Best Restaurants In Cambridge

Cambridge – it’s a city that’s much more than simply a home for its world-famous university. It’s also home to some great people, too. Richard Attenborough was born in Cambridge. Olivia Newton John was born in Cambridge. Pink Floyd was formed in Cambridge. As well as being an educational powerhouse and petri dish for talent, Cambridge has also got some wonderful restaurants kicking about. From chewy udon noodles to sustainable small plates, there’s a lot going on in the Cambridge food scene.

Don’t feel like we’re biassed to the south, either. We’ve also written guides on where to eat in Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and a host of other excellent food cities all over the UK. This feature, however, is dedicated to the best restaurants in Cambridge. Bring an appetite and get exploring.

Who doesn’t love noodles? It’s not hard to see the appeal of tucking into a big old bowl of wriggly carbohydrates and that’s just one of the many reasons why noodles have become such a popular dish all across the globe. If you’re looking for one of the best restaurants in Cambridge to eat noodles then Noodles Plus+ on Mill Road is one of your best bets. Not only do they make fresh hand-pulled noodles but they also make their own dumplings in-house, too. That’s what the “Plus+” part stands for. Come for the noodles, stay for the xiao long bao.

24A Mill Road, Petersfield, Cambridge CB1 2AD

We know that Michelin stars aren’t the be-all and end-all of everything (or anything, for that matter) but in the case of Restaurant Twenty-Two, it’s a worthy sign of the restaurant’s prowess. Run by wife and husband team, Alex Olivier and Sam Carter, Restaurant Twenty-Two is a modern British restaurant camped out in a refurbed Victorian townhouse. The menu changes according to whatever fresh, seasonal produce the kitchen are able to get their hands on and the service is as warm and attentive as you’d expect from a high-end establishment. One of the best special occasion restaurants in Cambridge.

22 Chesterton Road, Cambridge CB4 3AX

Offering “a taste of African cuisine”, Eko Kitchen is a wonderful Nigerian restaurant on Norfolk Street that rightfully deserves its places on this list of the best restaurants in Cambridge. Not only is the service always warm and amiable but the food is out of this world. Everything from the moin moin and gizzards to the curry goat and egusi are all cooked to perfection. Just make sure you don’t even try to claim that Ghanaians make the best jollof rice.

8 Norfolk Street, Cambridge CB1 2LF

There aren’t a huge number of Jordanian restaurants in the UK (let alone Cambridge) but if Little Petra is anything to go by then there should be just as many Jordanian restaurants around as French restaurants. This family-run restaurant moved into a bigger premises in 2023 and the kitchen has only gone from strength to strength since. The hot and cold mezze selections are full of the classics of Middle Eastern cooking you’ll already be familiar with but deep cuts like marinated lamb tongue and yakhanah dajaaj are just as worth exploring.

60 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 1LA

A lovely Keralan restaurant nestled on Newnham Road, Rice Boat stands out in the Cambridge dining scene. The flavours of dishes such as lamb ularthu and alleppy fish curry are fragrant, aromatic, and – if you ask the kitchen to ramp up the spice levels – unforgivingly hot. The lamb and chicken are both halal certified and Rice Boat is a certified hit. Jacob and Rita Abraham are the brains (and heart) behind Rice Boat. The Abrahams and their team have been preparing great Keralan food since 2005. Long may they continue doing that.

37 Newnham Road, Cambridge CB3 9EY

Run by the eponymous Scott Holden, Scott’s All Day is a neighbourhood pizzeria on Mill Road that lays a strong claim to being the best pizzeria in Cambridge. Along with a host of sourdough pizzas (with toppings that range from Sicilian sausage to pineapple) and pastas, Scott’s All Day has recently started dabbling in Detroit-style pizza. Those thick square pies have a deep, crispy, chewy crust and come loaded with a generous amount of toppings. The interiors are as casual and friendly as the service. Scott’s is a joint you’ll be coming back to time and time again.

Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 2AZ

If you don’t like seafood, it’s best you scroll past this entry. Fin Boys is undoubtedly one of the best restaurants in Cambridge but it’s a bit of a pointless place to visit if you’re not into the ocean’s bounty. Using only the freshest fish, sourced from independent day boats, Fin Boys champion some undersung catches in their restaurant and fish butchery. Because they depend on what’s swimming in the sea, the menu changes often. What you can always expect, however, is for whatever they’ve sourced to be cooked with the utmost care and attention. Think dishes like hay smoked chalk stream trout with shiitake-ginger shoyu or blow torched mackerel with pea purée and swordfish bacon. Clever cooking. Delicious cooking.

2 Mill Road, Petersfield, Cambridge, CB1 2AD

Every city needs a good Turkish restaurant. Efes is Cambridge’s. This no-frills eatery specialises in using its oçakbasi to the best of its ability, sending out smoky skewers of lamb kofta and shish kebab. You can even pair those big hunks of meat with big, bold Turkish wines to really cap off the Anatolian eating experience. The prices are affordable, too, making Efes great bang for your buck. It’s extremely difficult to leave here hungry but make sure to leave some room for dessert. The baklava’s good.

80 King Street, Cambridge CB1 1LN

Bread? Meat? Simple. The premise of Bread & Meat isn’t hard to understand, and it’s not hard to see why this Benet Street spot is always popular. The sandwiches here (which are just as capable of being a dinner as they are a lunch) are made using high-quality roast meats and jammed into freshly baked bread. It doesn’t really get much more complicated than that. My personal favourite is the porchetta, which comes stuffed with British pork middle and crackling with a zag of fresh salsa verde. If you don’t fancy a sando, you can get your meat served as part of a poutine with cheese curds and homemade gravy instead. It’s a lot, in all the right ways.

4 Bene’t Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN

Navadhanya is a contemporary Indian restaurant on Newmarket Road which you should eat at. There’s not much more to say than that, really. It’s comfortably been one of the best restaurants in Cambridge since it opened its doors in 2014 and the quality hasn’t dipped in that near-decade of service. The seven-course tasting menu is a nice way to put your faith in the hands of the chefs and let them show you what they do best. That being said, you can’t go wrong with a simple order of a curry and beer from the a la carte. Everything’s gravy.

70 Newmarket Road, Cambridge, CB5 8DZ

Right, so MJP @ The Shepherds is comfortably the strangest named restaurant on this list of the best restaurants in Cambridge. But don’t let that put you off. Mark Poynton’s restaurant at Fen Ditton is a venue serving some seriously delicious and interesting plates of food. The menu alters according to what’s good but the £80pp tasting menu is your best bet to see the depth and breadth of the skill on offer. It’s also a bargain, too, considering the quality. If you fancy staying the night, they’ve even got rooms attached that you can slump into while you’re drifting away into a pleasant food coma.

5 High Street, Fen Ditton, Cambridge CB5 8ST

If it’s an efficient lunch or dinner you’re after, you could do a hell of a lot worse than Yippee Noodle Bar. In fact, you probably couldn’t do much better if you tried. This cosy spot on King Street is one that’ll give the best noodles in London a run for their money. Expect bouncy wok-fried noodles (coated in Yippee’s signature ‘Yippee Sauce’), thick and wriggly udon, flat rice noodles, thin rice noodles, and soft wheat noodles to all make an appearance. Making repeat visits until you figure out your favourite style of noodle is a must.

7-9 King Street, Cambridge, CB1 1LH

Housed in what used to be a pub called the Coach and Horses (I’m sure that 50% of the pubs in England are called the Coach and Horses), Sole & Duck is a family-run British Asian fusion restaurant. What does that mean in terms of the food? It means you can order things like crispy aromatic duck burgers – featuring hoisin sauce and treacle bacon in a brioche bun – or the fish of the day with seaweed crushed potatoes, prawns, tomato sambal sauce. If you’re even vaguely intrigued by the sound of that, you should try to book a table ASAP. They’re getting pretty hard to come by. And the more ‘Best Restaurants In Cambridge’ listicles that this gaff gets posted on, the harder it’ll be to get a table. Sorry about that.

18 High Street, Trumpington, Cambridge, CB2 9LP

If you’re an old man pub purist, then Pint Shop might not be for you. The focus here is primarily on craft beers, on beers that are made from smaller producers and designed to be “interesting” as well as drinkable. You can still find all classic pub snacks like pork scratching but they’ll come served with apple and jalapeño ketchup. Other “snacks” include Nocellara olives and French rosemary almonds. Yeah, Pint Shop’s that sort of gaff. But it’s great. The beers are well-selected and the food is pretty damn good, too. The flatbread kebabs can come stuffed with either pomegranate and sumac chicken, tabbouleh fritters, or deep-fried XO pork belly. They’re all as good as they sound, and the perfect thing to eat alongside a citrussy IPA. Oh, and the Sunday roast slaps.

10 Peas Hill, Cambridge, CB2 3PN

Sustainability is a real hot-button issue in dining right now and nowhere does that concept justice in Cambridge like vanderlyle. Headed by chef Akex Rushmer and restaurant manager Alice Park, vanderlyle utilises local, ethically sourced ingredients in all of their dishes. It’s pretty heavy on the plants but even the most hardcore meatheads will be hard-pressed to find much fault with what comes off the pass. It’s vegetable cooking done right. And a lovely space to sit back, relax, and enjoy yourself.

38 Mill Road, Petersfield, Cambridge, CB1 2AD

Zhongua Traditional Snacks has got one of those menus that deserves to be in an art gallery dedicated to good taste. The portions are generous, the quality is high, and you’ll not find a more comforting bowl of noodle soup in the city. Bobbing with tender braised beef, the noodles retain the right amount of bite and, priced at just £7, you won’t find a better bargain around. The dumplings are also worth getting to grips with and ordering at least one item from the ‘specials’ would be my biggest piece of advice. You will not leave ZTS disappointed. You will leave feeling full.

13 Norfolk Street, Cambridge, CB1 2LD

Gelato counts as a meal. I don’t care what you say. Having a scoop of peanut butter fudge for your main and a scoop of white chocolate and raspberry cake for dessert is a perfectly healthy and balanced meal. All jokes aside, Jack’s Gelato is an incredible ice cream shop that’s an important part of the local community. The difference between Jack’s Gelato and all other standard scoops is in the skill used to make the creamiest, fluffiest gelato – I’m not denying that – but it’s also down to the quality of the ingredients used. All the milk and cream comes from The Estate Dairy, the chocolate is sourced from Pump Street Chocolate, the honey is from bee hives in Cambridge, and the coffee beans are sourced from artisan producers throughout the country. Lovely.

6 Bene't Street, Cambridge, CB2 3QN

There’s two Fitzbillies in Cambridge. Both of them are worth hitting up for their sweet and squidgy Chelsea buns alone. The newer Bridge Street joint offers more takeaway options (we’re talking breakfast baps and hefty focaccia sandwiches) while the original Trumpington Street space is more suited to a sit-down session. The Full English is as good as you’d expect but, if you’ve got a sweet tooth, then the Chelsea bun French toast needs to be on your radar. Served with crispy bacon and an extra dash of bun syrup (I know) it’s one of the best ways to start your day in Cambridge.

51-52 Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1RG

The food of the Maghreb is rich, delicious, and incredibly varied. Bedouin is a popular restaurant on Mill Road (which is, pound for pound, Cambridge’s best road for eating) and a top spot for filling your boots with fluffy couscous and gorgeous tagines. The slow-cooked lamb shank is a real hearty number that’ll reset your palate with its balanced mix of spices. Nothing at Bedouin is too spicy, and nothing is even vaguely under-seasoned. It’s all just right. Ask any locals what their favourite restaurants in Cambridge are and I can guarantee that Bedouin will come up in conversation at some point.

98-100 Mill Road, Cambridge CB1 2BD