Heft, Inn + Restaurant in South Lakeland

Heft excelled themselves this weekend! They hosted an amazing wedding... beautiful, tasty, elegant food, stunning decor and the most polite, friendly, hardworking, efficient staff I have come across. Many people I spoke last night were in awe of your effort and I wish you all the luck going forward with the beautiful new rooms! I, and many others, appreciate the hard work that goes into running an establishment like this. Thank you so much Kev, Nicola and your team. Cheers!

Can’t fault the service but we ordered lamb from the Sunday roast menu and it arrived lukewarm and I couldn’t even cut into it with my knife it was that rubbery. I explained the issue to the waiter which the said they could send another one out fresh but by this point we just wanted to leave. Asked for the bill and they refused to remove food from the bill. So ended up paid without eating. Super overpriced.

The setting is in a lovely village the restaurant is also the local pub which is quite unique one half for locals and the other for restaurant diners. The decor and ambiance are lovely and has a relaxed atmosphere. We chose the Sunday menu so we could just have two courses which is enough, there is only four courses which is fine so we both ordered the lamb Henry. The was ok the lamb was pink but quite fatty the accompanying sides were nice deserts were ok but nothing special we had wines by the glass and they were yet again just ok. The service was efficient but with the young staff dull and lacking any personality or connection. These days the Michelin people dish out stars very easily, we have just cancelled another booking for one such place it’s just not worth it.

We had the tasting menu at £120 per head, avoiding the flight of wines option. The food was nothing short of excellent. Coffee, some drinks and 12.50% service charge added about £50 per head. So, an expensive night out but most enjoyable.

We visited this lovely restaurant again with some friends. As always the food was excellent as was the service and ambience. The tasting menu is always very interesting and they are very good as making whatever changes necessary to meet food preferences . 3 of us had the standard menu with minor changes and the fourth opted for the pescatarian menu. We come here for special occasions but also sometimes come to the bar for lunch where they do very good food at very reasonable prices and good beer.

We visited for lunch on a Thursday. We had a warm welcome and the bar has a good range of ales and other drinks. I think you could just visit it as a pub without booking and their bar menu looked quite reasonable. We had the set 4 course lunch, good value for £45 each plus drinks, etc. The opening snacks through to the petit fours at the end were all very nice and well presented. The flavours were generally quite subtle, but we enjoyed each course. The service was attentive and friendly, although the time between courses, particularly at the start was a little too long. Since they only have one seating time I would think they could get the first courses out a little quicker, but not a big problem. The pub and dining area were pleasant spaces with plenty of period character, although it was a little cool where we were sat but it was quite a chilly day.

Wonderful experience today for our anniversary lunch. The menu was a perfect choice of local produce prepared and presented with amazing skill. Every course presented had its place on the menu. The staff made us feel extremely welcome and are exceptionally knowledgeable regarding the menu and all wines and drinks available. We can't wait to visit again.

We were first-time diners at Heft and were a little unsure whether or not to order the rib of beef for Sunday lunch, based on some negative comments from 2023. Maybe Heft changed things up after the previous comments, but our 2-course Sunday lunch experience was excellent. Heft is located in a very attractive old pub, with a cosy and characterful bar section in front and more minimalist Scandi-chic interconnecting dining rooms to the rear. We were greeted by Daniel Bennett, the award-winning young manager-cum-sommelier and general all-rounder who pitches in as needed to support his team. The staff are young and sometimes maybe a bit nervous but will grow into their roles under Daniel’s guidance. The 2-course Sumnday lunch was everything we hoped for ane more. The rib of beef was tender, roasted perfectly pink-to-rare red and sliced for us so we didn’t have to perform that sometimes messy task ourselves. We ordered several side dishes, including a yummy chorizo mac-and-cheese, creamed kale, roasted cauliflower and delicious gravy. The beef also came with roasted shallots, garlic roasted potatoes and Ramson Bearnaise sauce (Ramsons being a kind of wild garlic, foraged from the Lakeland hills), which was to die for. We each had a pudding but had to bring home our leftovers in a doggie bag, branded “Heftovers”. We ate those with gusto a couple days later, wasting nothing. We will certainly return on our next trip to the Lake District (we are annual visitors) and will try the tasting menu next time but hopefully also another Sunday lunch! Well done to chef Kevin Tickle, manager Daniel Bennett and the whole team in giving us our best meal so far of this year’s trip to the Lake District. As a postscript to the above review, which I had left on the DishCult website/app, we returned to Heft for a couple of drinks in the bar and some bar meals on a Friday. These were also delicious. We’d never seen a sausage roll as large, more like a sausage “log” best shared with your partner! The smoked salmon with lemon cream cheese and sourdough bread was top-notch. They say these are “bar snacks” but you could make a substantial meal out of Heft’s bar menu, for those who don’t want to do the tasting menu or Sunday lunch. Great stuff. We’ll definitely be back for more.

came for the sunday lunch menu, could not fault it at all! from the service to the food everything was amazing! just an overall great experience, would definitely recommend.

Quality from tip to toe. Lovely 5 course menu. Each dish was tasty. Staff were attentive and knowledgeable. Friendly atmosphere. Clean as a pin. Fantastic.