6 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—perhaps freshwater prawn with gazpacho mousse or sautéed duck liver and Comté cheese—that emphasize seasonal, often local, ingredients. Service is both informal and informative. If you don't want to pay the eye-watering cost of dinner here (£250 per person), come for lunch, which is £150 per person.

This charming, intimate local favorite is 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 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. Mind 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, with a fixed-price menu that changes monthly and includes dishes like Australian winter truffle with Parmesan or Nidderdale lamb with smoked aubergine. For dessert, try the coconut parfait with chili sauce if it's available. The restaurant only offers its full tasting menu (£145) for dinners and its short tasting menu (£110) for lunch.

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 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.