This bright Keswick bistro is not afraid of heat, spice, bold combinations and allowing a quiet majority of its menu to be veg-centric
Reviewing Fellpack in Keswick felt risky. Following my recent aerial bombardment of words over a fancy Ullswater restaurant, some readers seemed let down. Surely, they gasped, I’d keep schtum due to my local loyalties? The hectoring service, which signalled a chef clearly wanting to clock off, the tired menu and shoosh of table-disinfectant past my lughole: couldn’t I turn a blind eye? No.
The first rule of being a restaurant critic, as opposed to someone who stands on a dining chair like an errant toddler and snaps Instagram content, is that a critic should offer, if need be, criticism. And things closest to our hearts often get special drubbings because we know the subject backwards. Terrible British tourist destination dining, where guests are treated like a necessary evil and the shutters are down by 4pm, is my pet hate. The Lakes are by no means the worst culprit. I’ve pitched up in Cornwall on several occasions to find the southwestern tip of Britain shut. The Suffolk Coast: you can suck one, too.
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