The Glass House, Ambleside

WE USED TO EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT 7 OR 8 TIMES A YEAR AS WE OWN A HOLIDAY COTTAGE IN THE AREA. OUR ANNUAL SPEND AT THE RESRAURANT WOULD BE AROUND £700.

WE HAD NOTICED A DECLINE IN THEIR STANDARDS OVER THE LAST 12 MTHS.

OUR FINAL EXPERIENCE WAS YESTERDAY 16 OCTOBER 2011. A BOOKING HAD BEEN MADE BY E MAIL WELL IN ADVANCE AT IT WAS TO CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY FOR TABLE 23 AT 7.30PM. THIS WAS CONFIRMED.

ON ARRIVING WE GAVE OUR NAME TO A GIRL ARRIANA ON RECEPTION.

WE WERE TOLD IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS WE HAD A BOOKING FOR 7.00PM AND OUR TABLE HAD BEEN GIVEN TO SOMEONE ELSE. WE ALSO SPOKE TO STUART WHO CONFIRMED WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE AT 7PM. THEIR RUDENESS AND MANOR IN WHICH THEY BOTH SPOKE TO US WAS STAGGERING. WE RETURNED WITH OUR EMAIL BOOKING STATING WE WERE CORRECT. STUART THEN LOOKED SHEEPISH BUT THE RUDE GIRL ADRIANNA SMURKED WITH PLEASURE.

THEY SIMPLY DID NOT CARE AND DID NOT WANT OUR CUSTOM.

AN EXCELLENT MEAL WAS HAD AT THE LOG HOUSE WHERE WE WERE MET BY COURTEOUS AND FRIENDLY STAFF.

OUR HOLIDAY COTTAGE INFORMATION PACK WILL BE UPDATED ON THE GLASS HOUSE.

I was disapointed with my most recent visit to the glass house as the main dish was terribly dry, yet they served it anyway, and spoilt the entire meal!

Stumbled upon The Glass House restaurant by accident and immediately recognised it from Ramseys Kitchen Nightmares. Cant' remember it's faults from the programme but they appear to have been solved now. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our food, the service, the setting and the pricing. Recommend to anyone going to The Lake District.

Staff at The Glass House were excellent, since my visit I remembered the glass house appearing on Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, I even recognised one of your male waiters, so I bought the DVD and voil , he is still there and this 2008 the programme went out in October 2003.

We visited The Glass House in Ambleside due to a recommendation from a local guest house who highly praised this place, we thought we would spend our hard earned here, and we were not disappointed.A very warm welcome and plenty of people in and out of here midweek in May Whitsun half term assured us of a good atmosphere.Service was very good, attentive but relaxed, Neil the owner was a constant presence which was very nice, a great character who certainly adds to the place's charm and is clearly popular with the locals/holidaying regulars.Our food was absolutely delicious all round, all dishes were very well presented without being pretentious and most importantly full of good flavours.It was a great evening all round and one of the best meals we've had anywhere in this country.When we're back in the area, we won't hesitate to eat there again!

The afternoon started off well, a great looking restaurant in a great setting. We had heard that it had featured in a Gordon Ramsay show and were keen to give it a try whilst in the area. Although i had read mixed reviews i was hopeful. The food was dissapointing to be honest, literally "mutton dressed as lamb" The starters, scallops and duck were served cold, late and in the case of the scallops overcooked and the duck almost raw..and the tired old trick of a scattering of leaves and a "drizzle" of tart sauce didn't rescue things. We had to ask twice when our main course would arrive, 40 mins after finishing the starters..

Worst of all the attitude of the staff we dealt with. Staggering. How do people get away with serving such poor food whilst being so rude to their customers.

I was so looking forward to eating at The Glass House! I should have realised that there may be a problem when I sat in a virtually empty dining room in early August at the height of the tourist season! The staff seemed robotic and unfriendly... I could have forgiven this if the food was good but I didn't think it was! I had a crab starter which was dry and tasteless. My main course was snapper with seasonal vegetables. The snapper was beautifully cooked but tasteless and the vegetables tasted as if they had been boiled in vinegar! I ate a little of the fish fully expecting the staff to ask how I enjoyed my meal.... They didn't! They cleared away 2 plates of untouched food without comment and later brought us dessert menus. This was the highlight of the evening. The dessert was sublime unfortunately too little too late to save the evening. I would not recommend this restaurant to anybody!

Had early supper menu (served 6.30-7.30pm) and our children ate from the "next generation" menu. Only children over 5 years old welcome in the evening but younger are welcome at lunchtime.

Good food on the early supper menu, good range and good quality. Healthy children's food with plenty of crisp veg.

An all round enjoyable evening was had by all.

I found it hard to believe reading the last review that we ate at the same restaurant.

I dined at the Glass house in January 08, from start to finish the meal and service were first class, the starter of mushroom risotto was one of the best i have ever tasted as for the braised lamb which i was told ever comes off the menu i can see why, tender melt in the mouth. We have already booked a table on our return to the lakes in May. My only regret is that the Glass house is not closer to home.

We visited the Glass House in early October for lunch, and I can honestly say it was one of the most terrible dining experiences I have had the misfortune to endure.

It all seemed quite promising to begin with. Physically, the restaurant looks great. The staff are friendly and helpful and the wine list is impressive.

And then the food arrived.

Starters of prawns with chorizo and beetroot with goats cheese were edible enough, although these simple dishes would have been more difficult to get wrong than right.

This underwhelming start to the meal turned out to be the highlight - the main courses were genuinely inedible.

I should make clear at this point that my partner and I are very keen foodies and the very opposite of fussy eaters. As such, I cannot remember the last time, prior to our lunch at the Glass House, that I literally could not bring myself to eat a meal which was in front of me.

My partner had a roasted chicken breast with mustard mash, while I opted for a gourmet style burger on focaccia.

My burger arrived literally swimming in a very odd sauce which was tooth-rottingly sweet and extremely overpowering. The burger itself was so over seasoned with various herbs (plus a very strange taste which I couldn't identify as anything beyond soap) that there was absolutely no hint of beef flavour left. So sweet and hideously flavoured was the sauce that I was actually unable to stomach it, and since everything on the plate was liberally doused in the stuff the entire meal was inedible.

My boyfriend's meal was similarly over-flavoured - the mustard mash had such an enormous amount of mustard in it that after a few mouthfuls he couldn't taste anything at all.

I have no idea what is wrong with this chef's palate. Perhaps the two cigarettes that he smoked outside the restaurant (in full view of the lunchtime diners) in the space of an hour didn't help. Or perhaps he has some strange disorder which prevents him from tasting flavours which stop short of having to be labeled "industrial strength". Either way, judging from our experience he is most certainly in the wrong job.

I fear I will run out of adjectives if I try to further express my feelings for the Glass House. I sincerely hope that the management realises sooner rather than later that their restaurant can be as pretty and as friendly as it likes; ultimately it will be judged on it's food. And at the moment, that food is appalling.

Stay clear.