Forest Side sits on a ridge above Grasmere — Wordsworth's village, in the heart of the National Park — in a Victorian Gothic mansion that was built as a private residence in the 1850s and has been a country-house hotel since the 1990s. The dining room looks west across Grasmere lake, the windows are framed by climbing wisteria, and the lighting at sunset is genuinely cinematic. The hotel holds one Michelin star, a Michelin Green Star and a 4 AA Rosette rating, and is currently producing some of the most thoughtful cooking in the United Kingdom.
The tasting menu — there is no à la carte — is built around the hotel's three-acre walled kitchen garden, supplemented by foraging walks the chefs do twice a week in the surrounding fells. Heritage tomatoes, wild garlic, sea buckthorn, mountain herbs, salt-marsh lamb, Morecambe Bay shrimp — the larder reads like a love letter to Cumbrian terroir. A typical dinner runs to seven or eight courses and takes roughly three hours; the kitchen is unhurried, the service is similarly gentle, and the room is calibrated for the long, slow evening.
The dining room itself is one of the most beautiful in the country: original Gothic architectural detailing, contemporary low-key furnishings, candle and firelight in winter, the lake light pouring in through the big west-facing windows in summer. The wine list runs to 700 bins with particular strength in Burgundy, the Rhone and English sparkling. The sommelier — usually present for the entire service — is one of the most knowledgeable in the north.
For a proposal, an anniversary or any meal where the setting itself needs to do half the work, Forest Side is the most reliable choice in the Lake District. Stay the night; the bedrooms are excellent, the breakfast is generous, and the morning walk down to Grasmere is one of the great pleasures of an English weekend.
