Saffron Walden, British, Modern - Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: Jamie Oliver’s parents Trevor & Sally retired from this sixteenth-century village gastropub after 44 years in November 2020, so it has recently changed hands: it’s now a part of the 12-strong Chestnut group of pubs. The Olivers always ran the Cricketers well, but regulars say “(even in the tepee) the food is possibly up a notch”.

2025 Review: In a “lovely setting” in the village made famous by the poet of its name, this pub was taken over after our survey by Pascky Benedetto and his wife Laura, who moved in from the nearby Plough at Coton with a new offer including £6 house negronis and a signature carbonara with guanciale – although the menu is by no means all-Italian. We have removed the rating for this year – but reports please!

This “reliable local favourite” (a former coaching inn on the road from London) is favoured for its “good food” and “interesting wine list from a very knowledgeable owner” .

“Just perfect” – Alex Rushmer creates exquisite meals focused on fruit and vegetables from ethical Cambridgeshire farmers (with no meat or fish): “for veggie food, you can’t beet this place (geddit!)”. There’s a no-choice multi-course tasting menu paired with matching wines or a flight of house-produced soft drinks, and bookings open at midday on the first Tuesday of each month – you have to act fast, they invariably sell out.

Overlooking Parker’s Piece, this attractive venue within the revamped University Arms “works as well for dinner as for breakfast, which is rare in hotel dining rooms”, and chef Tristan Welch showcases local East Anglian produce on his British bistro menu. Ratings are capped, though, by a failure to escape the middle ground (critics feel “they don’t quite bring it off here and I don’t know why”).

2023 Review: “Focused on simple dishes, with excellent ingredients, all elevated by sharp cooking” – the year-old grill at this new Graduate Hotel (named for the previous hotel on this site) wins positive feedback in our annual diners’ poll (but too limited for a rating).

2024 Review: “A fantastic selection of beers (and gins)” makes the popular former home of E. M. Forster “a very useful and welcome gastro-choice in central Cambridge, where other options are not great”. The food is “reliable” and “decently done but nothing earth-shattering”. Top Tip – “stay downstairs: the upstairs dining room can have a chilly ambience”.

“Gorgeous decor, reminiscent of the London theatreland original with something of an Americanised rework”, makes this notably popular branch of the national chain by all accounts a “reliable and stylish destination for a family meal” – “the food is absolutely fine: nothing to complain about, if also unremarkable”.

Since 1998, Daniel Clifford has owned and been at the stoves of this attractive Victorian villa, which occupies a unique situation with the greenery of Midsummer Common on one side, and the River Cam at the rear, complete with a picturesque backdrop of college boathouses that line the opposite bank (although the water is not visible from its conservatory dining room). In 2004 he won his second Michelin star, and this remains one of the country’s most ambitious kitchens. There are a variety of menus, with the main duo of tasting menus that are always available being multi-course affairs at £170 per person and £280 per person. Reports here have always been consistent with its reputation, if at various periods including much hesitancy about the level of expense involved. This is one of those periods, with the volume of feedback this year significantly down on the last and a mixture of highs and lows.

“Brilliant, bustling little bistro” from Holly & Dan Fancett, serving “excellent and inventive French dishes” that combine “beautiful use of seasonal ingredients with great attention to precise cooking”. Meals are “well priced”, with lunch at £30.50 for two courses, £36 for three and a “more ambitious” dinner at £47 for two courses, £62 for three. Top Menu Tip – “moules marinières come shelled in a delightful piquant/creamy sauce”.

2025 Review: “Fresh clean flavours, beautifully prepared and presented” are the distinguishing feature of the modern British menu at this two-year-old project in the former premises of long-serving Italian restaurant Don Pasquale. Founders Bill Brogan and his partner Jinzhao Li last year re-launched the basement wine bar as a pan-Asian restaurant.

From Alex Olivier & Sam Carter of Restaurant 22 (two doors down), this June 2025 newcomer is a new modern bistro. It aims to be a tad more relaxed than their mothership – maintaining high quality, with dishes emanating from an open kitchen, but in a less ambitious vein. Launch menus include the likes of Tempura monkfish with lemon, ginger and kombu; Norfolk salt marsh lamb rump with green sauce; and Peach and almond crumble with meadowsweet custard for dessert. The lunch set menu is £45 per person, and the dinner set menu is £65 per person (£75 per person at weekends). It opened too late for any feedback in our annual diners’ poll, but a July 2025 review from The Telegraph’s William Sitwell was full of praise, judging it “seriously sublime – the cooking without fault, delivering well-balanced dishes and the finest cheffing nicely short of too many knobs on top”.