Lovage Review

Opened in 2020 in the Peak District market town of Bakewell, Lovage is a well regarded restaurant from chef patron Lee Smith, whose past accolades include a Michelin Star and appearances on TV shows like The Great British Menu. The feedback since opening from regular customers has been overwhelmingly positive across every review platform you can think of, and with the restaurant also holding a Michelin Guide listing and two AA Rosettes, I was feeling pretty optimistic about the prospect of seeing some top class cooking as I rocked up with my wife for lunch, on a stormy November Friday.

Booking online had been painless; the restaurant uses The Fork for online bookings. The only slightly negative aspect is that they didn't send a final confirmation check email until 10:30am on the day of our lunch (usually restaurants send this a day or two before), complete with the rather ominous wording "If we do not receive confirmation from you, we reserve the right to cancel your reservation".

We'd already left for the restaurant by the time the email was sent so I didn't see it until after our meal; I think they should definitely rethink that policy and send the email more in advance as any destination restaurant would. There's no dedicated parking here but plenty of pay and display car parks nearby (we stopped at the Bakewell Bridge car park) and fortunately despite that ominous email, we weren't turned away on arrival; the welcome was perfectly warm and we were shown to our table in the main dining room.

I really liked the room; the combination of thick stone walls and wood panelling was very pleasant, and even the chairs were noticeably comfortable. It's not a huge space (no bad thing) but there is a separate bar area near the entrance, and that directly connects through to a cafe on the other side of the building also. Interestingly, it looked like the same kitchen serves both venues which makes practical sense, but it must be a challenge at lunch to plate up high quality fine dining dishes alongside sandwiches and the like at the same time.

On offer in the restaurant at lunch is a three course carte menu (which we ate from), a five course tasting menu and also a single course market menu which allows the option of just eating a single main course for a fixed price; we saw all three options being taken by tables during our visit.

Drinks wise, there's a solid wine and drinks list with all the main bases covered well, and the non-alcoholic selection wasn't insignificant with a few mocktails on offer. My wife enjoyed a non-alcoholic mojito whilst I just stuck with Hendrick's and tonic during my meal (and water).

Lunch began with some homemade bread rolls and a creamy tartlet each. The bread was very good, accompanied by some thoroughly decent butter, and the tartlet packed a good flavour punch.

I began the meal proper with a starter of cod, served atop a brown crab emulsion with a creamy sweetcorn and lemon layer beneath. I enjoyed this; the cod itself was a touch under seasoned but the accompanying sauce elements were very tasty. My wife opted for a beetroot dish, with goats cheese, sorbet and sunflower praline. Visually it was very neat and the flavours were great also; it was a technically impressive starter.

For mains, I went for the venison and it was another high quality dish. The venison itself was well cooked and very tasty, and the accompanying potato and chestnut puree was as delicious as it was silky smooth. The only disappointment on the plate was the small piece of venison sausage which was overcooked and very dry sadly. My wife too enjoyed a well executed main course of stone bass, with curried mussel, parsnip and a zingy lime puree.

After some delicious and technically precise savoury courses, our expectations were high for the dessert part of the meal, but these unfortunately weren't quite as good as what had gone before. I went for a dish of dark chocolate ganache, topped with aerated white chocolate and a salt milk ice cream. This was fine and perfectly edible, but a fairly lacklustre dessert overall with none of the elements being particularly memorable in terms of flavour.

My wife opted for the cream and vanilla custard tart, with fig leaf ice cream and a separate glass of cream soda on the side. We've been fortunate to eat a few really good custard tarts over the years, but this one wasn't great, it was basically just minimally flavoured set cream on a pastry base. The other elements were more interesting, but for me the flavour of the tart should be the focus, and that was disappointing.

And that was that as far as the food; to finish our meal, I had a nice cappuccino and my wife a pot of chamomile tea, accompanied by a couple of tasty fudge petit fours. And so after collecting the bill (complete with 10% service charge), an enjoyable lunch came to an end.

Overall, I was impressed with the standard of cooking here; yes one or two things could have been slightly better technically, but on the whole the food delivered was of a really good level. Service too was faultless; we were well looked after during our visit and the menu pacing was sound (albeit the restaurant was far from full).

Pricing wise, I thought the three courses for £45 offer was fair value. Without that offer I would say the carte prices are fairly punchy for the level of food served, but that's the case for many restaurants nowadays. One confusing aspect of the pricing is some courses come with supplements, but this wasn't communicated in any way either via the menu or the serving staff.

For example, both mine and my wife's main courses had a listed carte price of £38 each, but on the bill they added a £5 supplement to only my wife's, which just felt a little bit made up on the spot if I'm being honest. I think it's reasonable (and very standard practice) to expect any restaurant to indicate on the menu which courses carry supplements.

But look, regardless of any little niggles, we had a very enjoyable afternoon here and I have no problem proclaiming this is a top class restaurant. It's clearly a place that's comfortable with the level and type of food they want to serve, and when you combine that with a really nice venue and excellent service, I don't think anyone can really ask for much more than that.