| On a crossroads near Ambleside stands a 400-year-old pub and microbrewery, formerly Barngates Inn, now the Drunken Duck in honour of some Victorian ducks who passed out after beer leaked from a barrel into their feeding trough. There's nothing particularly prepossessing about the pub's cream-painted pebble-dash exterior, nor its red-patterned carpeted lobby; but the place is a gem. The rooms are comfortable, the food is great, the service smiling, and it feels luxurious without being pretentious. Rooms are light and unfussily furnished. The bathrooms are white-tiled, with soft, thick towels and bathrobes, and toiletries by Pure. Tea, with 'cake of the day', is included in the rate.
The main bar is everything you'd expect of a country pub: hunting prints on the walls, hops hanging from the beams, furniture dark with syrupy varnish, and a range of ales brewed on site and named after the pub's past pets. There's a restaurant next door, which is transformed in the evening - with candlelight, large vases of lilies and white tablecloths - into an elegant dining room. The menu draws on carefully sourced local produce: a salad of artichokes and Cumbrian air-dried ham for example, followed by duck breast with roasted shallots; or pork fillet marinated in ginger and served with robustly spiced black pudding. Desserts included an excellent pear tarte tatin, and waffles with Tag Lag ice cream (deliciously malty and flavoured with one of the pub's own beers). Superbly executed, the cooking is unpretentious, like the rooms, and all the better for it. Dinner à la carte about £25 a head. Standard Courtyard rooms from £120, includes English breakfast and afternoon tea. Visit www.drunkenduckinn.co.uk
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