The 19 best restaurants in the Lake District

Telegraph

10-04-2025

Eating out in the Lake District has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. The choice is no longer between twee tea rooms or food for hungry hikers – though both of these exist – instead it now rivals that of many a metropolitan area. An astonishing 13 restaurants boast Michelin stars (L'Enclume has three) and pubs range from the gastro to the down-to-earth and filling. Add in smart bistros, tapas bars, vegetarian cafés and you'll not go hungry. Local produce to look out for includes Herdwick lamb, damsons, forest mushrooms and the ginormous Cumberland sausage.
For further Lake District inspiration, see our guides to the area's best hotels (including the best luxury hotels), pubs, things to do and walks. Use our expert guide to plan the perfect holiday in the Lake District.
Find a restaurant by area
Southern Lakeland
Windermere and around
Grasmere and Rydal Water
Outlying areas
Coniston and Langdale
Keswick and the north
Ullswater and around
Southern Lakeland
L'Enclume
Chef-owner Simon Rogan was at the forefront of the movement that saw UK restaurants begin to offer menus driven by foraging and local sourcing; this three-Michelin-starred restaurant (tasting-menu-only) follows that same ethos today and has its own 12-acre kitchen garden. This isn't Blumenthal-style magic but tiny courses of exceptional skill and balance: an egg shell containing a yolk in mushroom broth; a finger of turbot in nasturtium butter, the dinkiest caramel mousse sitting on compressed apple. The surroundings - a former smithy - are deliberately rustic and minimalistic to focus attention on the food. All is presented exquisitely but without fanfare on rustic pottery, handmade glass, even a pebble.
Heft
Just one, of many, examples of the 'Rogan' effect – Heft's chef-owner, Kevin Tickle, previously worked at Simon Rogan's two Cartmel restaurants – Heft gained a Michelin star within two years of opening, in 2023. The menus at the 17th-century coaching inn, which Kevin runs with his wife, Nicola (both Cumbrian-born), reflect Kevin's deep passion for, and knowledge of, the county's produce. His father taught him to fish and forage while 'heft' is a Cumbrian term that indicates an instinctive or natural connection to a landscape. Expect dishes on the 10-course menu such as venison tartare with fennel and ransom, and rhubarb with goat's milk and marigold. There are also decent ales in the bar and a traditional, more affordable, Sunday lunch served until 6pm.
Windermere and around
Drunken Duck Inn
At a lonely cross-roads, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, for first-timers it can be a mission to get here. But plenty of people do, and keep returning. Despite its pubby exterior, this inn offers far-from-ordinary pub grub. In fact, this is the Lake District's first gastropub, where you'll find food that is considered but never pretentious. How about wood pigeon, pickles, and spicy pumpkin seed sauce, or venison with polenta, chard and wild garlic? There's a restaurant-standard wine list plus its own-brew beer to drink. Or try one of their home-flavoured botanical gins. There's a well-judged contemporary-country style – rugs on oak floors, hop-hung beams, heaps of cartoons and prints – and you can opt to sit in the cosy dining-room or jovial bar.
The Schelly
This is a taste of Michelin-star dining but without the price-tag or formality. Chef-owner Ryan Blackburn opened The Schelly (named after a rare Lakeland fish) to offer a casual alternative to his Michelin-starred Old Stamp House (which sits next door in the heart of Ambleside). With a straightforward, fuss-free menu, it's small plates-style with dishes arriving when they're ready. Many have strong local sourcing – potted shrimp (from Morecambe Bay) with curried sauce; Garside (Ambleside butcher) pork chop with roasted shallot; woodpigeon, mushrooms (locally foraged) and spelt. And if the sticky toffee madeleines are on the menu, they're cooked-to-order. It's a small place, with a strong shades-of-green theme, laidback and informal, and with several seats always reserved for walk-ins.
Lucy's on a plate
Restaurants come and restaurants go (or change their spots) frequently in the Lake District but Lucy's has been part of the Ambleside scene for so long it's almost an institution. It did mis-matched chairs and crockery before it became fashionable. The daily changing menu is a colourful affair with a merry mix of styles – fish chowder, lamb tagine, bubble-and-squeak – and guests who have booked in advance are often mentioned by name in the menu's introductory paragraph as a friendly welcome. Puddings are famous; you can even pop in late evening just for this course.
Villa Positano
Up a narrow passageway off one of the busiest streets in Bowness, most visitors walk right past the discreet sign to this family-run Italian restaurant. Which is why it's a locals' favourite; the welcomes and goodbyes can be lengthy affairs between owners and regulars. The resolutely traditional menu is rustic, honest and fuss-free – Parma ham and mozzarella, pollo alla Milanese, gnocchi ai funghi porcini – as well as a range of pizzas, pastas, steaks and the 'catch of the day'. Noisy, fun, with a nostalgic, idiosyncratic soundtrack and walls hung with wine bottles and Italian scenes, it's excellent value.
Homeground Coffee + Kitchen
The good-natured pavement queues outside this corner-site café in Windermere town attest to its enticing menu and welcoming atmosphere. Everyone from hikers and young families to folks-on-laptops seem to relax in this chilled-out space with its chunky wood tables, pot plants and cool tunes. Enjoy breakfast-y things such as bacon sarnies on ciabatta or brunch-y things such as baked eggs with avocado on toasted sourdough or just indulge in well-judged coffee and spoiling sweet treats.
Grasmere and Rydal Water
Forest Side
Local sourcing is more than a token gesture at this Michelin-starred restaurant-with-rooms; up to 80 per cent of fruit, vegetables and herbs comes from the kitchen garden, or is foraged, with over 100 vegetable varieties alone. The seven-strong kitchen brigade is led by Head Chef Paul Leonard (previously at Isle of Eriska and Devonshire Arms hotels). Expect complex, precisely flavour-balanced dishes such as beef tartare with caviar and smoked bone marrow, or tiny gnocchi with caramelised shallots and wild garlic. Clean, modern, fresh – much like the light-filled dining room in this handsome Victorian villa.
The Yan
This warm, buzzy, bistro-with-rooms, in converted farm buildings, is a family affair: sisters Jess and Georgina between them run the business, with Georgina overseeing the kitchen and her husband acting as sommelier and manager. The girls' parents Dave and Sally, set up the business, including the sleek rooms above the restaurant. Modern comfort-food dishes are full of punchy flavours, spicy twists and local sourcing: slow-braised Herdwick lamb and chilli croquettes; prawn, chilli and lime fishcakes with roasted cauliflower; and roasted pepper and sun-dried tomato bhajis with curried couscous. Generous sharing platters, home-made puddings and local cheeseboards, too.
The Jumble Room
This wonderfully – and aptly – named restaurant, fizzes with energy from the pink and purple velvet cushions to the mis-matched plates to the bluesy music. It's about as far as you can get from the twee tea-rooms or traditional pubs elsewhere in Grasmere. Food is a refreshing Middle-Eastern spin on Lakeland produce. Picture slow-cooked local lamb stew with date and rose couscous and harissa-roast carrots, or baked salmon with black tiger prawns and coconut and lemongrass curry; even simple sides are lifted out of the ordinary, such as greens with lovage pesto. Everything is served in generous portions. Tables are neighbourly, so expect a fun, lively evening. Check out the album covers in the loos before you go.
Mathilde's Cafe
This airy, pale-wood and glass affair, attached to Grasmere's Heaton Cooper Gallery, has a Scandinavian feel, and name, for good reason. Mathilde, a country Norwegian girl, stole the heart of Lancashire-born Alfred Heaton Cooper, the first generation of these well-respected Lake District landscape artists (now in its third) while he was travelling around Scandinavia as a young artist in the 1890s. The café's food has a Scandinavian simplicity and earthiness; perfect brunch-style dishes such as poached egg with Jarlsberg or sauteed mushrooms on sourdough, a brioche bun hot dog with pickled onions and Finnish mustard. Eat inside or out, and leave room for one of its enormous home-made scones or cakes, such as Norwegian apple cake or Scandi teabread.
Outlying areas
Punch Bowl Inn
With the entire ground floor a series of little dining areas, this is definitely a foodie rather than a drinkers' pub - though it has a country-pub feel with low beams, flagged floors, honeysuckle around the door, a smart sheen of Farrow and Ball colours, cushion-crammed window-seats and polished-wood tables. The cooking is assured but not tricksy (no fancy canapés); perhaps lamb with boulangère potatoes and onion purée or pan-roasted sea bream with saffron potatoes and shrimp sauce, plus a pricey-ish wine list. To eat outside, overlooking the neighbouring church on a summer's day, is a treat.
The Cedar Tree, Farlam Hall
Chef-patron Hrishikesh Desai came trailing a Michelin Star (from Gilpin Hotel, near Windermere) when he arrived at Farlam Hall, a country house hotel near Brampton, and within less than a year, in 2024, had garnered one for its Cedar Tree restaurant. The hotel has a quietly elegant style, but don't be deceived; it's warm and relaxed, and the fine dining taster menu has an element of fun. Hrishikesh likes his spices. Cod tartare might come in a crispy puffball with carrot and cumin purée, hen of the wood with green chilli chutney, or local game come with home-grown pears, truffle and Chettinad sauce. Sunday to Tuesday, when the main restaurant is closed, there's a lighter menu in the hotel's Bistro Enkel.
Coniston and Langdale
Chesters by the River
One of the region's first vegetarian cafes, opened in 1985, Chesters has been through a few changes, most recently to a more casual, self-service affair from the smarter waiter-service-and-chic-sofas that it used to offer. Not everyone is pleased, but the setting – beside the bubbling River Brathay - and the quality of food – everything baked and prepared on the premises - remain the same. There are big bowls of salad – perhaps wild garlic pasta and pickled celery and fennel – pillowy focaccia, smokey bean turnovers and vegan sausage rolls. Scones are humongous, and cakes – such as a juicy berry slice, and carrot and walnut - perfect for refuelling after climbing the nearby Langdale Pikes. Eat indoors, on the partially covered riverside terrace or take away to your own picnic spot.
Keswick and the north
The Lingholm Kitchen
Barely have you stepped inside this airy, glass-walled and slate-floored café when your eye is drawn to the display of cakes: magnificently huge slices. On a privately owned lakeshore estate, where Beatrix Potter holidayed in the 1920s and two miles from Keswick, everything is made in the adjoining bakery, famous for its sourdough. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and sweet treats are all on offer. Savoury dishes range from avocado with tomato and chili relish on organic rye or a pastrami bagel to confit duck hash. The Garden cake (like a carrot cake) and Victoria sponge roulade are winners. There's good local sourcing, too – coffee roasted in Threlkeld, for example, meat from Cockermouth. Save time to explore the Victorian style walled garden; the inspiration for Mr McGregor's garden in Potter's Tale of Peter Rabbit.
The Cottage in the Wood
This aptly named restaurant-with-rooms – a roadside cottage on a narrow road that climbs 1000 feet up through Whinlatter Forest above Lake Bassenthwaite – belies its modest looks. Michelin-starred since 2019, it turns out carefully considered Modern British dishes, often of intriguing combinations: gin-cured trout with horseradish and beetroot, perhaps, or duck with rhubarb. And there's a real sense of place in the dishes: Cumbrian Herdwick hogget from the surrounding fells, foraged mushrooms from the surrounding woodland. Its semi-circular conservatory dining room overlooks woodland with views through the trees to Skiddaw, and, on clear nights, bewitches with a starlit sky.
Contact: thecottageinthewood.co.uk
Price: £££
Reservations: Essential
Fellpack
Fellpack has been around Keswick, in some form, for several years, but has now found its proper, grown-up home in a big, warmly decorated – deep-blue paintwork, exposed-stone and bright-tiled walls, tea-coloured wooden floors, colourful Scandi chairs – site, five minutes from the lake, Derwentwater. More-ish nibbles – such as homemade focaccia, and chorizo in red wine – are followed by their signature 'Fellpots'; classics given a Middle-Eastern or Asian spin and served in chunky stoneware bowls. Slow-braised beef shin ragu, and lamb tagine with minted labneh and toasted pistachios are firm favourites, plus there are punchy vegetarian and vegan options. It's fun, friendly and open for drinks-only, too.
Ullswater and around
George & Dragon
The George & Dragon might look your typical 18th-century coaching inn given a snazzy country-contemporary makeover – which it is and very nice, too, with faded rugs on flagstone floors, eau-de-nil panelling and rough-wood tables – but its trump card is that it's owned by the Lowther family who also own the splendid nearby estate. So expect to find great things on the menu such as the estate's rare-breed pork 'osso buco' or slow-cooked shorthorn beef with truffled potato and parmesan purée. Round proceedings off with a fruit crumble supplied from the kitchen gardens. It's a bit out of the way but worth it for the stylish and skilful cooking.
Brackenrigg Inn
You may have to drag yourself inside from the car park; the views over Ullswater, the region's second-largest lake, and its surrounding fells are mesmerising. Formerly a rather run-down pub, the white-washed Brackenrigg has been given a bright, rustic sprucing up (it's now owned by the nearby Another Place hotel). Stripped-wood floors, beams, vintage tables and chairs, and bold colours of moss-green, indigo-blue and autumnal-amber – together with toasty fires – create a relaxed and fun vibe. Food is good pub food like it used to be: ploughman's, home-made pies, Scotch eggs, lamb shank and mash, creamy garlic mushrooms, with Eton mess and knickerbocker glory to finish. Sunday lunch is challenging (in a good way), and with vegetarian and vegan options.
How we choose
Every restaurant in this curated list has been tried and tested by our destination expert, who has visited to provide you with their insider perspective. We cover a range of budgets, from neighbourhood favourites to Michelin-starred restaurants – to best suit every type of traveller's taste – and consider the food, service, best tables, atmosphere and price in our recommendations. We update this list regularly to keep up with the latest opening and provide up to date recommendations.