Lucy's on a plate
Thank you for a great meal and an excellent evening. I cannot think of a better way to have spent my 30th birthday… Still my favourite restaurant in the world.
Sarah, Nottingham

Thank you for a wonderful evening - what more could we ask for to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. We feel well fed, well looked after and well loved. Thank you Lucy's for putting the sparkle into a perfect evening!
Nancy and David, Derby

What a fantastic time we had. Food was out of this world and the service was great. How nice to be able to have a gluten free roll before the meal and a fantastic dessert! Everything was great, and I love the personal touch on the menu. We will certainly be back and I’ll be ordering gluten free very soon from your mail order service.
Annette

Lucy's Bite on the Side
What a fab night - the menu was personalised and we had a room all to ourselves. Great food and a great atmosphere - very friendly and personal - I couldn't have wished for a better hen night.
Kay, Newcastle

Just a note to say thank you for the excellent service and food you provided for our party. It’s fantastic to find somewhere that provides great service, despite my numerous (and often picky!) requests. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the evening, especially my Mum who had a wonderful surprise birthday party. Looking forward to visiting you again soon.
Jacqui

Lucy4
What a night – such fun to test and taste so many different dishes in one evening – a real meal to remember. Thanks.
Sally, Crewe

We called in for just a quick drink at the bar, then got tempted into sampling your tapas table over a bottle of wine… which then led to us ordering FABULOUS skerewered king prawns and spare ribs. We even managed to fit in one of your wicked desserts... All in all a great fun evening. The unplanned ones are often the best! we will be back.
Peter, Liskeard

I really really liked dipping strawberries in the chocolate fondue.
George, age 6

Lucy's Inside Out
Thank you for your contribution to a fabulous day enjoyed by all the family. Wonderful, delicious catering, admired by everyone! The service was excellent and even my kitchen was left immaculate. I will not hesitate to recommend your catering in the future.
John & Mary, Lancaster

Many many thanks for everything - very professionally done and extremely good. The Mediterranean style buffet was much admired by our guests - all in all a great success.
Peter, Ambleside

Lucy’s Specialist Grocers
Thank you all for your help, good humour and professionalism on Christmas Eve when we arrived on wanting 3 hampers made up. Our brief visit to Ambleside was not only fruitful (we went home with 3 beautifully wrapped baskets, thank you Amy) but we had a lovely lunch too. Christmas Day resulted in 3 families truly chuffed with the contents and of course the hampers. Thank you so much. After a weary week, Christmas started in your shop. See you again soon.
Wendy, Walsden

It isn't just members of the public who are talking about us! Click here to see how much the Guardian is looking forward to the imminent launch of LucyCooks, or read on for a review of Lucy's Specialist Grocer's and Lucy's on a Plate!

The Saturday Times Magazine by Giles Coren, restaurant critic
December 18th 2004

I got to Cumbria ... and was then free to test those widely held prejudices about the small-town northern reand three-coin transactions. But I was dazzled. Blown away by the originality, integrity and extravagance I found during the best run of restaurant experiences I've had in years.

Take Lucy's in Ambleside. The main operation is a tiny top-end delicatessen/grocer designed to cater, as far as I can tell, for holidaymakers used to the range and quality of Selfridges Food Hall. It's all very good, very posh and very expensive. The sort of plastaurant scene that had led me to anticipate a dizzying whirl of gristle, fisticuffs ce you occasionally encounter in the boondocks where you have the feeling that they saw you coming a mile away, but you are secretly rather pleased they did. If you turn right on entering the shop, through a small arch and down some steps, you emerge into a folksy little low-lit restaurant of clean wooden tables and bustling staff with a blackboard pudding list that must have named 100 desserts.

The menu itself is as deliciously personal as any I have seen; a couple of hundred words from Lucy at the top ranted against the hunting ban and went on to offer "a warm welcome to you all - to the Coops, for whom it is the last time in the Lakes until next year (Happy Christmas to you!), to the Donnellys, Stanleys, Hunters..." Call it cheesy, but to look at the reservations book in the afternoon and then do that with your evening menu - it's a beautiful thing.

There was Bluebird Beef (local meat braised in the great Bluebird ale of Coniston), Cranberry Bambi (local venison with cranberry), Herby Saffron Cod (sounds like a very posh Twenties rally driver), Lamb Rumpy Pumpy and lots more bad puns screaming madly for attention on behalf of some very good, hearty food. Bobbing Bobotie was a bastardised South African dish involving a bowl of minced lamb with brandy and almonds under a savoury custard and served with a pretty, pretty pale-green and white salad of straggly cucumber noodles, celery, spring onions, lettuce and a dressing of mint raita.

On the first Wednesday of every month, Lucy holds her "Up the Duff Pudding Night", when £20 buys you all the pudding you want and a glass of dessert wine. You might have pecan and maple bread-and-butter pudding, Westmorland toffee apple crumble tart, deep-dish egg custard tart, Lancashire lemon tart, toffee capuccino crème brûlée, Bailey's banoffee toffee trifle, nutty raspberry pavlova and, for afters, perhaps just a light enema.

In a more Londonny mood I might have been inclined to sneer at the wilful naïvety of it, and have made more play of the shockingly turned-out walking community that tends to pack the place out at lunchtime (when the menu is far duller anyway) and push the percentage of customers with their trousers tucked into their socks past the level at which I remain physically able to swallow my food. But I was three weeks into an extended Lakeside walking and reading and snuggling-down session, and was as free of narky urban snottiness as I have ever been, and I loved Lucy's.

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