The Cottage in the Wood is a Michelin-starred restaurant in Whinlatter Forest near Keswick, run by husband-and-wife team Beth and Jack Bond. Jack worked in some of the world’s best restaurants before opening The Cottage in the Woods with Beth, including New York’s Eleven Madison Park, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Claridges and The Berkeley. His style is as precise as you’d expect given his background, and wife Beth brings a background managing sustainable restaurants, including most recently Apricity in Mayfair.
The dining room is clean and minimal, with the focus being a set of panoramic windows that look out onto the Cumbrian countryside. That countryside plays a key role in the menu as well, as The Cottage in the Woods serves two hyper-seasonal tasting menus, built around a bounty of Cumbrian produce.
Although British produce is the focus, Jack’s style takes inspiration from all over the globe. Dishes at the time of writing include lobster croustade with tomato and yuzu, goat’s milk potato bread with chives, pumpkin with wild raspberry and almond, and hazelnut with white verjus and rum. Guests have the choice of a lunch or dinner tasting menu, the latter of which is seven courses and available with a wine pairing. Additionally, the restaurant runs two different menus over the course of two days, so guests who choose to stay for two nights can eat at the restaurant both times and experience two completely different menus.
Guests can stay overnight at The Cottage in the Woods, as the restaurant also operates as a boutique hotel with nine bedrooms available. All the rooms are based in the original part of the building, which dates back to 1640, and features cosy ‘Cottage’ rooms, ‘Mountain View’ rooms which look out over Skiddaw mountain range, and ‘Treetops’ room in the loft, complete with skylight for night sky views.