The Dining Room at Poets House — Restaurant in East Cambridgeshire

Entering the Dining Room at Poet's House sets you up for a first class dining experience, which feels very intimate in the tastefully decorated dining room, almost as if you had been invited to a close friend's house for dinner. The service was excellent, as you would expect in an establishment of this kind. Now for the food: As a starter, I ordered the "chargrilled asparagus spears with a lightly poached egg and bacon with a drizzle of hollandaise". For the main, I settled on the "seared duck breast, served with black berry and red wine sauce, dauphinoise potatoes and glazed rainbow carrots." The menu items are descriptive enough not to leave you guessing what you're in for, and they roll off the tongue almost like a poem. The presentation on the plate is perfection in itself. Not pretentious, but carefully arranged, with each single item perfectly in its place. The taste? Simply sublime, with each item keeping its distinct flavour, but creating a harmonious ensemble in your mouth. And to my surprise, the meal offered a good sized portion that left me fully satisfied - so much so that I didn't even have room for dessert.

I make it a rule never to visit fine dining restaurants, because I don't like the stuffiness, and the often elaborate creations that don't fill your stomach, but empty your wallet. Poet's House offers a first class dining experience in a relaxed atmosphere, with good portions and at a price that is affordable. What more could...

Sunday lunch with my wife. The venue is beautiful, fantastically clean and great staff. We had the set lunch, it was very disappointing. I had tempura prawns wich were deep fried. They were ok but the portion was small. My wife had the prawn and crab salad which consisted of a few small prawns and a few slithers of fish stick. No crab at all on the plate. I don't know how they can call it a prawn and crab salad withe no crab but hey ho. For mains we both had the two meat roast. I had 2 small roast potatoes. The cauliflower cheese was nice but the beef was very tough. My wife couldn't eat it. The pork was ok. Again small on the portion side but with a giant Yorkshire pudding to sort of make up for the portion size, but even the Yorkshire pudding was overcooked. My wife had the apple and plum crumble for dessert and she loved it. I had the chocolate torte with strawberry ice-cream. It was served with no ice-cream, I pointed it out to the staff member and she said if i wanted ice-cream she would get some. Which she did, however I'd rather it was just served as described in the first place. Would we go back, well the jury is out. Perhaps just because the...

We had an afternoon tea for two and sat in the lovely courtyard garden area in the sunshine, under the shade of a tree. The staff were really welcoming and friendly and made us feel right at home. The tea was lovely and although it didn't look like a lot, there was too much for us to finish, but no problem they provided a box to bring it home. As an afternoon tea should be (in my opinion) everything was a sensible size, elegant and dare I say dainty. We have been to The Poets House for different meals since it opened and have always come away completely satisfied with the meal, the service and the price paid. I am more than happy to recommend them to anyone looking for a wonderful meal in a...