The story
Forest Side is a modern British restaurant at Keswick Road, Grasmere, Ambleside, LA22 9RN, in Windermere, and it holds a Michelin star (2026). The restaurant sits in a Victorian Gothic mansion above Grasmere, with four and eight-course menus built around the Lake District's produce.
Head chef Paul Leonard draws on the hotel's kitchen garden and ingredients from local farms. Menus change regularly, so the courses follow the season. A tartare of local Dexter beef arrives with whipped bone marrow, caviar and oxalis picked that morning, while salt-aged hogget appears in several preparations.
The kitchen also has a lighter side. A crisp, sweet one-bite Waldorf salad comes before dessert. The Good Food Guide describes the portions as restrained and the presentation as precise, and a four-course lunch is noted for its value. Vegetarian menus in four and eight courses are offered too, including salt-baked kohlrabi in a seaweed and Granny Smith broth.
The dining room has lofty ceilings, white walls, bare floors and large windows, with a fresh, contemporary feel inside the old house. Guests should expect some noise, since the hard surfaces carry sound. The wine list leans toward natural and biodynamic bottles from smaller vineyards, and wines are offered by the glass in 125ml pours from £9.
Recognition
Ambience
Details
History
From the outside, Forest Side imposes, stamping no-nonsense Victorian authority onto a steep fellside near Grasmere. Step inside, however, and you’re fast-forwarded to the present day. There are respectful memories of history in the shape of lofty ceilings, preserved architectural details and tweed-waistcoated waiters, but the setting is fresh and contemporary. Rough-hewn tables are simply decorated, so too the white walls and vast windows. Seats are comfortable, and floors classily bare, but chintz-free style comes at the expense of sound-absorbing softness so it can be a little noisy. Perhaps that is all the better to focus on Paul Leonard’s fine cooking, which delivers an experience that for one recent diner was ‘breathtaking’, for another ‘truly A-class’. Portions are restrained, presentation is precise, the value for money of a four-course lunch (plus extras) undeniable. Warm brioche, thyme-flecked and oomphed with a Marmite glaze, is irresistible, while the standout of the three snacks is toasted brioche with truffled cream cheese and smoked eel. Vigour continues. Whipped raw-milk Cumbrian goat's cheese – Ingot, from Holker Farm Dairy– comes with confit and crisp Jerusalem artichoke, fresh apple and toasted yeast crumb; it’s followed by a savoury little rockpool of lightly aerated buttermilk/mussel sauce from which peep mussels, ribbons of pickled cuttlefish and smoked roe. This being the game season, a small but tenderly roasted breast of local partridge makes a distinguished main course. Its juices are the base for a glorious sauce, its leg is a mini-meatball, and the flavours are amplified by hen of the woods flecked with crisp onions, as well as the belting umami of cep purée. A pretty dessert is all about the cherry – puréed, frozen into a sorbet, set into a glistening crimson gel, its sweetness balanced by a mild cheese panna cotta and salted granola. A sugar-doused doughnut – cherry-filled, of course – provides the playful accompaniment. The forward-thinking wine list champions natural and biodynamic bottles from less familiar vineyards, so the sommelier's excellent advice might steer you towards a rounded but fresh Grüner Veltliner from Austrian makers Martin and Anna Arndorfer, or the earthy welly of a Thracian Mavrud that works a treat with the partridge. Both are offered by the glass on a line-up that packs interest into 125ml pours from £9.
5 Rosette Award for Culinary Excellence
High quality cooking
Location
Nearby
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