Cambridge 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”.

This ex-pub is now a “civilised” dining room that’s top of the local subcontinentals; “subtle flavours” (it’s mercifully “not English Indian food”) distinguish the à la carte and seven-course tasting menu.

“Finally a reasonable place in central Cambridge”, right opposite the Great Gate of the namesake college. The interior is stylish and the menu, while “not large”, offers superior seafood and meat, plus “a good choice of wines by the glass or bottle”, helping it to become quite the foodie magnet since opening two years back.

“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”.

Yards from King’s, and with “lovely views” of the college chapel, this attractive, no-nonsense meat specialist continues to win enthusiastic all-round feedback; part of a nine-strong local chain, the owners are now crowdfunding to open two new sites.

A “very friendly” decade-old bistro that, albeit “very noisy”, wins praise for its “agreeable atmosphere” (especially in the pretty walled garden); the modern Anglo/Euro food doesn’t detract from a visit either.

Best known for their snub-nosed Citroën burger vans which pop up at various Cambridge locations, this two-man outfit now serves their highly rated burgers at a permanent two-storey venue beside the Corn Exchange.