Having been to The Dore fairly recently, I decided to have a look online at the menu for its older sister restaurant in Hathersage, the Bank House. The Bank House is situated in the imposing former NatWest bank on the main road. I was delighted and somewhat astonished to find a gluten free bao bun starter on the menu! So we decided, although the menu was a little similar to the Dore, to book in for our next meal out.

Spoiler: I found out pretty quickly when I expressed my excitement about the bao bun that it’s incorrectly marked on the menu, so we started off with some inevitable disappointment. Whilst somewhat concerning/infuriating (they really need to update the menu or just put a line through the GF) the waiter clearly knew his stuff and was able to advise. I consoled myself with a locally made gin from Hathersage, called Shivering Mountain, which was very palatable.

The restaurant is upstairs and we passed through a fairly bustling, swish bar area to get to it. This isn’t your typical Peak District village pub – it’s got much more of an upmarket feel with glamorous decor and playful fittings with trees and birds giving a nod to nature and the Peak District setting, perhaps.

We settled on having a few of the “small plates” to share rather than starters and mains. The menu is quite versatile in that the small plates can be starters or tapas, and there are also salads, sharing boards, main courses and sides. Plenty of dishes are marked GF or GFO (modifiable) so there was lots to choose from. It’s quite an eclectic offering, with European classics such as steak, risotto and patatas bravas alongside Asian dishes like Korean fried chicken and those (blasted) bao buns.

Enough about those though… we decided to go for bavette steak with a salsa verde and a peppercorn sauce, halloumi fries with sweet chilli dip, the Korean fried chicken, vegan fried cauliflower, smoky patatas bravas and mixed greens from the side options.

Everything came out relatively closely together, even though I was advised it might take longer due to having only one gluten free fryer, and it all tasted great. The Korean sauces were just the right level of spice for me and the steak nicely pink. We perhaps shouldn’t have had so many deep fried dishes, but the richness didn’t stop us polishing it all off.

We managed to find space to squeeze in a dessert, and although only sorbet is marked on the menu as gluten free, the waiter advised several of the dishes could be modified. We ended up both choosing the same thing, so below are pictures of the ‘rhubarb and custard’ in its full glory (right) and the gluten free version (left). Mine was missing the rhubarb cake (understandable) but also the creme patissiere, which is a shame as that would be very easy to make GF. However, the rhubarb and strawberry mouse was lovely, and there seemed to be extras of sherbert and fruity emulsions to make up for the missing items. It was a perfectly satisfying and light dessert.

The moral of the story is undoubtedly if something on a menu looks too good to be true, check it out.

Bank House
Main Road, Hathersage, Hope Valley S32 1BB