An old Lake District pub has been gutted and turned into a restaurant with five luxury rooms. Sally Shalam is impressed ? with one or two exceptions
It is six years since I cabbed it from Kendal station to tiny Crosthwaite and the Punchbowl Inn, so new (well, newly tarted up) it still had a faint whiff of paint. Restaurant and bedrooms owed more to the Hotel du Vin school of interiors than fell walkers' spit'n'sawdust. Cumbria's most thoroughly modern boutique grub pub had opened its doors.
A company was formed, Punchbowl Inns, and last year added a second pub, The Plough at Lupton. Pub and restaurant opened in June 2010, joined, now, by five bedrooms (created from a previous 11) with a sixth ? occupying the entire top floor, though there is nothing to look at as yet ? still to complete.
Its location, the wonderfully named Cow Brow, on the A65, just off the M6, is easy to find. We wander into the bar (a pleasing mix of smooth slate, pale rugs, equestrian art and scrubbed wood) and find the restaurant at the rear (farmhouse chic, you might say ? a farmhouse without the cobwebs and dog hairs ? complete with two modern, glass-fronted wine caves). Hellooo. Anybody home?
Now we're being shown upstairs. Wi-Fi is free, carpet soft, windows dressed in blinds and curtains, complimentary tea and coffee can be ordered any time and there is a turn-down service. Whoopee.
"Wish I'd brought my essential oils," says Clare when she realises there isn't anything to put in her giant bath. If the perimeter shelf in my bathroom had been just a fraction wider, I could have put my toiletries on it, but the only real minus is the main road. I reckon the rooms at the rear would be quieter.
See you at seven. Clare sinks back on distressed leather and asks for "A light white." What I really (really) like is the option to keep costs down. There are three sizes of wine glass ? a 125ml snifter starts at �2.60, or under �5 for prosecco. Same with the menu, which has "small plates" to order individually as starters or as a selection like tapas, plus mains.
Thunk goes the kitchen door as our small plates are ferried into the restaurant. Salt and pepper squid, confit tuna and red pepper rolls, king prawn tempura, beetroot with pine nuts, goat's cheese and rocket ? none of which costs more than �4. "Not the tenderest," says Clare of the squid, but the prawns are "quite succulent". Great goat's cheese but oh ? we wish we'd ordered far more of those tuna rolls. Thunk, thunk. Now Clare's digging in to confit duck leg with crushed potatoes, pak choi and sesame. "If I had my eyes closed, I'd think it was ham," she says. My pea and mint risotto is bright green and unlike any I've eaten before. The rice has lost its shape, something is giving me a bitter aftertaste, and there is a pointless, single broccoli floret lurking in the middle.
"This is going to be good," Clare says with an expectant glint. Berry and rhubarb crumble is enjoyably tart, while cranachan ? piled, silkily, indulgently, into a little Kilner jar ? is as sweet as you can go.
We reconvene, after plenty of sleep and power showers, in the bar's sunny comfort. Mmmm, summery ? freshly made yoghurt with honey, and citrus fruit salad with lime granita. We can also report, when the cooked plates appear (thunk, thunk), that proper, meaty Cumberland sausage is alive and well and being served here, consistency restored by breakfast.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/sep/23/the-plough-lupton-lake-district
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