Browns Cambridge — Restaurant in Cambridge

The restaurant is beautiful! Very nicely decorated and clean. It’s bright and airy with high ceilings. Very nice. A groups of 4 adults and 3 kids we went at 6pm on Easter Sunday and it was pretty much empty. Maybe 5 other small tables. Our server didn’t seem to be serving any other tables. Despite this her service was mediocre at best. When I arrived they asked if there were any allergies and I said I had an allergy to mushrooms. She assured me they would be very careful and let the kitchen know. When we placed our orders I ordered the crispy mozzarella and tomatoes and the Sunday roast beef dinner. She said that was fine, no mushrooms. She took all the orders of the table and went off. The starters came out and I was not impressed by the mozzarella and tomatoes. The tomatoes were way over ripe and mushy and mealy tasting and the fried mozzarella was gross - tasted a lot like cheap mozzarella sticks you get in a bar. Not high end place. She cleared the starters and 20 minutes went by and she returned to tell me the chef had realized there were in fact mushrooms used in the gravy for the roast so I couldn’t have it and asked if I would like to order something else. I had been an hour since we placed our order!!! How does that happen. The waitress had gone to check with the chef after taking our orders and assured me there were no mushrooms. The timing was terrible because the rest of the table’s entres were ready to be served. The waitress asked if she could serve the others which i obviously said yes. I ordered a burger hoping it would be quick. It came out as everyone was 2/3rd of the way finished. The bacon was almost raw on it - it was just slightly warmed. So gross. I asked her to take it back and have it cooked to crispy as bacon should be. It has 3 dinky slices of cheese on it, not covering the patty at all and barely melted. The lettuce was browning and wilted and the tomato slice was mealy. I had specified no sauces on the burger - no mayo, mustard, ketchup or anything else but when I bit into it the taste of mustard was overpowering. There was definitely mustard on the bun, it was bright yellow. I told the server and instead of her taking the burger back to the kitchen she said she would “go ask the chef if there was any” she came back saying “there wasn’t mustard” which was just false. I sent the burger back because it was gross.. Super disappointed. So I had no meal for dinner. My daughter had wanted the penne from the kids menu with the sauce on the side but we were told that wasn’t possible because the pasta is made ahead of time and already mixed with the sauce - WHAT?! It isn’t made fresh to order? That’s bonkers. Does it come from a can?!? They couldn’t make her plane penne because they “didn’t have any in the kitchen” they finally offered a different type of noodle they could cook for her and give it to her plain, but they couldn’t give her any tomato sauce. Makes me question what they are serving children. Since I didn’t have any dinner I was starving so I ordered the brownie dessert. It was supposed to come with honeycomb ice cream, it came with vanilla. I asked and the server brought me some of the proper ice cream. It tasted like vanilla too but had one tiny flake of the fake honeycomb candy that comes in Crunchie chocolate bars in Canada. While they didn’t charge me for the burger, i thought they would at least give me my dessert for free after the night i had been put through. But no. They did no such thing. All in all it was a VERY disappointing experience. Save your money, eat somewhere else. I guess the empty restaurant on an Easter Sunday should have been my first clue this was not a great...

Myself and three friends visited Brown's Cambridge branch on a Sunday lunchtime. It's not the first time we have been to Brown's; previously, we enjoyed a brunch and, on another occasion, dined on the terrace. We were a bit perturbed as the table we were given was rather small and every chair had a mixture of crumbs and goodness knows what on it. Staff did not offer assistance when we swapped chairs for those of a neighbouring table. I was also put off by the toilet facilities, as there were bloody tissues around the sink... Our waitress was attentive and polite, giving us time to peruse the menu. All orders were brought out in good time. We never felt rushed or ignored. We began with scallops and baked camembert shared between us. The scallops, though minute in size, were packed with flavour. The camembert served with sourdough and apple slices was both salty and sweet with the honey topping. We did, however, feel restricted by the table: despite only ordering two starters between us, they both barely fit on the tiny table. For main, I had pork belly Sunday roast. The meat was generously proportioned, packed with flavour and well cooked. The vegetables (sorry to say) were abysmal: the root veg had no flavour/seasoning while the peas were bitter. Everything was served swimming in a jus, which added flavour but was overly salty. Sitting in the jus, the would-be crisp potatoes went soggy. It would have been better to receive the jus in a pot on the side, so that one could choose how much to pour. A friend had the chicken version of the Sunday roast and shared some of the meat with me, which was very pleasant, and a pig in blanket, which was ok. His was also served swimming in a salty jus and agreed that a side pot would have been more appropriate. Another friend had the fish (cod) and chips, and was satisfied. Hers came with a side of some sort of cabbage (which was not listed on the menu and which did not seem to be added to the bill...) which was dry as heck. For afters, I had a chocolate brownie which was rich and dark; it should have come with a scoop of honeycomb ice cream on top, though in face I was given what was most certainly a rather less exciting vanilla ice cream. The ice cream was enclosed beneath a half-sphere chocolate shell. Another friend had the same but his shell was broken and partial by the time it arrived; a replacement was not offered by staff. The profiteroles enjoyed by another friend were light and creamy while the pineapple and cream (a sort of pina collada idea) garnered positive reviews from the final member of our table. Drinks. I thoroughly enjoyed the old fashioned, made using Woodford Reserve. The Big Drop low alcohol IPA (0.5%) was nice, too - very floral. The negroni was horrible - badly balanced, far too bitter, horrid aftertaste. We would have liked to have been offered tap water with more regularity (especially given the saltiness of the mains). One aspect of our visit we loathed was the noise. The interior is very tall, but is filled with noise: all the time, they have either a pianist playing at a mini grand or music on. Seated just three tables from the piano, you can imagine that we needed to shout at each other just to be heard. All in all, happy with the starters and the desserts; some of the drinks were good; the mains could be good, but were let down by the vegetable cookery and the salty jus which one does not currently have an option of eating or not; really appreciated the wait staff; facilities - including bathrooms, seat cleanliness and level of noise - needs work. Prices. 2x starters, 3x mains, 1x side, 2x soft drinks, 2x low alcohol drinks, 1x beer, 2x...

I came as a single female diner staying in Cambridge to organise my father’s funeral as he died on 10 October. I waited five minutes before anyone came to seat me and that was only because I waved and called out to a waiter. There was no one on reception to meet me and the restaurant was only half full. I was invisible.

I did get seated and had a nice alcohol free cocktail - I was very impressed with the range and variety of these as I don’t drink now as I am recovering from stage 3 breast cancer for which I had treatment last year.

I don’t usually have dessert but as I hadn’t eaten all day I decided I would. But I waited more than 20 minutes after I ordered for a slice of toffee pudding and ice cream. How hard is it to put a piece of pudding in a bowl and add ice cream. Eventually I called a passing waitress and said I can’t wait any longer can I just have the bill please. Sudden panic - oh I am sure it’s just coming … 2 minutes later it arrived, did I want it?

Well I said yes, but I said, I am really not used to this kind of service because o live in France (and have done for 9 years) and I do not expect to wait 20 minutes for a piece of warm cake and ice cream. Really unacceptable. Oh the restaurant is very busy this evening Madame we have some big groups on. Well the restaurant was half full and there was a big group at the bar drinking.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH

I grew up in Cambridge and went to school here. And between 2002 and 2014 I lived in Cambridge and owned a house here. And that is the most sloppy service I have ever had in Browns where I have been many many times. I remember even when Browns opened in the 80s. My sister used to be the office manager there.

There was a nice young man there from Sardinia and he was the exception to all the other sloppy staff. He asked me why I was in Cambridge and I said for my father’s funeral. He was very kind and I appreciated that. Maybe he needs a promotion for the only decent customer service and a bit of compassion towards me a woman dining alone.

So I won’t be going to Browns in a hurry in fact you’d have to pay...