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Cedar Manor Hotel and Restaurant is situated in the heart of the Lake District in mature walled gardens dominated by a 200-year-old cedar tree. The country house was built in 1854 as a private retreat; today it provides comfortable accommodation, and tasty food in an AA Rosette restaurant.

Spend time enjoying beautiful scenery, spotting red squirrels, taking walks to Lake Windermere, or having a drink while relaxing on sofas in the lounge or bar. When you're hungry head to the cosy restaurant and feast on dishes from a seasonal á la carte menu that reflects the use of fresh local produce.

An evening meal could start with ham hock terrine, homemade chutney, and toasted brioche or green pea risotto, soft poached egg and white truffle oil, followed by wild sea bass; beef fillet accompanied by fondant potato, buttered curly kale, baby carrots, and onion marmalade, or perhaps a game suet pudding before the final surrender to a dessert of nutmeg custard tart with a stem ginger beignet and fig and honey jam.

As dusk descends on Windermere's splendid environs, the convivial atmosphere at The Oakthorpe Hotel's Lamplighter Bar and Restaurant in High Street picks up pace with guests gathering for an evening of bonhomie after a day well spent. Friendly staff fosters the party spirit in an 'olde world' ambience as the well-loved aromas of traditional British food waft in to whet the appetite.

A menu that showcases local produce, especially fresh fish delivered daily from Fleetwood, offers patrons time tested culinary delights such as smoked salmon, potted shrimps, battered haddock with tartare sauce, whole Dover sole, grilled local trout and rope mussels in a wine, cream and garlic sauce. They can also choose from homemade duck liver pâté with granary bread, tortellini filled with ricotta cheese, fillet steak in a special whisky and red wine sauce and roasted rack of Cumbrian lamb with mint gravy. If spicy fare beckons, there's choice of korma, Madras and vindaloo with prawn, chicken, beef or mushroom. Unwind at leisure with a glass of Chablis or Pinot Noir, or a pint of real ale.

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.