Visit: 20 November 2024
Award: 1 Michelin Star
Price: **
Website: https://www.oldstamphouse.com/
The Review:
The Old Stamp House Restaurant is located in Ambleside at the heart of the Lake District National Park. Poet William Wordsworth once used the building as his study, when he also held the post of Distributor of Stamps from 1813-1843. The restaurant retains much of its original character with three small dining rooms, low ceilings, exposed beams, white washed brick walls, and flagstone floors.
The restaurant was opened in 2014 by Ryan Blackburn and his brother Craig.
In 2019 the team were awarded a Michelin star which they have retained ever since.
The tasting menu was priced at a very reasonable £95 per head and optional matched wines at £75 per head. There was an extensive wine list available as well. I particularly appreciated the detailed printed description of each of the courses provided to each diner in an envelope with the menu. This is an excellent idea, as many diners like to know more about what they are eating and what motivated the chef when designing the menu.
We started with a very nice canape of duck liver with beetroot macaron, pickled apple and Cumberland sauce. This was very good.
Next was potted Windermere charr with horseradish, and herb crackers. Windermere charr has been overfished and is now rare, so here they use a sustainably farmed source supplied by Hodgson’s of Hartlepool. The charr was prepared like traditionally potted shrimps and was very tasty.
Herdwick sheep is a signature of the restaurant and they source it from John Watson at Yew Tree Farm located about 5 miles from Ambelside. This version was a slow cooked braised Herdwick hogget shoulder, served on brioche caramelized in lamb fat, and topped with garlic emulsion. A small cup of the lamb braising stock was served on the side. Hogget is a juvenile sheep either a young ewe or tup over 11 months old to 24 months and has great flavour. This was a very impressive course, with great taste and textures.
The excellent bread was made from Carrs malted seeded flour, and Last Wolf beer which is brewed by Peter Unsworth in Cartmel. The butter was excellent. It was handmade by Jeremy Jackson at the Winter Tarn Dairy in Crosby Ravensworth.
The next course was a hand-dived scallop with potted shrimps, cauliflower puree, roasted almonds, golden raisins soaked in mead, and a velouté made with mild curry and honey mead. The shrimps were potted at the restaurant using a secret recipe. The scallops were sourced from the West coast of Scotland and had superb natural sweetness that was accentuated by the mead. It was served with a shellfish and tapioca cracker similar to a Chinese prawn cracker!. This was another very good dish.
The halibut was supplied by Hodgson’s of Hartlepool. It was aged in the restaurant’s salt chamber fridge for 3 days to age on the bone, firming it up, improving texture and developing flavour. The fish fillet was steamed at low temperature, then scorched. This was served with creamed Brussels sprouts, crispy kale, and a halibut sauce made using the fish bones and flavoured with fermented artichokes. The fish was perfectly cooked and the sauce was superb.
The Belted Galloway beef shin was supplied by a butcher in North Yorkshire. It had been marinated for 24 hours in red wine, and then braised, shredded, shaped, and glazed in brazing stock. It was served with salt baked celeriac, braised onion, hen of the wood mushrooms, and a truffle sauce. The beef had great flavour.
Our first dessert was a gingerbread which was used as a base to a mousse flavoured with ginger wine and then garnished with indoor grown forced rhubarb.
The main dessert was a very clever take on sticky toffee pudding. It was served as freshly baked, warm, sticky toffee Madeleines, with a toffee sauce made with Jefferson’s rum from Whitehaven, and a Chantilly cream that you could dip the Madeleines into. A rum gelato on poached pear was served on the side. This was very innovative and difficult to stop eating. Brilliant!
This was a very good meal at an amazing price for a Michelin star rated restaurant. The quality of the food was excellent, and the service in the restaurant was very friendly. Chef Ryan visited each of the tables to meet the customers and it was great chatting to him. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience and this is definitely a restaurant I will be revisiting.
The Menu:
Optional matched wines:
The Food:
The People:
Ryan Blackburn has previously worked at Restaurant Martin Wishart and as Head Chef at Cottage in the Wood, Whinlatter Forest.
He opened The Old Stamp House, in 2014. In 2018, he opened his first neighbourhood eatery called Kysty (a Cumbrian dialect word that means ‘discerning about one’s food’ or just plain fussy!), which served locally inspired dishes focusing on flavour and Cumbrian provenance. Other restaurants include a small plates casual dining eatery, called The Schelly (named after a rare freshwater fish) located directly above the Old Stamp House, that seats up to 24 walk-in guests, and a private dining space and development kitchen, called the Workshop at The Old Stamp House.
Ryan has been awarded Cumbria Life Chef of the Year, and appeared in MasterChef The Professionals in 2017, and alongside Tom Kerridge in BBC Two’s ‘The Hidden World of Hospitality’ in 2023.
In October 2019, Ryan was awarded his first Michelin Star, which he has successfully retained to date.
The Old Stamp House was named the best fine dining restaurant in the UK for three consecutive years in the Tripadvisor Travellers’ Choice “Best of the Best” Restaurants awards, 2021 to 2023. It was named number one in the world in both 2021 and 2022, and number three in the world in 2023.
In October 2020 Ryan was awarded Three AA Rosettes for Culinary Excellence. In 2023 the restaurant was named the AA’s Restaurant of the Year for England 2023.
Co-owners and brothers Ryan and Craig Blackburn also featured in the Kuits list of the 50 most influential hospitality leaders in the North in 2023 and 2024.
The Gastronomes meet Ryan:
The Restaurant:
Outside the restaurant:
The plaque outside the restaurant:
Inside the restaurant:
Inside the restaurant:
Inside the restaurant:
