Review:

Avanti is a real find! A very stylish restaurant serving excellent food in a friendly manner in Kirkby Lonsdale, among some stunning scenery on the border of Cumbria and North Yorkshire. It’s upstairs from a bar and has a small ‘gallery’ opening above the bar so it can be very noisy and unpleasant when the bar is busy. On a wet Sunday night in October it was just fine. The first thing you notice is the artwork – on the walls and on the surfaces. Then the cutlery (Sea Drift by Robert Welch). Then the crockery – including sensationally shaped bowls and saucers, all from a local Cumbrian pottery.

Review:
OVERHYPED & OVERPRICED. First visit to this place after reading many good reviews. I booked for 6.30pm being told that they fully booked on that night, only two other people entered the place until 8pm! The reviewers are taken with the place's setting (Beautiful Lake District) rather than what's on the plate. Described as a 'Gastropub' it just another overpriced restaurant pretentious menu which promises more than it delivers. Much emphasis is placed on local sourced ingredients, fine if you can cook, but the Chef seems unable to have grasped the basics of how to make basic sauces. My starter Moules Marinaire was ruined by the sauce lacking in both taste & texture. Main course Fillet Steak (medium) was drier than Ghandi's Flip Flop! The Roast veg consisted of 3 tiny Roast Spuds 3 RAW Carrots and an insipid blanched Courgette, I requested Mustard and was informed that none was available in any shape or form. The Fillet Steak main course was £22.50 West End Prices! I wrote to them asking if the lack of Mustard was an oversight or the Chef's philosophy I am still awaiting a reply 2 months after.