Ambling around the Lakes

We recently had 3 days in the Lake District with absolutely perfect weather. I wish I could say the catering matched it! En route we stopped off at Kendal where there is always veggie food at the Quaker headquarters of the Tapestry – soup, baked potatoes, pâtés – they do not do any non -veggie food so a good place to call in. We were staying at the Newby Bridge Hotel, just off the A590 at Newby Bridge and despite advance warning that we were vegetarian the included three-course meal had just one vegetarian main course, the very exciting grilled halloumi with salad leaves. I noted that this meal also figured as a standard on the bar lunch menu and the bar evening meal so perhaps the chef need to attend the Vegetarian Society Cookery School for some inspiration. The first morning there was very little for breakfast. Most of the fruit was tinned and there were no veggie sausages or even hash browns so it was thin pickings – apparently the delivery driver had not brought any veggie sausages but perhaps that was because they had not been ordered? (They mysteriously arrived okay the next morning.) The hotel also messed up our room booking and the tap fell off the bath but that’s another story! The next day we went off to the wonderful Blackwell, a fabulous arts and crafts house at Bowness on Windermere, which has regular themed exhibitions. It has a nice café with a limited range of veggie options but nothing to write home about. We travelled on to Ambleside, probably the very best place to be based in the Lake District if you are veggie or vegan. Zeferelli’s (day) and Fellini’s (evening) are totally veggie and of excellent standard and, if you just want a café, Bilbo’s is also totally veggie/vegan. If you are further west Gillam’s in Ulverston is also veggie but sadly is only open during the day. We found Ulverston very poor for vegetarian food in the evening with little open and not much selection. En route back home we stopped off at Grange over Sands, a lovely area overlooking Morecombe Bay and with very nice gardens and lots of different ducks and geese. Here I can recommend the Haslemere Bakery Café for a coffee stop with very yummy cakes and also they do some home baked veggie pies. We never seem to be lucky enough to be around there at lunchtime, though we have taken home some of their veggie savoury goodies before now.