Lakeside Cafe Restaurant in Allerdale

Poor service and very expensive £8 For a sausage roll which just comes on its own on a plate.

We ordered a cheese scone and a cheese and ham sandwich. Both were so dry that we only ate half of them. The cheese in the sandwich was dark around the edges, so it make have been old stock.

Good natural views, nice trail.

Grumpy staff and stale cakes. No customer service skills. 2nd visit should of learnt from the first visit.

Took 20 minutes for 3 coffees and 2 cakes to be delivered to table. When it arrived, hot chocolate had cream when it was asked for without, and coffee came without milk. A staff member started banging and crashing dishes in the back VERY loudly for 5 minutes, so loud you’d think it would all break and multiple people were covering their ears.

Slow service. The "hot" chocolate should have been named "barely warm" chocolate. Wife paid £4.50 for a cheese scone, what a rip! I had a baked potato with tuna mayo, it came with a salad that had seen better days. The baked spud was warm, not hot, it was cooked through but had been left to cool for too long. Wife complained about the salad, we were offered a cake as an apology. Very poor, too expensive for what you get. Avoid.

Great coffee and nice fruit scones. Convenient location and great service

Only stopped in for a takeaway hot drink, but felt a nice atmosphere, friendly staff and picturesque location

Great friendly and helpfull staff, great views, Dog friendly, even have a dog menu!

Lovely cafe. Myself my other half with our dogs drowed by the bad rain. Arrived an was greated. We took a seat and ordered the lakeside stack. I absolutely recommended this. We both throughly enjoyed this. The staff were pleasant and the service was quick. Views of derwent and some beautiful christmas decorations around the building. Facilities were clean as expected.

Cosy atmosphere, beautiful view of the lake, various tea selections, lovely food and cakes. Went twice during our stay in Keswick and would recommend it to anyone visiting the town👌

Unfortunately didn't get my brew.. Ordered and told 10 minute wait which wasn't a problem. 20 minutes later no drinks. I asked for a refund which I got. Yes all the tables were busy but there was no queue to get served. We have been coming here years for food and drink but the new system doesn't work that is the table service.. You used to order drinks and wait at the end to get them and a cake etc. Now you give your table and go and sit down. There was loads of staff waiting to get the orders out but just one poor woman trying to do all the drinks... It clearly does not work... Atmosphere was good but service poor. It used to work.

Limited lunch menu but the food we had was delicious. I had the Root Vegetable soup with sourdough bread and my husband had a cake. Busy at the time we arrived and the staff were run off their feet but they were very efficient and helpful. Just one negative comment. You really need to sort out your toilets as it lets the cafe down. The floor in the ladies was littered with bits of toilet roll mainly because your toilet roll holders dont dispense properly so bits of paper are being discarded on the floor. It's not a one off as it was the same earlier in the week when I visited. My husband said the gents toilet wasnt much better.

Soup was delicious 😋 Very busy - nearly end of octiber

Nice location, a warm place in autumn, recommend pumpkin latte

Great restaurant and location. Dogs allowed and water for dogs.

Great place to have a coffee and food after a walk. Friendly staff, clean too. We went twice in 3 days!

Ordered two meals One arrived 15 mins after the other Lucky I wasn't on a date!

Absolutely loved this restaurant. Food was beautifully cooked, well presented, hot and tasted amazing. I would definitely return

Tasty food, friendly staff, good coffee and dog friendly.

This restaurant is associated with the next-door Theatre by the Lake, were we saw a 19:30 performance. There were plenty of interesting menu options, and the food was all fresh and well-prepared.

Had 20 mins to wait for the derwent launch so thought it pop into get a snack and a drink, service was so so slow only 3 people Infront of me didnt get served in the 15 mins I was in the queue. Saved myself some money as the prices are £££, £6 for a sausage roll.

Lakeside Cafe, a restaurant in Keswick, is very suitable for sitting and having a meal after walking around the lake. The atmosphere is nice, but if it coincides with a meal, there might be a lot of people and the food will come slowly. Lakeside Cafe, located in Keswick, is a great spot to relax and have a meal after a walk around the lake. The atmosphere is pleasant, but if you come during meal times, it might be crowded and the food could take a while to be served #TravellingAsACouple

Had to wait over 15 minutes for drinks to come, only for them to arrive luke warm. Prices are horrendous. Didn't bother to have anything to eat as TOO much for the smallest portions. 4 staff on, but only one was allowed to serve tables. Teapot was filthy. Other teapot that I thought was water was full of milk and remainders of tea inside. AVOID AND DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY. Walk on by and go to the little cafe by the lake

We wanted a light bite in the Spotlight Cafe bar which is part of Lakeside. We now need a second mortgage! At six pm on the night of a sell out performance in the theatre served by Spotlight, the only light food available was a choice of two tray bakes, a scone or one of four remaining pasties. Appalling. I ordered two pasties , two tray bakes and two teas and was staggered to be charged over £30! The cost of a pastie - no garnish or side salad- was £7.50 ! Diabolical . The tray bakes - one of which was quite dry - were £4.50 each. To add insult to financial injury we were expected to carry two teapots, four plates, two cups and two saucers back to our table without a tray. When asked, the pleasant, young waitress managed to find a tiny one the size of a dinner plate and helped us take our order to our table but said that they had got rid of all the big trays. A self service café without trays? Stupid. An accident waiting to happen. Further food is supposed to be available in the adjoining cafe but that was fully booked and so unavailable. You used to be able to get paninis, soup, baked potatoes and a large variety of hot and cold sandwiches in Spotlight. There was proper cutlery- now wooden stirrers and forks- , a range of delicious cakes and a selection of tray bakes. The prices were always on the high side but weren’t astronomical. How things have changed and not for the better.

This place seems to have declined recently. Waiting times are unacceptable, even for a simple cuppa. To cap it all, the ladies toilet was in a shocking state, lacking toilet roll and soiled sanitary items stacking up. We won't be back any time soon. Not a great face of Keswick .

Only had a toasted teacake and a cup of tea but it was good. Nice location down by the lake.

For such a lovely spot, the tables and seating are cheap. Because they were supposedly busy, we had to eat at 5.45pm, but where we sat was virtually empty. The menu is basic and the selection is drab and boring. After finishing our mains, the waitress asked if we wanted dessert, which we did plus we asked for coffees. She never came back even though you could clearly see us sitting there, this included other staff, who were standing around behind the counter talking to each other. We left and spent our money elsewhere.

The best chocolate brownie cake.

I had some lunch here with some of my friends. I had a homemade chicken and mushroom pie which was really nice, followed by a big piece of cake- and that was lush. The prices were a bit high but worth it as we had amazing views of the lake and mountains. Definitely recommend having a bite to eat at the Lakeside cafe.

I would say the price is the only thing letting this cafe down. With prices higher than Costa it does feel like a rip off. I get it, this is pretty much the only hot food place by the lake unless you trek back into the town, but £7.50 for a sausage roll or £5 for a small cake, monopolosing much! The service and upkeep were good, claiming back a few stars. And the toilets are clean and free, much better than the council paid ones closer to the car park. My advice to anyone else is pick up a Greggs first then head to the lake.

A must for a bite to eat after a walk to Gowbarrow fell. Cream tea was 10/10

The menu is very limited for all tastes. The food is ok but I think it is expensive for what it is.

Food expensive, toilets were bombed and stunk..

Nice cafe, expensive though and service wasn’t great. Ordered at the counter (after having to stand there waiting for a few minutes), then took a good 5-10 minutes to bring over the food (that was on display). Tasty though and still worth a visit. £25 for 2 drinks, a pasty and a brownie.

What a rubbish service we experienced, well never go there again

Good cafe. Not a good look at the lake.

Sunday we entered the cafe with my husband and ordered our drinks, only a milkshake and an iced coffee with a woman. Waited over 30 minutes, time flew, and we just thought they were just busy. I went up to the til and ordered a soup with the boy behind the till. When my soup came before the drinks, my husband went to query where the drinks were. We was quizzed on whether we'd actually ordered and paid for them. The boy approached our table and was saying that I only ordered soup and not a drink with him. When they eventually found our order in the til, a girl fetched the drinks and was also unprofessional, saying we've checked your order believe its correct. I replied yes we know it's correct."We paid for them!" The older ladies were on the ice-cream counter and shouldn't leave the children to run the cafe. We left our drinks in disgust with the terrible customer service and will never go back there.

Great for coffee before and tea after trip on Keswick Launch.

Was a great place. Went the start of the kids holidays so the long stay car park nearby was very busy but the cafe was surprisingly quiet. Managed to find a couple of tables to fit 10 adults and 2 kids straight away. Food was expensive but nice. About £7 for a sausage roll I think it was, was a handmade and very tasty sausage roll though! Had a kids menu with the usual on. Benches outside, plenty of which had dogs so assume outside is dog friendly, not sure about inside though.

Delicious soup and friendly service although the pies were disappointing.

Was almost put off coming due to the previous two reviews - but I’m glad we came! The food was nice and the view from here is really lovely! We sat outside with a lake view and the outside area is a nice little sun trap (if it’s sunny). Probably a little more pricey than other spots due to the lovely view. A really convenient spot right next to the lake for boat rentals.

We waited ages before somebody came to seat us, we placed our food and drink order, 2 drinks, only one came, we had to ask for the other, then we waited 30 mins for our food which never came, we asked and they had overlooked the order. Great views, staff friendly,but sorry to say, will not be visiting again.

Nice location, food good. Can get a bit chaotic in busy periods, possibly would be better is somebody works front of house to seat people better x

Totally underwhelming experience. Ok food, filled a gap, nothing to write home about.

On Friday the 28th of June my wife ordered a “lovingly prepared” 3 cheese sourdough toastie costing £9.00 from the Lakeside Cafe in Keswick. What was served up was 2 small slices that were burnt to a crisp on the inside with the remnants of a small amount of extremely overcooked cheese. See photos attached. The toast was so hard that you could crack teeth or lose fillings . The so called “chef” had very cleverly put the burnt toast on the inside of the toastie with the I burnt sides in the outsides. My wife ate what she was able as we didn’t have the time to wait for the food to be replaced. Very unpleasant , unprofessional and disappointing .

Stop here for a coffee service was great very friendly and nice coffee

Came here for tea and cake with family. It cost an arm and a leg! Paid £9.50 for two chocolate brownies and they were dry and stale. I wanted to order a sausage roll however I simply couldn’t bring myself to pay £7.50 for a sausage roll!! Absolute crazy prices. Service was also slow and without a smile.

Friendly service, good food, recommend the sausage roll

Unprofessional service, poor portion sizes, food doesn't match menu, tea bad, noisy. Garbage.

Very busy but staff worked efficiently to bring out the hot drinks as soon as possible

The service was bad! They would bring our order outside, but that took at least 15 minutes and then my husband picked it up himself. Pastry was pricey!

Cappuccino and pastries were fine. Service was bad. Our order was supposed to be delivered outside, but it wasn't. Ordering itself was difficult. Pastries without forks. Cappuccino without a spoon. "It's on a table somewhere" ..take it yourself. Atmosphere was mediocre. But we did continue to enjoy our order.

Nice place for a cuppa and a piece of cake looking over the lake. Very relaxing.

First time in here. I had the mushroom on toast which is nowhere near as ordinary as it sounds. Artisan bread with a gorgeous tomato puree topped with the most delicious mushrooms. Served with a salad with yummy dressing. It was really busy so be prepared for a wait, but the food is worth it.

Lovely place .. parking .. nice cafes. Good views. Boat hire and cheap rowing boats hire. Highly recommended. Forget spending fortunes on water activities brong em down here.

£7.50 for a takeaway sausage roll! 🥹

Called in a couple of days ago. Waiter/Waitress service. Sat for ages, no one came over, others served before we were, just got up and left. Employ more staff!

Great vegan food! Genuinely surprised how tasty the Chana Drama was - very impressed for cafe food 😋

Very busy but good choices for a light meal and reasonably priced given it's geographical position.

£7.50 for a sausage roll, the same one costing £2.60 in a Keswick bakery! Robbing ********!

We had scones and a sausage roll all of which excellent

Nice and spacious with plenty of seating both inside and outside. Just a 10 minute walk from Keswick town Centre and 2 minutes from Derwent boat launches. Varied menu and cakes on offer as well as a doggie menu. Staff very friendly and brought my drink to the table for me. Table service is also available.

I think one of the best coffee's I've had. A brilliant cafe / restaurant in a very handy location. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the building - wheelchair friendly, children friendly, dog friendly - thank you!

Been many times over the past 10 years. Food always very good. Staff now come to your table to take food and drinks orders. Have to admit its alot better and we were impressed by how well our it all works

Lovely food and atmosphere, can be very busy at times, pay and display carpark for adjoining theatre by the lake and restaurant.

Overall good cafe/restaurant however more food variety would be appreciated

A nice place to grab a tea or coffee after a lovely walk. Plenty of seating and space and nice food and drink options. We only had sausage rolls and some cakes with our hot drinks, but they were all freshly made and very nice. Will definitely call in again.

Lovely cafe/restaurant next to Derwent Water in Keswick. Its dog friendly and they even offer puppicinno's for you furry friend.

Only 4 stars as we had to wait awhile, yes I know they're busy but just a slight apology to let us know they were very busy would have sufficed

We told the restaurant about an allergy they choose to ignore us and poison us. They never said sorry. Don't eat here if you have any allergies, they will ignore your request and poison you anyway. Only after tourist money and dont care about dietary restrictions. Be very careful. We were in full touch and gave them all the details but they never got back to us and now on the 3rd April 2024 they are repeating what they have said before. They never got back or even said SORRY. As soon as possible is not something they understand. We are still waiting.

The hygiene was terrible. We found multiple human hair in our food. The tea cups were not clean, we could see previously drunk tea stains (they are removable, not a permanent stain, we managed to clean w tissues). The plates they served were not clean either. I would not recommend this place!!

Bit expensive for what you get. But nice for a coffee and look at the scenery.

Brilliant, and was able to hire an off-road scooter to go around the lake, as my wheelchair would not be able to do it.

A great space with views of Derwentwater. Food much improved over a few years ago. Attentive staff

Really nice cafe on the edge of town. We passed by and popped in for a drink after a walk by the lake, lovely warm drinks and beautiful brownies. We then went back before the show at the Theatre. A lovely meal, the food was delicious and generous in portion. The ladies serving were very friendly and helpful sorting our drinks to take next door.

We visited prior to seeing a production on the theatre and were not sure what to expect. Apart from being a little too bright we liked the surroundings and the staff really couldn’t have been more helpful. Although the menu was limited the food was really tasty and the portions generous.

I wanted something to eat after a short walk and had noticed that this cafe served breakfast until 11:30. That suited me just fine. I very rarely have a traditional breakfast so was looking forward to it. It was very disappointing and overpriced. The bacon was hard as was the sausage which was very poor quality and the tomato was cold. I had been in two days before when I had a hot chocolate. It tasted nice but was only lukewarm. Perhaps that should have warned me. I remember the wooden cafe which was demolished for this one to be built. It didn’t have such an extensive menu but this one is not an improvement.

Nice lakeside cafe, quality home-made food not too busy.

Nice coffee and scone. Cafe in good spot after a walk along the lake and woods.

We took the pre-theatre Small Plates option: the food is prepared by the Lakeside Restaurant and served in the Spotlight Bar in the main theatre building. We shared six small dishes. All of them were very disappointing. The mixed olives were the type available in any supermarket, as was the hummus: no chance of anything prepared freshly in the kitchen. The artichoke hearts were described as ‘marinated in olive oil and herbs’ but were, in fact, tinned artichoke hearts in brine and no herbs. The padron peppers were over-cooked and had shrivelled down to almost nothing. As a consequence they also lacked any flavour. And finally the two portions of focaccia, each one comprising two pieces about 4 inches by 1 inch. ‘Tough as old boots’ was my wife’s description. Let’s just say it was very stale - quite an achievement for an oily bread which naturally has a long shelf life. I wonder how long it must have been hanging around. All of the dishes (apart from the peppers) were served very cold, presumably straight from the fridge. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say the service in the Spotlight Bar was decidedly odd. Was this all worth £28? Not really. After watching the excellent School for Scandal, we emerged starving and had to top up at the motorway services!

We called for a drink today.My husband has a mobility scooter,can only walk a very short distance with assistance i.e. from scooter to chair,& though there was one parked outside there was no sign to say they aren't allowed inside. We went in, ordered, paid,were seen by several staff members but no-one mentioned the scooter.Then as we were having our drinks a staff member approached to ask if it was our scooter.On saying yes she asked us to move it as it was blocking a fire exit - again no signage to indicate this. We do understand that in an emergency any door is an emergency door but they are usually signed to indicate this.She said he was welcome to put it outside ! but did not ask if he would be able to come back in or offer to assist. He hurriedly had his drink & took the scooter outside where he sat waiting for me in the cold while I too rushed my drink.My husband has suffered from M.S. since 2006 & found this incident very embarrassing. Maybe there should be a sign outside to request that scooters be left outside,in which case we wouldn't have entered.They were happy to serve us & take our money before embarrassing us. Maybe when we come next time signs will be in place to save us & anyone else being put in this situation.

Really nice little spot, staff are really on the top of service. Food very enjoyable. One point off for sourdough bread, everyone uses it and god knows why it's terrible for toasting.

Lovely place, atmosphere could be improved with music :)

Nice menu, great view, friendly people. Kids meal is just £1 if ordered with an adult meal. Also good options for dogs.

Very expensive 3.50 for a cup of tea, give it a miss.

Good food and nice options for Indians

Stopped here after walking past earlier to go around the lake. The views from in the café were great even on a rainy day. Lovely hot chocolate and friendly staff. We both had mushrooms which was delicious, will come back next time we visit the lakes.

Lacks the traditional atmosphere of the tea rooms it replaced, but the coffee's good.

Every dish one asked for had run out and this was 1pm! The staff were friendly but useless and it was chaos. The food we eventually got was nice but we did not get a single item we requested!

Lovely place with beautiful views of Derwent water

Scenic location but that is where the magic ends ! Food is nothing special and well overpriced.

Visited today and everything was fab! Food and coffee were delicious and staff were so friendly!

Fantastic place to stop for a bit to eat or just to grab a coffee /tea

Had tea and cake to thaw us out after a walk. Calm music playing, tasty cakes and friendly staff.

We ordered soup, Lakeside Rarebit, and two coffees. The rarebit was good, but the vegetable soup was tepid, wishy washy & had no character. The coffees were unremarkable. Sad because it is in a stunning location, but you can’t eat the view.

Tea and tea cakes.for two. Excellent all round. Completely dog friendly. A good place to chill with a cuppa mid morning.

We live nearby but haven't called in for a while. We cycled through looking forward to some warm food on what was a freezing day. We entered inside to find all the empty tables had not been cleared so we had to clear a table ourselves. Fair enough..it was busy so understand how tables got missed. But when we ordered our food they said it couldn't be warmed up. It was a Cumberland sausage roll and a quiche served with potatoes and salad. They couldn't even warm the potatoes up. They said they weren't allowed to warm things up. I hardly ate mine...it was so disappointing. Then to top it off..I went to the toilet and they were absolutely disgusting. Toilet roll on the floor in every cubicle..used....and womens sanitary products on show..used!!! It had clearly not been checked or cleaned all day long. Safe to say we wont be returning. I'm not one to complain, honestly..nor have I ever written many reviews but felt I needed to on this occasion.

Great views and great food! Chana drama vegetarian curry excellent 👌 as was mushrooms on toast.

Lovely location, great food, great cost. Lovely staff