George (15 December 2007)

Four of us ate together, to celebrate a birthday and chose the fixed menu with additional cheese course and coffees to follow. My guests chose two wines, which were very good. The red was a Salice Salentino 1999 and the second a Pinot Grigio from Bolzano. Overall, the food was excellent. We started with two pieces of salami, apiece, drizzled with olive oil and bearing a sprig of herb. The main course was fish on a butter bean stew. The dessert was a panne cotto with an excellent chocolate sauce. The cheese course with port was good and the waitresses, very attentive. Sounds good doesn't it? Except that the price was an astonishing £183 for four people. That’s not for the faint-hearted, and in fact I would class the restaurant as greatly over-priced for what it being offered. Londoners might expect to pay that in the West End but not in Cambridge. A minor point was that excessive cooking smells wafted upstairs from the kitchen and was rather overbearing. We dined on a Friday night, and were one of three tables. Slow trade for a Friday night? I think that might reflect the excessive prices.

Gargantua (30 April 2007)

My wife and I went to Cotto this week end. This is an unusual restaurant: firstly, the menu is set for the week end (see their website) so that everybody eats the same dishes. It is well worth checking the menu before booking! Secondly, most ingredients come from local organic suppliers. Although some people may deride this, I find organic food has better taste/texture, which is why I choose to go there.

The food was very good and the portions were just the right size that one didn't feel cheated or about to burst. Although deceptively simple, our three-course meal was full of aroma and flavours. It started with a terrine of pork and chicken with some apple chutney and some home-made toasted sourdough. All good and could have been better had the bread been served untoasted. The main was an excellent Cornish sea bass with asparagus on a champagne foam. All cooked to perfection, the fish was mouth-watering.

Finally, while I opted for the cheese (all tasty British, cow and goat’s) which came with sourdough and a very unnecessary chutney, my wife chose the chocolate torte with Guinness ice cream. The torte was delicious, high cocoa-grade and melted in the mouth. On our next outing in Cambridge, Cotto may be our choice.