Cambridgeshire Restaurant Guide

It has a very “pretty riverside setting” on the Cam in the midst of Midsummer Common, but that’s not why Daniel Clifford’s Victorian Villa is so often hailed as an “amazing destination”. It’s the “stunning cuisine from start to finish” which creates a “seriously top-notch eating experience” with the only option in the evening being an eight-course tasting menu. However, even fans acknowledge that it is decidedly “not cheap (call your bank manager first)”, and while for most diners “it’s well worth every penny”, there is a significant disgruntled minority for whom the final bill is “way over the top”.

Distinguished chef Hans Schweitzer moved his “always outstanding” restaurant into new purpose-built premises in the Gonville Hotel in 2017 – a “lovely new location” for food that’s “inspired, finely balanced and beautifully presented” and in a culinary style that’s “interesting but grounded in established harmonies and avoiding wackiness”. “It may on first look appear expensive, but it’s worth every penny”.

“To find a restaurant of this quality in Cambridge, let alone in this quiet rural village would make you jump for joy!” “Calvin Holland continues to use the best of local produce in his seasonal menus” producing cuisine that’s “not exotic, but it is fantastic”.

With its fortunes revived under the Huntsbridge Group of late, this “lovely old thatched building with sunny conservatory” joined the local, ever-growing Cambscuisine empire in January 2018; fans say it’s “back in business”, turning out “interesting and well-prepared” food.

The food at Master of Wine John Hoskins’s attractive ivy-sheathed townhouse hotel and bottle shop is “consistent and pleasant” enough, but it’s the “impressive wine list” which continues to really stand out, being “year on year outstanding”.

“Always reliable” and with a “bargain set menu”, this no-nonsense eatery, over two floors of a 19th century brick building, specialises in “delicious” meaty cuisine; “staff are eager to please”.