Disappointment at Carsington

I said I would mainly be making positive comments about places to shop and eat. Sadly I feel the need to make a negative one.

Last week we went to Carsington Water (Google Map) down in Derbyshire. We have sometimes eaten down in the courtyard cafe at the Visitors Centre - quite nice burgers, but a bit cold to sit outside in early December - so we went up to the Mainsail Restaurant. There wasn't much on the menu that we fancied, but that isn't really a critisism, and we went for the Steak and Kidney Pie (me) and the Leg of Lamb (Hilary). I will say that they scored points for the meal arriving hot and on hot plates - many places serve a hot meal on barely warm plates. The pie was nicely presented and the flavour was to my liking. But we were both disappointed with the meat. Mine could have been trimmed better and cooked a little longer, and Hilary found her lamb to be a bit on the chewy side and with a bit too much 'scrag'.

A pity really. We have eaten there before, but they let themselves down this week.

Having walked out to Stone's Island (its not really an island) and up to the Wildlife Centre Hide we needed warming up and we went back to the Mainsail for coffee. The latte was good and my minced tart was excellent - so they made up a bit of ground before we came away.