Nosh Cambridge — Restaurant in North Island

Nosh offers a fantastic ‘fine dining next-door’ experience.

Nosh has met and exceeded what I wanted for myself and the Cambridge community. Previously at this dining or quality level I felt Alpino and Alpha Street bistro was my only option in Cambridge. Now with Nosh there is an equally exciting dining experience just around the corner with an Eastern food twist.

Since opening a little over one week ago my family has been to Nosh for dinner twice. On both occasions on arrival at the restaurant the maître de has meet us at the door being professional, friendly, and warm. Whether it is the maître de or owners themselves I have always been greeted with a ‘want to please the customer’ attitude. I have sat both inside at larger shared tables (with beautifully upholstered and comfortable furniture) creating a warm social environment and and outside at more intimate ‘French bistro’ style settings for two creating an intimate ambience. On both visits I have not felt rushed and have been warmly treated.

On my visits to Nosh I have tried a myriad of dishes, both authentic Indian cuisine and alternative fusion options. Everything has been rich in flavour and perfectly spiced. Whilst at Nosh I’ve also tried cocktails and standard drinks on the menu which have been tasty and presented in beautiful glassware. However I have also asked for cocktails off the menu which to my delight been created on request to a high standard, and charged at a very fair price.

When opening Google reviews to generate my own I’ve been surprised by a handful of negative reviews/comments. One of the recurring negatively posed themes has been comments regarding the price. I don’t understand how it is not clear to these visiting patrons that Nosh has openly presented itself in the ‘fine dining cuisine’ category. If that is the case (which it is) then their prices are appropriate. I would say they are on par (both with price, quality/quanity, service and ambiance) with Alpino and Alpha Street bistro, which also both sit nicely in this ‘fining-dining’ category in Cambridge. A higher end dining experience, with high-quality food, seating, ambiance, beautiful presentation, etc comes at a higher price point - this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone… If you want a ‘large quantity for lower prices’ meal experience then go visit your local pub. However the food probably won’t be that much cheaper as the cost of food has risen so much and last few years.

However If you're wanting fine dining with ambience, tasty food & drinks and impeccable customer service, and you’re prepared to pay fine dining prices then Nosh is a fantastic experience that I...

We thought we’d try out the new place in town to support them but unfortunately it missed the beat from the moment we were seated.

Initially we were left with only a drink menu with a disappointing wine list. The options by the glass were average and unvaried. I made the decision on the Montepulciano (which is strange to see in a non-Italian restaurant) whilst my friend chose a rose that was on the menu and was served something else. After choosing what to drink before we’d seen a food menu - too bad if we’d wanted to pair our wine with our meal choice - we were confronted with a very unvaried and different menu to what was online. Unsure what to order we turned to their instagram page and pointed to a photo of a fish dish taken last week asking for that only to be told “that never made the menu”. Perhaps removing it from the current marketing campaign if you aren’t serving it would be a good idea! The selection for dairy free was almost non existent. I ended up having to settle for some mushy chicken skewer things and a garden salad that my 9 year old son could have made - not worth $14.99. My friend did say the better chicken was really lovely though.

We had a mash up of two wait staff. One was clearly more experienced than the other. I can see past inexperience though and this didn’t put me off. However, being told half way through our booking window that we had to leave our table because there was another booking was outrageous. We weren’t asked if we wanted another drink (I was all set to order a Negroni) and worse - there was no offer of a dessert menu let alone asking us if we wanted dessert (which we did). And then no bill. This normally isn’t an issue cause we weren’t worried about going to the counter, however the bar area was 2 people deep and we just stood there waiting with no offer of service and no one checking on us for 5 minutes. We easily could have walked out without paying at all.

All in all I think this place is confused with what it’s trying to be. Unfortunately, first impressions last and ours wasn’t a good one. The food and service were average. Wine list was terrible. And we had to buy dessert from the freshchoice next door after been thrown off our table without the offer of dessert and coffee/another drink. The only saving grace of the evening - I made myself the negroni I was waiting for after my meal when I got home to wash away the bizarre subpar experience...

Overall experience was horrible. First of all they thought it was appropriate to seat my 3 year old at a high table, sitting on a barstool. I requested to change to a lower table and made the move to a nearby table which was much safer. The menu is grossly overpriced and quite limited. We ordered butter chicken, kids bolognaise and a $79 steak. I requested medium rare. It took ONE HOUR for our food to come, other tables nearby that were seated before us, one of them was a much larger party of 8 (we were 4ppl) had their mains before us. I asked about the food and it eventually came. My son’s food came out the same time as ours which meant he waited for his food for an hour - not good enough. The food that came was abysmal. The butter chicken ($35) was a tiny portion and the sauce was split, they forgot an order of naan and my medium rare, $79 steak that I waited an hour for, came out rare. Inedible for me, so my husband ate it because his butter chicken was inedible. The kids bolognaise had hardly any meat, but my son’s is fussy anyway so no surprise that he didn’t eat it. We asked someone where the second order of naan was, she said she’d check and never came back. When I raised my complaint about everything, no offer was made to get a manager, no attempt to make anything right, nothing but the excuse that they’ve only just opened a couple of days ago and next time we come in they’ll do better. We’ll never come back and we recommend other people wait another 6 months before visiting, or don’t visit at all. There are much better places in Cambridge selling better dishes at much...