Saffron Walden 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”.

This gastropub from the local Cambscuisine group, in an affluent commuter village south of Cambridge, is “worth a detour for its lovely garden and good-quality food from friendly waiting staff”. (The pub is named for its flamboyant owner from the 1970s, ‘Squire Kim Joseph Hollick De La Taste Tickell’).

2023 Review: Limited but positive feedback on this successful vegan, which shifted to this new location in a new development near the station in 2021. Worth remembering if you are catching a train and a place of pilgrimage for those who eat meat-free. It’s a rare Cambridge eatery that has spawned openings in the capital (see also).

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.

2022 Review: “Consistently excellent burgers from a small fleet of vintage Citroën vans” – painted bright yellow and red – ensure this small local brand has high visibility around Cambridge. You can also sample the burgers from a more conventional bricks and mortar site in Wheeler Street.

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”.

With “clever”, “good-quality Japanese food” – in particular the “excellent, if relatively expensive, sushi” – and “busy, competent service”, these “fun, stylish and friendly” Scandi-minimal venues are “always buzzing”. Founded in Copenhagen by a pair of Danish-Japanese brothers more than 30 years ago, the company came under new ownership in 2024 with big expansion plans, and unveiled two times F1 champion Fernando Alonso as a major shareholder in April 2025. Recent London openings include a “huge new site” in Islington and Battersea Power Station.

The “British classics (whitebait, Barnsley chop etc)” are “all fine” – and “given its prime tourist location, much better than you might expect” – at this “pleasant” spot opposite King’s College Chapel. But do try to grab a street-level table, rather than heading “downstairs to the dark and pokey basement”.

2022 Review: Ambitious and “exciting” Indian cuisine is on the menu at this Cambridge operation, which crossed the road into new premises in late 2021 (rendering obsolete complaints of “peeling wallpaper”). Reporters recommend choosing one of the tasting menus, which offer seven courses of standard, vegetarian or vegan dishes – “it meant that I tried dishes I wouldn’t normally choose and really opened up new flavours to me”.

“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.

“Great breakfasts, perfect pizzas and enough changes to keep it interesting” – the winning mix at Scott Holden’s bright and airy twelve-year-old on indie-minded Mill Road; it’s a real neighbourhood favourite, where the pies come thin-crust, Neapolitan-style, and vie for diners’ favours with the decadent ‘Bottomless Brunch’.

“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”.

2024 Review: This “buzzy” trio (with live jazz at its Gwydir Street branch) has grown over a dozen years since founder Simon Fraser returned to his hometown from Melbourne, bringing a taste for Antipodean coffee culture. “All three branches including their roastery in Shepreth offer excellent coffee and light food, but their bread is the main event – it’s world standard!”