If food be the love of music, eat on!
(I would not advise taking my subject headings too seriously)
One of the goals that I appear to have acquired for 2014 after I made my 2014 goal-setting post is to substantially improve my knowledge of Cambridge restaurants, which was pretty lamentably bad in part because I don't eat out much, in part because I have a habit of going back to places I like, and in part because I kind of struggle to evaluate different types of food. I can't do much about the latter of those, but I appear to have embarked upon an attempt to improve the situation as it relates to the first two. Assisting me in this endeavour is (primarily) the beautiful fiona_kitty, who by selflessly accompanying me manages to make me look like I am dining à deux with a glamorous young lady rather than that I am sufficiently boring that even the prospect of food cannot induce people to actually spend time in my company. A cunning illusion, I'm sure you'll agree.
Ahem. Yes. So anyway, I thought that under the circumstances I'd probably be better off if I wrote down a few comments on the places I'd been before I forgot about them, and this seemed like as good a place as any.
CB2 - Actually, I'm not sure this one counts as "before I forget about them" at all. For a start, my memory seems to want to date it as before Christmas, which is clearly nonsense since I met fiona_kitty at atreic and emperor's New Year party. What I do remember, though, is good non-alcoholic cocktails, a menu choice that I thought was quite limited (also, Italian) if you were trying to avoid dairy products (which I largely am, for kidney reasons), but I enjoyed the food I had (but can no longer remember what it actually was). I don't think I'd suggest it as a place to go for food (as opposed to for music/drinks), but I wouldn't veto it either.
The Geldart - Confusingly, not on Geldart Street. I suppose The Ainsworth doesn't have the same ring to it. I found the light level in here kind of awkward for some reason which I still don't understand, but it was a constant minor irritation all the time I was there. In theory, I ought to be in favour of the decor if that problem was solved (and, again, the music). My discovery here was largely that they serve their burgers with so much additional sauce/topping/whatever that one can barely eat them. That obstacle surmounted, again the food quality was good but nothing special either. They have joined in with the whole Hot Rock thing, which is definitely entertaining, much like
The Hopbine - wherein I actually ordered a Hot Rock Thing (if you're not familiar with this, they serve you your meal sizzling on a hot, polished rock. This allows you to amuse yourself by roasting parts of a salad or whatever, though I'm not sure it makes any significant difference to the quality of the food), because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Theoretically decent enough selection of food here though in practice when we showed up they were out of a couple of them; then again, it was most of the way through Sunday. Actually ordered an alcoholic drink here in a deviation from usual practice, because I was impressed with the available selection of ciders. Certainly not the most memorable part of an evening which can only be described as Awesome, but I'd go back (requiem_17_23, edith_the_hutt, et al. - we should actually do the whole pub thing again sometime soon).
Bimbimbap - Korean, I think. Definitely overall impressive, but don't make the mistake I did and order one of the noodle dishes. Their noodles are disturbingly transparent, and have a texture which slowly but surely succeeds in putting you off the remainder of the (generally excellent) food. The corn tea is also worth investigating. I would go back, but not to have the same thing again (I stole some of fiona_kitty's food and loved it, so the place is good if you evade the transparent noodle things).
Right, that's me up to date on restaurants for now; have to go and eat in some more...
One of the goals that I appear to have acquired for 2014 after I made my 2014 goal-setting post is to substantially improve my knowledge of Cambridge restaurants, which was pretty lamentably bad in part because I don't eat out much, in part because I have a habit of going back to places I like, and in part because I kind of struggle to evaluate different types of food. I can't do much about the latter of those, but I appear to have embarked upon an attempt to improve the situation as it relates to the first two. Assisting me in this endeavour is (primarily) the beautiful fiona_kitty, who by selflessly accompanying me manages to make me look like I am dining à deux with a glamorous young lady rather than that I am sufficiently boring that even the prospect of food cannot induce people to actually spend time in my company. A cunning illusion, I'm sure you'll agree.
Ahem. Yes. So anyway, I thought that under the circumstances I'd probably be better off if I wrote down a few comments on the places I'd been before I forgot about them, and this seemed like as good a place as any.
CB2 - Actually, I'm not sure this one counts as "before I forget about them" at all. For a start, my memory seems to want to date it as before Christmas, which is clearly nonsense since I met fiona_kitty at atreic and emperor's New Year party. What I do remember, though, is good non-alcoholic cocktails, a menu choice that I thought was quite limited (also, Italian) if you were trying to avoid dairy products (which I largely am, for kidney reasons), but I enjoyed the food I had (but can no longer remember what it actually was). I don't think I'd suggest it as a place to go for food (as opposed to for music/drinks), but I wouldn't veto it either.
The Geldart - Confusingly, not on Geldart Street. I suppose The Ainsworth doesn't have the same ring to it. I found the light level in here kind of awkward for some reason which I still don't understand, but it was a constant minor irritation all the time I was there. In theory, I ought to be in favour of the decor if that problem was solved (and, again, the music). My discovery here was largely that they serve their burgers with so much additional sauce/topping/whatever that one can barely eat them. That obstacle surmounted, again the food quality was good but nothing special either. They have joined in with the whole Hot Rock thing, which is definitely entertaining, much like
The Hopbine - wherein I actually ordered a Hot Rock Thing (if you're not familiar with this, they serve you your meal sizzling on a hot, polished rock. This allows you to amuse yourself by roasting parts of a salad or whatever, though I'm not sure it makes any significant difference to the quality of the food), because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Theoretically decent enough selection of food here though in practice when we showed up they were out of a couple of them; then again, it was most of the way through Sunday. Actually ordered an alcoholic drink here in a deviation from usual practice, because I was impressed with the available selection of ciders. Certainly not the most memorable part of an evening which can only be described as Awesome, but I'd go back (requiem_17_23, edith_the_hutt, et al. - we should actually do the whole pub thing again sometime soon).
Bimbimbap - Korean, I think. Definitely overall impressive, but don't make the mistake I did and order one of the noodle dishes. Their noodles are disturbingly transparent, and have a texture which slowly but surely succeeds in putting you off the remainder of the (generally excellent) food. The corn tea is also worth investigating. I would go back, but not to have the same thing again (I stole some of fiona_kitty's food and loved it, so the place is good if you evade the transparent noodle things).
Right, that's me up to date on restaurants for now; have to go and eat in some more...