We’d packed up the car for Kendal Calling and decided to meet our friends in Clifton, just outside of the Kendal Calling site. There were two reasons for this. Firstly to get on the road and do something. Secondly, I had a Geocache I wanted to find.
I’d done my research and worked out where a certain cache was. Street viewed it and spotted a nice pub to meet up at.
Geocaching
The geocache I wanted to find was hidden at the location of the last battle in England! We open a gate into a historical penned area and while Catherine read the information board I burrowed my fingers into the nooks and crannies of the grated opening to a well.
Next the penned area was a field full of cows. Cows are very inquisitive and although huge can be very gentle too. This one came over to offer us a clue to the geocache.
George and Dragon – Clifton
As we were driving down towards Clifton, Catherine commented that she “didn’t want to go to some grotty pub”. To which is Retorted with “It won’t be grotty, it has Michelin stars!”. I had no idea if this was true, but it was more likely to be a lie as i had just made it up to knock back her statement about it being grotty before seeing it.
When we pulled into the car park there were a few cars parked up. The building had a cute country cottage feel to it, but was anything but grotty. It was spotlessly presented. As we stepped in we were met at a reception desk, where they asked if we had booked a table (we hadn’t). They took our name and showed us the 2 remaining tables to choose from.
As we sat down the waitress mentioned there would be a delay as there had been a few people just turned up, but Mike at the bar will be out to take your drinks orders. It became clear that this was more hotel / restaurant than bar. The name and outside suggested bar, but internally it was ran like a hotel.
Mike came over and took our drinks orders. As I was driving I ordered coke, as Cat wasn’t she ordered a bottle of wine!
The food menu was locally sourced, fresh produce and meat. I was tempted to go steak or grill, but opted for a lighter lunch bite with the Eggs Royale. Cat chose Charlie’s Shorthorn Beef Burger. This was to be our last decent meal for a few days, as it would be pot noodles and food wagons at the festival.
Cat’s burger was served with Chips, Onion Rings, a Salad and little pot of tomato chutney. For a “pub meal” it was well presented and very tasty. Event the crisped bread in the salad was full of flavour.
It had been ages since I’d had poached eggs and when I spotted the option on the menu I took it. I did think hard about it before ordering as it was either the Eggs Royale or a steak. Even when the waitress was taking our order i flicked between the two.
I wolfed it down a little too quickly, but it was so so tasty. The bernaise sauce, smoked salmon and poached eggs were perfect. It was the correct choice.
Toilets
It appears I’m getting a reputation with food and toilets. They do sort of go hand in hand! However something caught my eye as I wandered into the gents toilets. George’s was written on the male toilets.
I then wondered, surely they didn’t… yes they did. The Ladies was labelled Dragon’s. In my mind this is a quirky sense of humour. Totally love that they’ve made a feature out of the mundane facilities that are often just functional.
Don’t worry I didn’t photograph inside the toilets, but everything was spotless as per the rest of the pub.
I had a quick chat to Mike as we paid up our bill and over the Kendal Calling weekend he said that around 60% of their visitors would be related to the festival (even though your diverted away from Clifton). As I type this up Catherine is looking at next years tickets and if we go, we will be coming back here for our last supper.
You can book an overnight stay at the George and Dragon via their website.
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