7 Best Restaurants in Cambridge, East Anglia

Beside the River Cam on the edge of Midsummer Common, this gray-brick 19th-century villa holds a two–Michelin star restaurant set in a comfortable conservatory. Fixed-price menus for lunch and dinner (with five to eight courses) present innovative dishes that place a focus on seasonal, often local, ingredients. Choices might include freshwater prawn with gazpacho mousse or sauteed duck liver and conte cheese. Service is both informal and informative. If you don't want to pay the eye-watering cost of dinner here, come for lunch, which is around half the price at £150 per person.

Part of a Scottish chain that harvests its own oysters, this airy, casual place across from the Fitzwilliam Museum is deservedly popular. The seafood is fresh and well prepared, served in a traditional setting with a modern charm. The menu changes seasonally, but the occasionally offered Bradan Rost smoked salmon is a real treat; served cold, it's flavored with Scotch whiskey, giving it a uniquely malty, rich taste. The restaurant is also open for breakfast.

This 600-year-old inn is home to one of the city's oldest pubs, making it a good stop for an afternoon pint of real ale and bowl of doorstop-sized potato wedges. Watch for the low beams.

Pretty stained-glass windows separate this sophisticated little restaurant from bustling Chesterton Road. The setting, in a terrace of houses, is low-key, but the food is creative and eye-catching. The fixed-price menu changes monthly and includes dishes like Australian winter truffle with Parmesan and Nidderdale lamb with smoked aubergine. For dessert, try the coconut parfait with chili sauce if it's available.

Across the river from Magdalene College, this popular waterfront bar and grill serves delicious steak, burgers, and pies, plus specialties such as lobster mac and cheese or salmon steak with molasses and spices. There's an extensive cocktail menu as well. Try a Frisky Vixen (rum with pineapple juice, lychee, and passion fruit) or head up to the roof terrace for a glass of champagne. When dining, perhaps leave room for a classic sticky toffee pudding for dessert.

This charming, intimate restaurant is a local favorite. It's near an uncompromisingly busy intersection, but the friendliness of the staff and classic bistro food more than make up for it. Typical mains include Cajun swordfish with green bean salad or Beef Wellington. Ask to be seated in the lovely walled garden if the weather's fine.

This early-19th-century pub and restaurant in a thatched cottage has an elegant dining space in the conservatory and more casual tables in the airy bar. Sourcing of ingredients is taken seriously here—the menu lists not only the suppliers but specific reasons for choosing them—and this is all put to good use in Modern British dishes with hints of the Mediterranean. Start with squid ink arancini, then move on to pork T-bone or a fresh catch of the day from the fish board. The long wine list is predominantly Italian, but there are also some good New World choices. Madingley is 5 miles west of Cambridge, about a 10-minute taxi ride.