Gilpin Spice — Restaurant in Great Britain

Our trip to The Lake District for lunch at Gilpin Spice couldn’t have been timed better, as it coincided with a spell of extremely cold weather that saw temperatures drop well below 0C, and deposited plenty of snow on the slopes of the surrounding mountains. This meant that the scenery on the drive up to Windermere was perhaps even more stunning than usual with the brilliant white snow contrasting beautifully against the multi-hued greens of the forest, which in some ways hinted at the contrast I was to find when I arrived.

On the outside, the building is exactly as you would expect from a luxury 5 star Lakeland hotel, but as you step through the door it is like you have been transported down the old silk road from Cumbria to the Far East with hints of China, Malaysia, Thailand, and India. This of course, is the whole idea and the menu reflects the variety of spices that you would find along that route.

Gilpin Spice is the sister restaurant to the Michelin starred Hrishi at Gilpin Hotel & Lake House, both of which are overseen by Executive Chef Hrishikesh Desai who you may remember from the TV programme “Alex Polizzi: Chefs on Trial” where he competed against other Chefs from all corners of the UK for a chance to win the coveted role at this Relais & Châteaux hotel.

The restaurant offers what I would call upmarket casual dining, serving tapas-style Pan-Asian dishes which are meant to be shared. The menu is divided into roughly three sections comprising of Snacks/Soups/Flat Breads, Small Sharing Plates, and Large Sharing Plates. Our smiling, friendly waitress recommended that we should choose two dishes from each section, and for people with a normal appetite I think that is a sensible suggestion.

From the snacks section, we opted for my favourite Indian street food Pani Puri, which are golf ball size puffs, filled with chickpea curry, tamarind and mint chutney, savoury noodles, chopped onions, and chaat masala. These were an absolute taste sensation, and if this was all they served I wouldn’t be disappointed. We also had a dish called “A Study in Satay” which is three skewers of tender chicken satay, beef satay, and prawn satay served with home-made peanut sauce, sweet and sour cucumber, and chilli salad.

When you look at my photos of the Bay of Bengal tiger prawns and mussels, and the crispy soft-shell crab, from the small sharing plates section you will notice they aren’t actually that small, which is a very good thing as they are all incredibly delicious, especially the salmon kinilaw which is a Filipino style ceviche that is lightly seared on the outside to warm it through.

I could have chosen every one of the main courses, but in the end restricted myself to just two, one was the Goan pork belly which had been marinated in a blend of red wine vinegar and spices, then slowly cooked for 12 hours to leave the fat as succulent and lip-smackingly good as you imagine. The other was a salt aged smoked lamb kheema, that both smelt and tasted amazing with a heady mix of dark spices and light smoke from the from the charcoal.

All in all, it was an excellent meal and in my opinion great...

I'm honestly at a loss to understand how this place gets a Michelin guide recommendation. On the positive side, an Indian-style lamb dish was absolutely phenomenal: as tender as any meat I have eaten, and delicious. The Korean-style spicy fried chicken was also very good; much like any KFC in terms of flavour but very tender. On the negative side, the fried rice with soft egg, while otherwise delicious, was too salty, the sauce for the paneer tasted like canned tomato soup (I am sure that it wasn't, but it was all I could think about), and the toasted bok choy dish with mayonnaise, tsukemono and gari (sushi ginger) was an absolutely terrible mishmash of flavours. Did the chef even taste this dish??? I can only imagine what a Japanese person would make of it. Incomprehensible. On the whole, combining Indian, Japanese and Korean dishes is a terrible idea, and is fundamentally unserious. A pan-European restaurant would be bad enough, but these Asians cuisines are far more dissimilar; their flavour profiles are like like chalk and cheese but the diner is expected to compose a tasting menu from them, and there are not enough dishes of any one style. It becomes an exercise in trying to guess which dishes will not taste terrible together. This entire restaurant needs a rethink; pick one cuisine and do it well. Oh, and the red wine is too warm (I thought that the Michelin guide cared about...

Delightful afternoon lunch with friends.

Service was top notch as you would expect although there was no one to greet us on arrival so we stood around in the entrance for a while. That aside, we were made to feel welcome once seated and looked after very well.

Enjoyed a good selection of dishes which were all prepared in front of us from the open kitchen which was spotless. Portions were reasonable with my slow cooked beef main course possibly having too much beef. It was beautifully cooked and fell apart but I felt it was a little dry and with such an intense flavour there was poss a little too much of it. Either that or it needed more sauce? The soup was superb as were the little teeny tiny chicken satay sticks which were served with a sublime peanut sauce.

As you would expect all the dishes had a great balance of flavours & textures and the presentation was excellent throughout.

Prices were pretty fair given the location, the environment, staffing costs and the quality of the ingredients.

Would definitely...