Garden House — Restaurant in Cambridge

Left this place with a light wallet (expected) and a light stomach (not expected) after an extremely slow 2-course meal. In retrospect there were as many red flags as your average tropical beach during hurricane season, but sometimes you don’t realise these things until too late…

We turned up just before 6pm for an early dinner and were seated by the sliding doors with a view of the river. Nice enough on a sunny day. We got some tap water. It was decidedly tepid.

We ordered two simple mixed cocktails, which we were immediately told would take at least 15 minutes to arrive (red flag) and some starters of focaccia and melon/parma ham.

The waitress didn’t write our order down, which is sometimes fine in high-end restaurants, but then got it wrong when reciting it, which is more concerning.

We intentionally kept hold of the menu in case we wanted another cocktail but several passing waiters were very keen to take it from us and seemed very put out when I said we’d like to keep it. Odd.

The starters arrived after a while - still before the drinks - and were fine. Inoffensive. Functional.

The Focaccia was a bit dry, as if it had also been enjoying the sun on the terrace for a bit too long. The melon and Parma ham with chilli oil was nice, but also entirely unremarkable. It’s a simple dish, but maybe some extra garnish or dressing would be good? This could’ve come from the picnic aisle in Sainsbury’s.

The cocktails eventually arrived and did not justify their tardiness. They were mostly ice, and tasted of vaguely alcoholic sugar water with some bitterness. I know that’s what cocktails are, but at a nice restaurant you’d expect a bit more flourish - and for them to taste good. We ordered two different drinks and they were alarmingly similar.

After what I think was literally an hour - and an apology from our server - the mains arrived.

Oh dear.

The ravioli was swamped with various oils - not in a luxurious sense, but in a “cheese left in the sun too long” sense. The pasta itself was tough at the edges, and tasted bland - no hint of the sage. I honestly think this dish had been left to sit for a while before serving. Mini-Tesco wouldn’t give me something like this.

My partner’s peri peri chicken came in a good enough spiced tomato sauce, but the meat itself was both tiny and very fatty, like a Pygmy hippo but without the cuteness factor. You know the sort of fat you get on the pre-cooked supermarket chicken breasts when they’ve been frozen and defrosted? Yeah. That. This dish also came with no sides, so you were somewhat destined to waste the sauce which was the one good bit.

Sides for mains were limited to chips or a butter lettuce. Feeling virtuous and incorrectly assuming the chicken would come with at last some carbs, we opted for the lettuce. Wrong move.

The dish was literally half a lettuce with a very watery vinaigrette and some sliced onions that were sad enough to have drowned themselves at the bottom of the bowl. There were also chives on top. But not finely chopped chives as in every other dish that contains chives, but 3-4 inch long sections of chives. This doesn’t work, chives need to be finely sliced. Maybe it was intentional, but it just seems lazy.

Some desserts floated past us to the couple behind us and looked nice enough, but as they seemed to then spend half an hour trying to flag down someone to pay, and as we were feeling decidedly fed up, we just asked for the bill instead.

The staff throughout seemed either inexperienced, flustered, or weirdly rude. We’d decided that no, we didn’t want a second cocktail so were happy to give up the menu anyway, but before we could offer it back a waiter just grabbed it saying “mate I need to take that cocktail menu from you.” Maybe not quite the tone you’d expect?

The damage was £95 and a slight feeling of unease either from the copious amount of oil in the ravioli or the terrible service. Or both.

Tellingly, at no point did anyone ask how the food was, and the waiter taking payment just blanked me when I commented on the slowness. I...

Very disappointed with this place. We didn't even get to have our lunch here because we had to walk out from the place. The service was so so bad.

We've booked for Sunday Lunch, came with a small baby and our pram, the waiter wanted to sat us in this tiny corner where the hot sun was directly shinning on the area and we have a baby. We asked if he could place us somewhere else, he decided to place us in another tiny area where it was so difficult to park our pram (given the restaurant is so big). Later on, he came back to us and asked if we could move elsewhere (which was directly under the sun again), so I asked him if we could move to the table beside us as it looks more spacious for us plus there's no other guests there right now. He said yes. We then waited for them to help us move the cutlery etc. but then the same waiter who offered that place to us suddenly just sat other guests down on that area 🙄

In between, after we were sat down on our first table, we weren't given any menu or asked for drinks to start with. Other guests who came after us had been given a menu when they sat down and the staff has taken their order and drinks. We have repeatedly asked for menu and for them to take our order, all we get from two waiter and waitresses 'we will be with you shortly' but no one came back and they went on to serve other guests who came after us. We did get our menu in the end but having to wait to order just a drink in this hot weather for more than 20mins, we have decided to take our baby and walk out from the restaurant.

I never once had to walk out from a restaurant even when the service or food was bad. But this...

Upgrade from 3 to 4.4 Tasty light food. The restaurant has redeemed itself after my first visit on the gym open day two years ago (I did get a gym membership despite the food.)

Sirloin is perfectly cooked, juicy and tender. The fatty bits are aromatic. The salsa verde is more on the pesto side but is tasty. Glad we picked it instead of the prawns.

Smoked Aubergine — baba ghanoush it is. Maybe plus tomato. Refreshing though not quite smoky. The olive oil is good.. Crispy flatbread seems toasted instead of fried, which is much appreciated.

Mussels are giant and fresh (probably except for one). The taste is garlicky yet mellow, and the soaked focaccia is nice.

I might have been here more than a decade ago and do hope the beautiful place would always offer a nice dining option.

Service is friendly but can be slow after being seated.

2023 Happily surprised by the marinated tomato salad. Interesting combination of round and cherry tomatoes. The dressing is refreshing. The basil reminds me if pizza, but this is healthier and brings no less joy.

The salmon needs a bit more searing and seasoning. Though the fish is tender and juicy, it’s also quite oily. The salt and pepper and lemon wedge helps a lot. (I had to go back to the menu to realize it is supposed to be soya and mirin glazed.) Roasted kale is also on the oily and bland side. Perhaps I should have opted for green salad, although it’s cold out there.

The staff are friendly :) The ambience is cozy-cottage.

Judging from other reviews, I guess the dish quality here is fluctuates with hits and misses. Might come back to try...