Holbeck Ghyll - South Lakeland

We have had the most wonderful family stay here at the Holbeck Ghyll. We stayed in one of the cottages, 6 of us. Couldn’t have asked for a more friendly and accommodating stay. The staff are all lovely, the rooms were very comfortable, clean, with stunning views. And the food is delicious too! We felt so well looked after: 2 adults, 4 children and our dog! definitely want to come back.

Dreadful dining experience. Service was inattentive and slow. The food mediocre and lukewarm. The maitre d was dishevelled (shirt half untucked). After dinner I could have set myself on fire before attracting the attention of the bar staff for a post dinner drink as I sat by the slowly self extinguishing fire. This venue may have appeared attractive thanks to a tv show several years ago however time has not been kind to the staff, the food or the decor.

I stopped here to break a long journey and to indulge in a bit of a solo treat at the same time. Having eaten here before I knew that this place has high aspirations for its restaurant. The 75 pounds menu is a five course tasting menu. On the menu there are six items, one is bread and one is the amuses bouche. By the standard of any other restaurant that is a four, not five course tasting menu, and the courses here are small, even by tasting menu standards. That 's a problem, because who ever heard of a four course tasting menu. So unless you are on a diet, or have a tiny appetite, the four course tasting menu is really not enough. So there is an optional (on top of your seventy five quid) muffin with truffle, cheese and honey course. If you still are hungry then you can go to the 100 quid menu which has more courses and the muffin is included. Then there is cheese, which is another 12 quid. Compared to say Michelin one star restaurant tasting menus, you really have to take the 100 option. So this is very expensive food which should be held to the highest of standards. Now if you look at the reviews here you have a divided room. I stand on both sides. Those who give the restaurant five stars generally talk about how well they were looked after, how the service was so good, how enjoyable the experience was. This was what made my evening a super enjoyable evening, so much that I really had to think twice about whether I should leave what is essentially a bad review. You see I also agree with the others posting here who suggest that the food is very disappointing. The amuses-bouche were fine but to be honest I can 't remember what they were. Amuses-bouche are often amazing and innovative, but not here. After this the excellent staff did an excellent job introducing a Japanese milk bread that was really very pedestrian. The tone from the staff was that Japanese milk bread is something extraordinary and almost unique to the hotel. It was smug and self-congratulatory and this tone must come from the kitchen. I had a much better Japanese milk bread three weeks ago in Shrewsbury, made with with a garlic and miso crust which was extraordinary. This here was a nice pleasant brioche type bread with some honey glazed over it. It was fine, that 's all. Butters were very good I have to say. A beetroot dish was nice enough, although the tiny, tiny portion is the sort of thing that gets fine dining a reputation for pretentiousness. Beetroot is very fashionable these days and this one did not stand out from the rest. Halibut followed and this was slightly overcooked. I know it 's difficult to cook this fish but if it 's slightly chewy it 's no longer wonderful. The lamb was also overcooked, although the separate neck of lamb and everything else on the plate was yummy. I 'm never sure of myself when something is delivered that is completely wrong. I 'm not a professional chef or a food critic so I always think it 's me that doesn 't understand. It was chewy and the texture was unpleasant. I hadn 't paid attention to the menu. Was this a cheaper cut of lamb done in an interesting way that I was failing to grasp? When the waitress asked me if I enjoyed it I wasn 't rude. I said: it was strange. What cut was that? . This was the only time I saw the service slip at this hotel. She looked panicky (as if complaints were not something she felt equipped to deal with) and replied loin , as if that should satisfy me, and ran off. I didn 't see her again. Until this moment she hadn 't put a step wrong but I took this as a sign that complaints here are not seen as constructive feedback. Recovery service, the idea that a complaint is an opportunity to provide an even better customer experience, is not necessarily something that is understood. Bluntly, the main course was fatty lamb which had been thoroughly overcooked. Loin should be served pink or even rare and this had been cooked to death. It should not have left the kitchen. Then a muffin was served by someone from the kitchen (not sure if it 's the chef or a sous chef): grating fresh truffle over bread and cheese and drizzling it with honey in front of you. I didn 't get it. Why am I eating bread and cheese in the middle of a small tasting menu, except to fill myself up because the actual tasting menu is so tiny that something more substantial is needed? Anything with freshly grated truffle will taste nice. Truffle honey and cheese will always go together (although a strong cheese will overwhelm the truffle if you don 't put exactly the right proportions in your mouth). I 'm not sure what this dish is for. Maybe a hundred quid is pocket change for this place 's target clientele, but for me a hundred quid took me time to earn and should be delivering exceptional innovation, something wow. This was posh filler for people who really aren 't really into food but have money. Cheeses (I was hungry so I ordered this extra course) were also fine, and the crackers were delightful. I am a big fan of English cheeses but here three standard French cheeses would have knocked these three out of the park. They were bland and any flavour they did have was overwhelmed by three chutneys. Strong chutneys don 't go well with delicate cheeses taken with good red wine with the exception of the goats cheese which did go particularly well with the dried apricots. The blue cheese was lost against the other chutneys though. Personally I think France sets the standard here, one which we are perfectly capable of beating and often do, where they serve cheese and bread and don 't complicate it further. If you are going to add to that it needs to work. The crackers did. The chutneys didn 't. But that 's just my taste. I haven 't mentioned the pudding, a custard tart, which was sensational. I am actually a big fan of custard tarts, whether it 's the deep filled wobbly nutmegged ones in the high street shops, a Portuguese pastel de natas, or a Cantonese daan taht. This one may have been the best I have ever had. Smooth without a hint of egginess but still with a rich dense intensity, this was fabulous. And we got a decent sized slice too. The gooseberry accompaniment was a bit of a splodge, and I don 't think it balanced the custard pie, but I can see that it should have. The tartness of the gooseberry was slightly astringent against the creamy sweetness of the custard, which is a grown up flavour but I couldn 't make these flavours quite work together for me, but that 's a small criticism. What 's the point of posting critical reviews? Well here it is: the restaurant was half empty on a Friday evening in August. It may be the first hotel in the area to have got a Michelin star, but it hasn 't got one now when others around have. If I stayed here again I 'd eat out (probably across the moor at their neighbours). I did have a lovely evening, but that was down to super service and because I was staying in a beautiful hotel in a beautiful place. I 'd love it if they listened to the TA customers who criticise the food, recognise that these are generally food lovers who spend hard earned money and have high expectations, and that we know what good is because we have eaten it, and paid for it, many times, all around the world. I 'd love to come back here in the future and enjoy the fabulous hotel and the dinner in the evening.

Staff were very nice but not very well trained. They lack the skills of a fine dining restaurant. I’d been pre covid and this was therefore very disappointing. Dessert was the best part of the meal. The rest was bland and the beef was chewy.

Tom Emma Sarah and Rowan superb. Food incredible with beautifully complementary flavours, excellent table service attentive but never overbearing, and the view is a sight to behold. Would recommend to anyone and in laws loved it