If you’re a foodie, you MUST check out this Lake District restaurant: the Michelin-starred eatery is as mouth-watering as the Grade II listed 13th century building it’s housed in

The honorees form a guard of honor in the lobby of Askham Hall in the Lake District.

In front of the hotel, near the northern tip of Ullswater, there is a VisitEngland Small Hotel of the Year 2023 trophy, a Cumbria Tourism Awards 2022 Small Hotel of the Year winner trophy and a wall-mounted certificate for Good Hotel Guide 2022 Country House Hotel or the year.

Then there are the prices for Askham Hall’s restaurant – Allium. They include a Michelin star, an AA sign declaring it to have received four rosettes, and awards for its wine range, from an award for excellence from Wine Spectator to another trophy from the AA for ‘Wine Award England & Overall 2023’.

The praise is justified on all fronts.

On arrival we completely fell in love with the hotel, about 10 steps past the trophies, and immediately enchanted by the grand yet homely, fairytale surroundings of the Grade II listed 13th century building.

The spell continued the next evening as we descended the main stairs for our £125 six-course dinner at Allium.

The proceedings began in one of the beautiful drawing rooms, where there is an impressively stocked honesty bar, shelves full of ancient tomes, epic oil paintings, dramatic exposed stonework and richly upholstered armchairs, arranged around a wood-burning stove.

As we stared into the flames, gin and tonics in hand and wrapped in contentment, Frenchman Nico Chieze, the affable ‘Maitre de Maison’, arrived with delectable pre-dinner nibbles from Chef Richard Swale – one of which consisted of mackerel tartare , cauliflower puree, dashi jelly and nori seaweed; the other was a delicious Montgomery cheese gougeres, with ‘mushroom ketchup’.

Nico has also used the wine list, so large that I initially thought it was a spell book. Or perhaps the Magna Carta.

The hefty tome – beautifully bound by a master bookbinder Glenn Malkinthe introduction reveals – provides an overview of the restaurant’s sensational varieties, with the cellar holding between 10,000 and 15,000 bottles, from an 1893 wine to a £32,000 Vosne-Romanée Premier Cru from producer Henri Jayer.

There are plenty of tempting, unassuming options, but we felt slightly put off by the sheer length of the list and opted for the £95 wine pairing.

Gin and tonics dispatched, we were warmly greeted for our tasting menu odyssey in the beautiful boutique dining room at the other end of the building, which overlooks a beautifully sculpted garden.

The kitchen is located in the corner in a room within the room, surrounded by a thick stone wall, with a window giving guests a tantalizing glimpse of Richard and his team preparing what turns out to be a culinary tour de force , with kind regards. wines that are matched to perfection.

Much of what’s cooked here is grown in Askham Hall’s kitchen gardens and surrounding fields, hedgerows and farms, so it’s fresh and cleverly curated.

Food highlights included mouth-watering roasted Isle of Man scallops (with a heavenly smoked cod roe sauce); shorthorn beef tartare with truffle egg yolk; North Sea cod with paprika emulsion and mixed herb-anchovy sauce; and Whinfell partridge with a truffle sauce that was so delicious it was almost overwhelming – I had to put down my fork and try to process what my taste buds were experiencing.

There was no dip in dessert standards.

However, a creation of quince, fermented honey and crème fraîche, presented with small edible flowers on a honey bouquet, perhaps had a marginal advantage over the denouement: Richard’s sticky pudding pie with fig leaf cream.

Each course, meanwhile, was delivered with a touch of spunk by waiting staff who clearly believe in Askham’s mission, which I suspect is to send every guest home with a burning desire to return as soon as possible.

The sommelier was also working on this. She was very knowledgeable and confident, deftly answered questions and was clearly proud of the pairing list.

Two of the reds, one French and one Italian, fell categorically into the knockout category: a rustic 2018 Domaine Marcel Lapierre Morgon and a beautifully fruity 2010 Lungarotti Rubesco Vigna Monticchio.

We also loved the Maury 1928 Solera from Roussillon in France. This sweet wine is made from old Grenache bushes and was aptly described by the sommelier as ‘Christmas pudding in a glass’.

By the end of the meal, the dining room was buzzing with chatter, as every table enjoyed this thoroughbred restaurant’s offerings.

Any criticism? Nothing but quibbles – perhaps there was a longer wait between some courses than you would expect in a Michelin star restaurant.

But all that remains for me is to conclude that I know that for sure ‘guard of honour’ awards will be even longer on my next visit. . .