TR L'enclume, Cumbria

Normally we don't leave the ELD once there, but for once we drove out of Wasdale voluntarily and down to Cartmel to try l'enclume. Cartmels quite posh, with a horse racing track. Anyway the rest' is a converted cottage-s, fairly simple decor, but nice, much nicer than the Fat Duck. (No car park BTW). They do three degusation menus or you can choose dishes in the normal way, but as far as I could see everything was variations on the gourmand (or was it gourmet?) dinner (keeps the riff-raff out). Like the Fat Duck and Bulli etc its a endless succession of little dishes, this time with the emphasis on old english neglected herbs, like hyssop and fat hen. Not as "jelly and ice cream" as the Fat Duck with the odd dollop of real food along with the foams and the purees. The very French staff wore business suits, which I thought odd, but there you go. Service was good but everything slowed right down on the last few desserts, I got the impression they thought it shouldn't end till 12? Wine list was fairly sensible for an english restaurant, we had a ribiera del duero and an albarino at about 30 each. All in all G&T+ 20 odd courses + wine came to 280 for two, which is pretty much the most you could spend without choosing silly wines. The cheese board was good although, amusingly, the english junior waitress had to prompt the french waiter on the exclusively french cheeses. so if you fancy a fancy dinner I can recommend it, if it sounds too expensive, like all these places, life goes on perfectly well without them. One thing I would change is the Frenchness, the food wasnt French so why the conceit? And where was the Cumbrian cheese.

Arrived home to a speeding ticket, grrrrrr, I have a 100% record of only getting tickets in Cumbria, what's with them? 85 on a bloody sunny empty motorway, ridiculous. -- Mike Reid