Reviews

The Guardian On-line

Something of a surprise: I arrived in Cumbria expecting grey stone and slate, and found myself outside an elegant, redbrick hotel that looked as if it had been plucked from the pages of a Jane Austen novel - an impression which the beautiful walled garden and manicured croquet lawn to the rear did nothing to dispel.

The staff are chatty and attentive, and touches such as the cosy renaming of the double measures in our pre-prandial G&Ts as "friendly" certainly encouraged us to dawdle after dinner.

I slept like a baby. Although that may have had something to do with the friendliness of the drinks.…a good deep bath and classy Molton Brown toiletries…the room is also home to the most comfortable armchair I've ever had the pleasure to sink into.

Would you go back? Try and stop me.

Condé Nast Johansens

Our Inspector loved - Dining in the new Garden Restaurant overlooking the lovely secluded walled garden.

The Sunday Times

Head East, not West from the M6 and you'll escape the tourists.  Temple Sowerby House combines smart living and great food with dressed-down friendliness

The Yorkshire Post

There's something very pleasant returning from a rain-swept afternoon to the comfort of a house that slips backwards through the ages with elegant, lofty Georgian rooms giving way to older parts with their head-crunching doorways and beams.

Finally, the back door opens to a long, long garden, disappearing through a gated wall to a magnificent Wellingtonia (anchored along a ley line) and then on into the surrounding countryside. It's as pleasant a place to be as you're likely to find. "You can always tell a hotel by its toiletries, and they're Molton Brown, so it must be good", said my wife.

The Glasgow Herald

The food is perhaps the best reason for staying at Temple Sowerby House Hotel.

The Glasgow EveningTimes

Its restaurant offers a la carte dining in relaxed surroundings and Mr and Mrs Evans are expert hosts - attentive but not overbearing. It's tempting to spend a lot of time at the hotel because it is so welcoming, but the Eden Valley has too much to offer to remain indoors.

The Hartlepool Mail

There's no place like home - unless you are staying at Temple Sowerby House. And that's great news for anyone wanting to find somewhere special to stay while enjoying a short break in the scenic Eden Valley.

Like a warming scarf in winter, the building seems to wrap itself around you, making you feel relaxed and at home. Mealtimes, be it breakfast or dinner are a real treat .. and where possible local fare is used - guests can watch the chef picking his own herbs from the garden.

Newcastle Evening Chronicle

Paul, who owns the hotel with his wife Julie, met us on our arrival, showed us around and escorted us to our room. The couple were there in the morning, serving breakfast, and on hand in the evening to help with the difficult job of choosing a wine to go with mouth-watering dishes on offer.

And they will even arrange your activities for you, whether it be game shooting, falconry, sailing and canoeing on Ullswater (a 15-minute drive), or salmon and trout fishing on the nearby River Eden. And as if the wide choice of activities on offer wasn't enough to whet the appetite the prospect of the evening meal to round off the day most certainly was the highlight.

For included in the dinner, bed and breakfast deal is a three-course evening meal off the a la carte menu and the food was truly wonderful. In fact the red snapper which I had on the first night of our stay was so good that, despite the other temptations on the menu, I had the same main course the following night!

If you are not feeling all that energetic then there are numerous places of interest within a half-hour's drive, with numerous stately homes and renowned gardens and countless picture postcard villages to wander around at your leisure.

The Eden Valley and Temple Sowerby House seem a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of city life in Newcastle. And yet what makes the prospect of a return trip so appealing - apart from the food - is the fact it takes less than two hours to get there by car.

Country Life

Anyone who has flogged up the western flank of Britain from south to north by way of the M6 will know how hard it is to find a comfortable place for an overnight stop.

To them, Temple Sowerby House will seem like a godsend. After a night here, fortified by the sumptuous breakfast that follows, one feels revived enough to face the last leg north.

The Liverpool Echo

There’s no better way to sample the area’s wares than through a marvellous à la carte evening meal at one of its cosiest hostelries.

We found that at Temple Sowerby House Hotel …the former 16th century farmhouse is now an award-winning haven for all the very best in Cumbrian fare.

Lancashire Life

I must confess familiarity with most of the places we visited during our weekend but it began at a hotel new to me, Temple Sowerby House, a few miles outside Penrith and handy for both Ullswater and the Pennines, and I am sorry it has taken me so long to visit it.

I hope to visit it again in the summer for its pleasures do not rely solely on its comfort and culinary skill. There is a beautiful walled garden that should be a vision in the flowery seasons.

Owners Paul and Julie Evans have created an elegant hotel with log fires and 12 individually styled bedrooms in a building which dates to 1727. The head chef, Ashley Whittaker, uses local ingredients imaginatively in a menu with classic roots.

I started dinner with a game, pistachio and pickled walnut terrine en croute with home-made piccalilli and Cumberland sauce – one of the best I’ve eaten, followed by pork loin wrapped in Cumbrian pancetta with the customary sage and onion flavouring a risotto, instead of stuffing and with a watercress sauce. I finished with a superb steamed lemon pudding with stem ginger ice cream and lemon Anglaise.

It is a pity that when the hotel is full there is no room for other diners for this is food that deserved wide appreciation.

Happy guests outside the hotel