The Lake District is brimming with eateries. Here’s a selection of decent, close-by places. Please let us know other good ones you come across! All pubs will take dogs and we’ve marked the restaurants that do too. 

Nearby

Eagle & Child Pub, Staveley - a lovely pub with good ales and food. We time it an 80 minute walk from the house. You could call a taxi to take you back home. Check ahead as some weeknights they don't serve food. 

Hawkshead Brewery, Staveley - bar to sample all the brews and a lounge serving food upstairs (and of course Brewery tours). Closes 10pm Fri/Sat, earlier other nights so head to the Eagle and Child after that. 

Wilf's Cafe, Staveley - great for a hot snack during the day

More Artisan Bakery, Staveley - with cafe attached. Fantastic food especially the hot sandwiches, pies, bread, cakes, marmalade…

Mr Duffin's Coffee, Staveley - roast their own coffee beans, we provide one of their roasts for guests

Watermill Inn, Ings - really good pub food and very cheery service

Lakeland Farm Visitors Centre, Ings - the café gets rave reviews from our house manager. Also a small gift shop (incl a butcher) and activities you can sign up to like dry stone walling courses

Strickland Arms, Sizergh Castle - decent food, nice pub with log fires. Dogs welcome

The Wild Boar, Crook - a bit smarter, excellent food. Dogs allowed in bar

Black Labrador, Underbarrow - this used to be called the Punch Bowl but kept being confused with the below. A short drive beyond Crook this has excellent food in a restaurant-feel converted barn next to the main pub, and it takes dogs. Booking advised. 

The Punch Bowl, Crossthwaite - restaurant with rooms, very good food, used to take dogs in the bar but stopped "due to Covid" (go figure!). Booking required.

Lakeland Store Cafe, Windermere - great for lunch or afternoon tea

Chesters by the River, Skelwith Bridge - dog friendly, also a store attached. Gets very busy in high season

Waterhead coffee shop - on the waterfront in Ambleside does good cream teas

In Kendal there are numerous places to eat. The old coffee merchant Farrers has a nice café and we hear great things about the deli Baba Ganoush. 

The Golden Rule, Ambleside - there are many pubs in Ambleside but this one hidden away on a side street is a real-ale must. Don't expect much in the way of food!

Takeaways - Staveley Chippy - but be careful it closes relatively early, or More Bakery does fantastic hot sandwiches and pies to take away, but again won't be open in the evenings. Windermere is your best bet for Chinese or Curry (also sit-down) where there are a bunch clustered just below the station - Prince of India, or Golden Mountain. For Thai, Jintana in either Kendal or Ambleside.

Special treat

Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume in Cartmel, just south of the Lake District National Park is a two-star Michelin riverside restaurant that also boasts a chef’s table ‘Aulis’ for that extra culinary experience. Closer to home fine dining can be had at the Samling Hotel between Windermere and Ambleside, Lake Road Kitchen in Ambleside, The Forest Side near Grasmere, the Gilpin Hotel between Staveley and Bowness (named after the Kentmere ‘lords of the manor’), and the Punch Bowl Inn (a ‘restaurant with rooms’) at Crossthwaite, just beyond Crook.

And we've not tried him yet but our House Manager recently spotted The Cumbrian Chef, a private chef if you'd like to be served dinner at home.