The Punter — Restaurant in Cambridge

The Punter is one of very few pubs in Cambridge with real character. Set on the corner of Pound Hill, just outside the city centre, but only 5 minutes’ walk from Quayside, it is larger than it looks from outside. The pub has a main bar, with several snugs set around a larger room, plus The Barn, another large dining space on the opposite side of the courtyard. The courtyard is a charming outdoor dining/drinking space, filled with rustic tables and chairs (none of which match) with parasols and covered areas to keep the rain or sun off. There are also many potted plants, which softens the hard edges and gives the space a cosy, “enchanted garden” feel. The Punter does food and it does it really well. The menu, while fairly short - typically 6 starters and 8 mains - caters for carnivores and vegans/vegetarians with solid bistro-style cooking. On our latest visit our group ate fresh crab timbale with sourdough toast and salad leaves, ham croquettes with mustard aioli and mushroom arrancini for starters. For mains we had sausage and mash, fish pie with sprouting broccoli on the side, halloumi burger with sweet potato fries and beef bourguignon with mash, back on the menu for winter. All the dishes were tasty and hot, and the portions were right - neither too small nor too big. We didn’t eat pudding because we were all too full, but that’s normal for us. The food was well presented and hot, and service was quick. Like most businesses in the hospitality sector, The Punter has struggled to get new staff as people move on to bigger and better things, college mainly. The current crop comprises a mixture of new and old staff, mostly young or youngish, but all well trained and charming to a fault. It’s a cliche I know, but it takes some serious professionalism to make service this good look relaxed, but The Punter pulls it off, thanks to Landlady Sarah’s high standards and...

This pub restaurant avoided over-use of salt. So many times, you go for a meal at a pub and they demolish your taste buds with salt. The next morning, you wake up feeling as though someone had vacuumed up your mouth. Delightfully, despite having a salty main, this pub did not fall foul of this. We were able to reserve a table and it did not become busy until 6pm, at which point it was loud - having low ceilings - but not unbearably so. I had the burger, which was generous and tasty though the bread was a little dry, and chips, which you can see from the photograph were plentiful. I was a little disappointed in the drinks options - which is strange for a pub! There were many amendments and redacted aspects of the drinks menu, which made it rather difficult to understand what was actually available, and despite my careful reading of this menu the item I asked for first wasn't available. Furthermore, there did not seem to be any cocktails. Perhaps there was a separate menu for cocktails, but if so, this menu was not on the table or clearly visible from where I was sat. For dessert, I had the dark chocolate cheesecake. While pleasant for a few mouthfuls, the dark chocolate is just too dark and the lasting taste is chalky. Prices were reasonable (in consideration of recent inflation): some £14 for the burger and £5 or so for the cheesecake. They take card including...

I called in with 2 friends last Saturday.

The Good, welcoming atmosphere, good beer and wine to enjoy and happy diners on other tables. The not so good, we all ordered Fish N Chips, good to see haddock being served, but instead of being golden batter it was dark brown and very crispy, as cooked at too high for too long. I would have been okay with this, if it had not been served on a bed of chips, That should not have left the kitchen – lukewarm, tired and dry, they had been cooked a long time! I notice a previous reviewer had the same experience.

We also had 10% service charge added to the bill, which the waiter did ask if we were happy paying. I went to have a look at the menu, yes the service charge is mentioned, but you will probably miss it, as it is in smaller type than the rest of the menu and dwarfed by the line above in bold type!

Yes we could have said something about the meal, but we were hungry and did not want to wait another 20 minutes for a replacement. It alright saying you ask if people are happy with the 10% service charge, but most people will not say NO even if inclined to do so – it is human nature.

So as other reviewers have said, there are many other establishments to eat at in Cambridge, we will try them in future and without a service charge that takes the cost...