The Open Guide to Cambridge

Now (November 2008) reopened after the August 2008 fire, and as of December 2008 it now also controls the Bun Shop across the road.

A restaurant on King Street which also sells wine to take away. They operate a no bookings policy.

They offer a range of sandwiches and wraps at lunchtimes (Mon–Sat), all priced between £5.50 (spinach, mushroom, and blue cheese crepe wrap) and £7 (Thai spiced prawn sandwich) (photo of sandwich menu). Otherwise, "small plates" cost between £5 and £8, and "large plates" between £9 and £17. You can view the full menu on their website.

They offer a rather small range of cocktails, and a couple of beers; Ruddles County (£2.80/pint) and Old Speckled Hen (£2.90/pint). I don't know if you can go in just for a drink, or if you need to order food as well.

(This place used to be a pub, the Cambridge Arms.)

Dec 2010 / Jan 2011: Made two visits for food within a couple of months of each other. Both visits were intended to test out the Sunday lunches, but during the first visit, my companion and I were distracted by the specials on the board:

For starters, I had the seared scallops and my partner had the parsnip soup; for mains, I had the venison, and she had the goose. The food was marvellous, especially the use of smoked ingredients - I went out and bought a stove top smoker for my sister for Christmas after this in the hope that I could bully her into smoking cauliflower for me so that I might replicate the puree.

The second time we visited, we managed to focus and order the Sunday platter. When it eventually came, the vegetables were cold and uncooked. When we commented about this, the vegetables were wisked away, and we sat there, with the (not very tender) beef cooling, while they reheated them. Very unsatisfactory; when we complained, we were told 'Sorry,' and that was that. The cost of the platter was around £13.00 per person, and you can get a much more satisfactory Sunday lunch for half that in the Weatherspoons across the river.

We later found out that the chef had changed, and more recently, that the chef had been changed again. This restaurant probably needs a repeat visit to see if this one bad experience was as the result of a faulty chef installation - I suspect it was. However, the staff need to be empowered to properly recompense disgruntled customers in the case of errant-cheffery.

See also:

• Another Food Blog reviews: Nov 2007(1), Nov 2007(2), Feb 2008, Mar 2008, Jun 2008, Jul 2008, Dec 2009, Jun 2010, Nov 2010, May 2011
• Culinary Cravings review (with photos)
• Another Culinary Cravings review (with more photos)