Al Pomodoro — Restaurant in Cambridge

Wow! The best italian food I've had since my trip to Rome in Summer. The decor is lovely and its easily accessed from the Leisure Park.

I had the Octopus Carpaccio starter which was £11, one of their cheaper options, but I was torn between two or three attractive dishes. I was delighted with my choice as the texture and tastes for this starter were perfect and I was happy to keep the bill slightly lower.

For mains, I chose to persist with seafood and selected, against my usual restaurant choices where I avoid overly carby meals, the seafood risotto. It was delicious, but moreso it was plentiful. There were numerous mussels and other elements of mixed seafood and I was very happy with my choice again.

Finally, I decided to have a dessert, which is rare for me on an evening meal out, and saw that they had Sicilian Cannoli on the menu. Nowhere in the UK have I yet to have a satisfactory cannolo and the larger sicilian variety seem even more scarce.

It was perfect. It was filled to the brim with ricotta with a scattering of chocolate chips throughout and a dusting of Pistachio, and at 5.50 (when the cheapest I could find in Rome was around 3 euros) how can you not love this.

I've traveled to Rome, Napoli and Venice in the last few years and this still ranks as one of the best Italian meals I've had.

My partner who dined with me had one of their pizzas, though I can only recall it had onion and sausage, but the small amount I had was remarkably delectable. And I usually am not a fan of "authentic" Italian thin crust pizzas, but this was exceptional.

This is a top restaurant and as authentic an Italian as you can hope to find in the UK.

Grazie mille!

Update: we used their services to treat our boarding students at my work. They catered for a party of 33 effortlessly and professionally. On this visit I had the calamari which was lovely and perfectly cooked (no rubbery feeling), followed by an incredibly generous pizza frutta Di mare, and a...

The lowest quality/price ratio for a dinner I've ever had in my life. I do not recommend this place to anyone. Not because of the price, but because of disappointing quality of food and staff attitude.

First, staff is extremely intrusive and can't accept "no". While we were still reading the menu, the waiter ask us if we want to have something to drink right now. We refused because we wanted to order some wine served with the food, and the waiter withdrew. When we were ready to make an order, the waiter again asked us if we want to have some water. We refused again and tried to order what we really wanted. Then we were asked AGAIN about damn water. At this point, we surrendered to this choking hospitality. So, we got 750 ml of absolutely unwanted water for 5.5 pounds. Thanks, I guess? It was a really cheap trick, which I didn't expect from the restaurant pretending to be elite.

Second, for the price of 26 pounds spezzatino di manzo was absolutely terrible. I've expected some good and seasoned stew, but the beef meat was chewy and low-quality. Potatoes were not cooked properly, so they were half-raw and solid in the core. The dish was extremely underseasoned. So, it was just a poorly made goulash with a fancy italian name, but it screamed British cuisine. Salmon pasta was adequate, but it was poorly seasoned as well, so it wasn't bad only because it was plain.

Third, one hour of waiting time for the main dish is not good considering having half-cooked potatoes and that more than a half of the tables were empty.

The only good thing I can say about this place is that the starter, which is polpette della casa (meatballs in tomato sauce), was quite good. Too sad, other meals were absolutely underwhelming and disappointing.

While it wasn't enough to destroy our evening, I definitely regret visiting this place.

Also, for such a price you can find far better restaurants in the...

We have been recommended to come to Al Pomodoro over and over and it certainly did not disappoint. When people said "authentic Italian" they hit the nail on the head. From the minute you walk in, the place had local Italian atmosphere and the look of people already sat in there just felt 'regulars' energy. If I'm honest I really didn't expect it from the look of the outside so if you're the same- push past that and go in! Photos of rolling hills in Sicility fill the walls alongside a Sistine Chapel-esque ceiling. On to food & drink - wow. House prosecco; fresh as sea air, mozzarella garlic bread; so generously loaded and finished with a salted and herb seasoning, sea food pasta; such a deep flavour to the sauce and the king prawn was cooked to perfection on top with the mussels freshly just opened. As for the customer service; old school and as it should be. So refreshing to be served by our waiter Prince with such a warm smile and attentiveness - especially to our son who couldn't believe his luck with the Mickey Mouse pizza having fries ON it, proving you can offer a modern spin as well as the classics. And so nice to be asked if we are actually ready to move on courses rather than getting double parked so quickly as most places do these days. Overall just such a lovely dining experience and I know this is a bit of information on the side but - clean and well-stocked restroom with proper soap! Seems like a small detail but so many chain restaurants lack this in my opinion and it's great to see an independent getting it right and making the whole experience so pleasant. The whole place is just so cared for to the point of it feeling like someone's house. We will absolutely be going back and I would recommend to anyone. Positive warning: portion sizes...