Source at Gilpin Lodge

Source is the flagship restaurant at Gilpin Lodge, there also being a casual pan-Asian restaurant on the property called Spice. Source’s executive Chef Ollie Bridgwater has worked here since 2023, and had previously worked for ten years at The Fat Duck. Tasting menus were available at either £105 or £135, with a lunch menu at £75. The kitchen is a seven days a week operation, with eighteen chefs in total, and typically nine working in the kitchen at any one time. The ground floor dining room can seat up to sixty diners at one time. We went for the shorter tasting menu.

The wine list had 149 labels and ranged in price from £34 to £780, with a median price of £90 and an average markup to retail price of exactly 3 times, which is pretty much the average for the UK. Sample references were Dr Loosen Mosel Estate Riesling 2022 at £44 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £11.39, Wild Idol Sparkling 2022 at £60 compared to its retail price of £22, and Taurasi Aglianico Vesevo 2013 from Campania at £90 for a wine that will set you back £37 in the high street. For those with the means there was Antinori Tignanello 2013 at £420 compared to its retail price of £188, and Vega Siclila Unico 2012 at £620 for a wine whose current market value is £426.

Initial canapés were chicken liver parfait coated in blackberry gel (a vegetarian version had the same gel but with a mushroom filling) along with ajo blanco, a Spanish almond bread chilled soup with garlic, olive oil and sherry vinegar. This was very good, the acidity of the blackberry providing some balance to the richness of the liver (15/20). Even better was croustade of lobster with kombucha, pickled daikon, yuzu, ponzu and a garnish of daikon flowers. The lobster was tender, the pastry case delicate and the daikon radish crisp and contrasting well with the natural sweetness of the shellfish (16/20). This was followed by a canapé of peas, smoked crème fraiche, dashi and oscietra caviar from Kings Caviar in Hounslow. This was another good dish, the peas in season and having nice flavour, the caviar bringing salinity that balanced the dashi, which is the basis for miso soup and has plenty of umami (15/20).

Buttermilk bread was very good, made from scratch, served warm and glazed with truffle honey, the bread flavoured with crispy onion and chives. This was excellent, the texture airy and the onion flavour coming through well. A dish of Cornish lobster came with Isle of Wight cherry tomatoes, toasted nori and an aged Parmesan crisp. The latter was not very crisp but the tomatoes had reasonable flavour and the lobster was tender (15/20). I had roasted French quail served with quail jus, black garlic ketchup, stuffed morel and Tokyo turnip. The quail had excellent flavour, the earthy flavour of the turnip contrasting with the richness of the quail, the morel nicely complementing the bird (15/20). 

Cumbrian chicken was served with shallot, white asparagus, morels stuffed with chicken mousse, allium flowers and a sauce flavoured with ham and a garnish of summer truffle. The chicken was nicely cooked and had good flavour, the sauce was intense and excellent, and was nicely balanced by the asparagus. The morels stuffed with chicken worked very well and were a nice complement to the chicken (16/20). Cornish John Dory came with purple sprouting broccoli, mussels and vermouth foam. The John Dory was quite well cooked and the broccoli had nice flavour, the mussels seeming to be a rather superfluous accompaniment to the fish (14/20). 

Gariguette strawberries came with lavender mousse and a pink peppercorn tuile. The strawberries had very good flavour and the peppercorn was a nice touch, though I was less sure about the lavender (14/20). Manjuri chocolate came with Pedro Ximines ice cream and cherry, the sharpness of the cherry working well with the richness of the chocolate (15/20). I also tasted a rice pudding, with lemon zest, sesame, sake ice cream and miso. This was pleasant but for me the miso flavour was rather dominant. 

Coffee was from Difference Coffee, a choice of Brazil Yellow Bourbon or Jamaican Blue Mountain (or decaf). Petit fours were more experimental than I expected. White chocolate macaron was topped with golden oscietra caviar and I am not sure how well this worked, partly as white chocolate is a tricky ingredient at the best of times, not being actual chocolate, though the saltiness of the caviar is a logical enough idea, along the lines of salted caramel. However the saltiness was too much for me. Pate de fruit of aniseed was made correctly, but why use aniseed and not a more obvious choice like a citrus fruit? Woodruff custard with Scottish raspberry reduced in its own juices with crumble was a little hard in texture, the woodruff not quite sweet enough to balance the sharpness of the fruit. I’m not sure these petit fours worked very well, showing the absence of a specialist pastry chef in the kitchen.

Service was very good throughout the evening, our waitress Elle from Dorset being particularly good. The bill came to £184 per person including wine and service. Overall, this was an enjoyable meal, with technically good cooking in the savoury courses in particular.