Although the official opening of the exciting new Adam Wood restaurant, the Garden House Cambridge, is September 10th, the restaurant and team have been offering a sneak preview with a discount during their soft opening recently. We had the pleasure of visiting this romantic restaurant in Cambridge for an evening meal.
I hadn’t entered what was previously the Garden House Hotel since my student days ( I worked there as a chamber maid) so was thrilled to see its transformation into the Graduate Cambridge. We enjoyed a drink in the beautifully decorated Graduate Bar before our meal.
The Ethos:
The restaurant offers grill focussed cooking of seasonal, locally sourced East Anglian and British produce. They work with farmers and producers to bring the finest ingredients to the restaurant, creating creative, delicious dishes. Sustainability is really important to us when eating out so we were delighted to read the ethos of the restaurant. Taken from the restaurants website;
“We pursue farms that place animal welfare & environmental impact at the forefront of their minds. Our fish is native & sourced from British day boats working in a conscious & targeted manner. We also use honey harvested by our very own beehive across the menu. “
The menu:
We like to try as much as possible when we visit a new restaurant, so the dinner a la carte menu ‘sharing plates’ style suited us well. The menu is divided into starters and mains, or smaller and larger sharing plates- depending on which way you choose to go. Following the guidance of the helpful staff, we ordered bread, 2 smaller sharing plates, 3 larger sharing plates, and a side. This was a good amount of food for two greedy people. We got started with some crackers, compliments of the restaurant, flavoured with cheese and onion, and lemon and black pepper.
Bread:
The bread was a warm and tasty whole-wheat sourdough. The right side of crisp and soft and served with plenty of fen farm cultured butter- delicious!
Sharing plates:
Our first plate was a tartare of longhorn beef, soured cream, salted blackcurrants & coriander. A fresh dish.
This was coupled with grilled violet artichokes, dandelion & coolea, covered in parmesan. Another light and tasty creation.
Next, our first larger plate, a fabulous tomato tart with produce from the wonderful Flourish Farm. This was packed with flavour and served with a summer greens dressing & ricotta.
Served together, our final two larger plates and a side of some fabulously tasty new potatoes. The first, slices of Huntsham Farm pork, with charred romaine, and a meaty sauce with smoked anchovy.
Also, steamed organic vegetables with tomato & dulse hollandaise. Served with an egg yolk, it is difficult to describe just how rich and delicious this dish tasted.
Dessert:
Dessert was equally as good as the rest of the meal. We shared a slice of Cambridge burnt cream tart which was rich and sweet.
Finally, a super minty and refreshing mint chocolate ice-cream. The perfect end to our meal.
Garden House Cambridge:
We really enjoyed our evening at the Garden House Cambridge. The food was delicious, the service friendly and helpful, and the setting really beautiful. The restaurant offer a breakfast, lunch and an afternoon tea service, so we are planning to revisit and try some more of their menu very soon. A welcome addition to the Cambridge food scene.
