Restaurant at Langdale Chase Hotel

Amongst all the many pretty splendid hotels in the Lake District, there are few to match the Langdale Chase. Completed by the turn of the last century it became a hotel in 1930 and has been attracting the discerning ever since. The dining room has scenic views across Lake Windermere with a breadth of view that matches the menus.

Proceedings commence with an amuse bouche, followed by starters that could include a coarse pork pate with a parsley, dill and caper sauce, an assiette of seafood with crab and herb mousse, smoked mackerel, Morecambe Bay shrimps, salmon tartar and Bradan rost, or a Tuna Caesar salad.

For main courses keep an eye open for the trio of Mansergh Hall lamb, a compilation of roast loin, sauté kidney and cutlet of lamb served with a cassolet of pulses and confit of garlic complemented by a rosemary redcurrant lamb juice, or perhaps the tournedos of beef with wild mushrooms, charred foie gras and a red wine shallot jus.

Puddings follow the same pattern with a dark hot chocolate gateau offering no escape at all lest it be the milk chocolate, flavoured with dark rum, with a chilled poached pear and cinnamon infused anglaise sauce. The petits fours served with the coffee are works of art, and when I say served I do mean service as it should be, both then and throughout the meal.