On its 2nd Michelin star, Simon Rogan’s L’Enclume is an idyllic combination of location, exciting cooking, ingredients sourced mainly from the restaurant’s own six acre farm (whatever’s to hand dictates the menu and not the other way around) and, remarkably for such fine dining a very relaxed atmosphere with almost rustic charm. It is far from cheap but if innovative, theatrical food is your thing get saving. They also have 15 gorgeous rooms.

Baha is a stylish restaurant in Windermere, whose reputation is spreading far beyond the Lake District. The theme is Pacific Rim inspired street food, and the menu is both vast and wildly delicious, offering up smart, original ideas from a passionate and talented chef.

Sister venue to L’Enclume is Rogan & Company, also situated in Cartmel – a sleepy village straight out of an Enid Blyton book. Once inside the venue is much like the menu, modern and understated. As you’d expect from one of the most exciting chefs in Britain, Rogan & Company serves up exceptional food. It takes a special touch to take familiar ingredients and turn them into awe-inspiring dishes without resorting to gastro-molecular gimmicks.

The Joshua Tree is a homely, family-run bistro and restaurant housed in a sixteenth-century building nestled close to the River Kent. It specialises in coffee and exquisite fish and meat dishes, and hosts regular food events include a late-opening Starter & Pudding club, which is about Tapas-style small dishes, some from the main menu and others produced especially.

A vegetarian restaurant and boutique cinema in the little town of Ambleside, Fellini’s bills itself as “unpretentious fine dining.” The day we went, it delivered on this balanced promise. The dishes are focused, confident. Riffing around Mediterranean flavours, each is a harmonious combination of ingredients that have always been friends. The staff were relaxed and friendly, there were plenty of diners in jeans – but at the same time, the place feels like a bit of a treat. There are crisp white table cloths and real flowers, a thoughtful wine list with plenty by the glass. You won’t find any wet dogs under the table here.

In this refurbished traditional pub with strikingly pure and simple aesthetics, you’ll find cosy rooms and a welcoming bar and restaurant, for which the Shakespeare Inn is rightly famous, serving down-home yet artful cuisine in a warm, wooden-floored, leather-chaired interior.

The Hazelmere places emphasis on locally sourced, seasonal food – right on the sea front of Grange-over-Sands, it’s also an ideal spot for a multi award winning afternoon tea (or picking up a few delicacies to take home). The tea selection here is personally sourced and tasted, the cakes created by in-house craft bakers. The children’s Peter Rabbit Afternoon Tea is particularly sweet.

Bryson’s is a charming tearoom in the Lake District stocked with everything you could wish for when it comes to daytime dining. It’s straight out of an Enid Blyton book, with glass cabinets full of colourful freshly baked sweets, hot pastries, delicious sandwiches and a wide range of hot drinks.