Cedar Manor Hotel & Restaurant

The dining room at Cedar Manor is thoroughly soothing to the senses, offering picturesque views of the walled garden with its 200-year-old cedar. Candles flicker, fairy-lights twinkle, and the high-backed leather chairs are properly supportive. There is no shortage of fine dining in the Lake District, which makes the reputation that chef Roger Pergl-Wilson has established for the place all the more impressive. If dishes tend to the soft-focus textures of country-house cooking, they lack nothing in flavour impact. A scallop is sandwiched with spinach in well-made pastry, and seasoned with vanilla butter and cardamom syrup. At main course, fell-bred lamb of fantastic quality is accompanied by a fritter of the sweetbread, with fondant potato and garlic cream, while the richness of a crème brûlée is shot through with honey and lavender. Local cheeses come from a fine supplier in Kendal.