Rumours, Bowness on Windermere

==Rumours Mediterranean Restaurant==

We discovered this little restaurant whilst visiting the Lakes back in June. It’s situated on the corner of St Martins Place , a stones throw from Lake Windermere .

We were attracted to this restaurant for a couple of reasons one we could sit and watch the world go by, because of its location and two the menu looked appealing.

Rumours is a Mediterranean style restaurant serving everything you would expect from such a restaurant – pasta, pizzas, meat dishes, fish dishes and of course a vegetarian option.

Although we had a ‘sit down’ meal I also saw people popping in to collect ‘take-outs’.

The Service

As soon as we entered the restaurant we were greeted by one of the Italian waitresses who immediately found us a nice table in the window and then left us to peruse the menu and wine list. First impressions – good.

Both of the waitresses that were on duty when we visited (it’s a small restaurant) were very pleasant and friendly.

The Menu

A good range of food to suit most pallets (providing you like Italian/Mediterranean foods). Some I felt were a little over priced, but we were in the middle of a tourist area, so I guess that’s to be expected.

The starters ranged in price from £2.95 – 5.95 and offered things like olives, homemade soup, garlic mushrooms, beef and buffalo (slices of beef tomatoes and buffalo mozzarella). I had the garlic mushrooms, which were really nice and I can highly recommend them.

There is also a very varied salad menu for those who are watching the calories prices ranging from £5.45 - £6.50. I didn’t opt for a salad option – I was on holiday!

A choice of garlic breads – plain, tomato and herb, mozzarella cheese and herb (I can recommend this one!) and tomato and chilli

As this was run by Italians there was, as you would expect a very good range of pasta and pizza dishes. Here is a very brief overview of the pasta and pizza dishes on offer at the restaurant:

Pasta
Spaghetti Bolognaise
Pasta Carbonara
Homemade Lasagne
Creamy Pesto Tagliatelle (v)
Poached Fresh Salmon

Prices ranging from £9.95 – 11.95

Pizzas

Margherita (v)
Al Funghi (v)
Vegetarian (v)
Americano
Mediterranean
Hawaiian
Milano
Inferno (very hot)
Veneto
Pollo
Pescatora
Bolognaise

In addition to all of these lovely dishes (and they did look and smell lovely as they were coming out of the kitchen). The restaurant offered some lovely chicken, lamb and beef dishes. All meat dishes came with new potatoes and seasonal vegetables or salad and fries.

My other half had the Fillet Steak served the peppercorn sauce and he tells me it was delicious (£16.95).

The portions sizes were very pleasing and when my homemade lasagne arrived my first thought was ‘I’ll never manage this’. But I struggled through and it was lovely.

Wine List

They had quite a good wine list and I can recommend the RH Phillips White Zinfandel - California £13.50, but if rose isn’t your thing then there are lots of decent whites and reds to be found on the wine list.

Of course as this is a licensed premises you can also get beers, lagers, spirits, soft drinks etc.

Car Parking

We popped down from our hotel in the car (because it was raining!) and I can report that the car parking wasn’t very good. We had to drive round for quite a while before eventually finding a great spot down the side street, which was literally a 50 second walk from the restaurant.

How to get there

For Sat Nav purposes:

Rumours
St Martins Square
Bowness on Windermere
Cumbria
LA23 3EF

Telephone: 015394 44382

Overall Opinion

A lovely little restaurant and if you can get a table in the window all the better as it’s a great place to watch the world go by and is literally a 2 minute walk from the lake.

The staff were very friendly and the restaurant offered a good selection of starters, mains and desserts.

The background music was very pleasant (Gypsy Kings if I remember correctly – it is a Mediterranean restaurant afterall) and not too loud, so you didn’t have to shout over it.

An enjoyable dining experience and a restaurant we would definitely go to again when we are next in the Lakes.