounder. “Food is very well-prepared by a big brigade” under the watchful eye of chef Ollie Bridgewater who joined in 2023 after a ten-year stint at the Fat Duck. The front of house team are “genuine and caring” and present the “innovative cuisine, with key foundations in sourcing and tradition” and producing a “great balance of dishes”. There’s also a “very good wine list with some not overly expensive, extremely good wines”.

A “pleasant, dog-friendly country pub with good food in a warm setting” – the secret to the success of this Georgian coaching inn, located in the picturesque Winster Valley, and long run by the Edmondson family (latterly sons Craig & Shaun). If you overindulge, there are nine bedrooms to sleep it off in, or else make the most of the leafy locale by staying in their more recent ‘pods’, which are set on the grounds.