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L'ENCLUME |
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CARTMEL, CUMBRIA
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| L'Enclume, in the southern Lakeland village of Cartmel, has established itself as one of the finest restaurants with rooms in the county. Its chef/patron, Simon Rogan, a protégé of Marco Pierre White, Jean-Christophe Novelli and John Burton-Race, offers a startlingly inventive menu emphasising obscure old English herbs and subtly marrying esoteric combinations of tastes. He has ditched à la carte to focus on three playfully inventive tasting menus: the Introduction (nine courses for £50, including combinations such as 'sea scallop, cauliflower, hibiscus'and 'pecan, liquid rum baba, honeycomb'); the Tour (14 courses for £70, including 'Cornish crab, vanilla, argan oil' and 'foie gras, figs, corn, sweet bracken'); and Underground ('no holds barred, price on application, 24 hours' notice required'). Unlikely maybe, and unpromising in some hands; but sensational here.
The dining room occupies the ground floor of an attractively converted 13th-century forge that backs onto a garden and fast-flowing stream. Upstairs there are seven bedrooms, which have been furnished in collaboration with a smart local antique shop - which means almost everything is for sale. Cosy, beamed and low-ceilinged, they have chic French wallpaper based on 18th-century prints, grey-and-yellow striped silk curtains, window seats, and some distinguished Georgian furniture; not to mention card tables on which sit state-of-the-art flatscreen TVs. The staff are attentive; the rooms are beautiful; and the cooking is formidable. The 'Introduction' menu features nine courses for £50, from £98 for a Garden Room. Visit www.lenclume.co.uk
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