Mark Birchall, the chef who built Moor Hall in Lancashire into one of Britain's most decorated dining destinations, has opened Croft — a 26-cover lakeside restaurant on the southern shore of Windermere that he describes as the most personal project of his career.
The restaurant, which took three years to develop, occupies a converted 18th-century farm building that Birchall and his team have spent the past 18 months restoring. The approach to the kitchen is deliberately different to Moor Hall: a shorter menu of eight to ten courses, a tighter focus on the immediate landscape, and a service style that Birchall characterises as "more like being cooked for by someone who knows you."
A different scale, a different pace
Croft seats 26 across two rooms, with an additional chef's counter facing an open kitchen. The kitchen team numbers seven — significantly smaller than the brigade at Moor Hall — and Birchall intends to cook at every service rather than directing from a distance.
"Moor Hall taught me what's possible at scale," he told The Mise ahead of opening. "Croft is about asking what's possible when you remove scale entirely. When you're cooking for 26 people, you can be extraordinarily precise. You can adjust every dish during service in a way that simply isn't achievable when you're doing 90 covers."
The menu changes according to what Birchall describes as "a loose seasonal logic" — not rigidly month by month, but responding to what the gardens, the surrounding farms, and the local fishing community can supply at any given moment. Dishes from the first menu include cured Arctic char with aged Herdwick fat and wood sorrel, a tart of Goosnargh duckling liver with local honey and thyme, and a long-cooked shoulder of Lakeland lamb served over three courses.
The location
The farm building that houses Croft sits on a privately held plot that Birchall acquired in 2022 with backing from a small group of private investors. The restoration was carried out by a local architectural practice working closely with the Lake District National Park Authority, retaining the original stone structure while opening the kitchen side of the building with a glazed wall facing the water.
The site includes a kitchen garden that will supply herbs, leaves and edible flowers through the growing season, and Birchall has established supply relationships with three fell farms within fifteen miles of the restaurant for meat, dairy and eggs.
Bookings and pricing
Croft opens Wednesday to Sunday for dinner only, with a single sitting at 7pm. The tasting menu is priced at £185 per person, with a matched drinks flight at £110. A limited afternoon experience — described as "a walk, a farm visit and lunch" — will launch in May, priced at £225.
Reservations are available via the restaurant's own booking system at croftwindermere.co.uk.
The opening adds another significant destination to what has become a remarkably strong cluster of serious dining in the north of England — a shift that shows little sign of reversing.