Beautifully renovated hotel a stone throw from lake Windermere, serving Michelin starred food (as at 2017) in a homely and stylish setting

This is not the first time I have been to the Giplin as I have had the pleasure of afternoon tea here which, is just about as pleasant a place for high tea as you can get with its wonderful blend of luxury comfort and homliness at the same time. In passing on the way to Scotland, lunch clearly had to be done and was a very good option for £35 (snacks and 3 courses). I thought an amuse bouche wouldn’t have gone a miss for a place of this calibre, but as the food was entirely gorgeous, this was still good value and moreover, really pleasing stuff. I would thoroughly recommend here in any capacity: a stay over, lunch, high tea or dinner, they all work well here and it is lovely to see the place being adorned with a Michelin star which I thought was definitely worthy based on this glipmse of the food. In the full review I have added notes on the other exciting aspect they now have as an option at the Gilpin.

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Sunday roasts are not actually my favourite as I think they can be pretty boring. After all, there are only so many ways that one can present roasted meat and veg. However, what made this notable was that the Gilpin’s version of the roast made it genuinely enjoyable. I thought the main event of beef was just the right moistness with full flavour with enough tender redness but not bleeding all over the plate at the same time. The potatoes had a sublime crusty outside with fluffy interior (in my opinion exatcly the right shape to keep the ratio perfect) with quality buttered carrots (again, not too heavy to eat), great Yorkshire pudding and marvellous jus to go with everything which I thought was much superior to generic gravy and more of a pleasure).

This was all following a light and original parsnip veloute with honey to go with the gnocchi which I thought was a cracker. The lemon tart at the end had the perfect wobbliness and judged texture of the cooked custard with beautifully fresh lemon. Service throughout was entertaining and charismatic but thankfully experienced enough to know when to give a bit of space.

What was also interesting to see was that the newly built Annex to the hotel is now the proud interior of three different Oriental cuisine dining rooms. They all looked nicely done with the character of the country they represented but the main one with counter bar dining looked especially spacious and pleasant and frankly trumped numerous Asian venues of repute in London. The food from these has been designed by the same Michelin starred chef who is at the helm of the Gilpin’s main dining room (Hrishikesh Desai) so I am looking forward to whenever the next chance there is to trial some things from here. My only observation on this is that time will simply tell this year how much of the chef’s time and influence during service of both restaurants can be focussed on the Oriental side but it certainly bodes very well for a cuisine that is not very easy to come by in Cumbria at this exciting level.

Food Grade: 80%