Café Carrington, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Café Carrington can be found in Market Street, Cambridge in the sort of easterly slightly southerly bit of the United Kingdom. It can be quite hard to spot if you don't know what you're looking for, since it does not have much of a frontage onto the street. Before the door there are normally a couple of tables - this is your clue as to where to look.
As you enter the Café, you are immediately struck by how small it is. This is because the ground floor is in fact very small, and much of it is taken up by the staricase which leads underground. This is where the useful part of the establishment is located.
The decor in the Café is best described as 'tasteful'. Artificial plants and bushes abound, although they are kept dust-free. The overall atmosphere is pleasant, but anybody who has a problem with marble-effect decorations should on no account visit this establishment. Tall people will have to watch out for the large beams which hold the ceiling up. For your convinience they have been painted an interesting shade of green, which actually complements the decor while making the potential skull-crackers more obvious to the eye.
You have to try one of the gingerbread men. If you like ginger, you're in for a real treat. |
Now we come to the best part: the food. Café Carrington is self service to a certain extent. You take a tray and shuffle along a counter, choosing what you want along the way. Tall people have a rare advantage here, as they can see what's up ahead, thus enabling them to make better decisions about what to actually buy.
Rather strangely, the first section you come across is the one with the desserts in it. Cream cakes abound here, and beware if you're watching your waistline because you can add inches just by looking too hard. Once you've dragged yourself away from these delights, you can find the salads, quiches and hot main courses, which sit there looking so delicious you will wonder how you could ever choose one of them.
May I especially recommend the Bacon and Brie Hot Baguette, which comes with a small amount of salad and tastes so good you'd think the Café employs a Dentrassi chef. The lack of fancy cocktails would seem to dispute this theory, though. |
The portions of food are in general large and represent better value for money than you might expect. Just before the place where you part with your hard-earned cash you come to the beverages section, where you can purchase a glass of delicious freshly-squeezed orange juice, or enjoy a cup of coffee made with freshly-ground coffee beans. If neither of these takes your fancy, you can choose from the rest of the selection of beverages.
And now of course, once you're through the nightmare which surrounds the mysterious process of paying for your choices (although you might be pleasantly surprised by how much you've got for your money, at least as regards the food), and you've found a table, which can prove difficult in the middle of lunch time, you can sit down, relax and enjoy the food.
Café Carrington's other facilitiesThe café also boasts toilet facilities which are much better than the ones provided by the City Council anywhere in Cambridge. Therefore make sure you go before you leave the café and return to the aboveground hectic world of shopping. You may be disappointed by the quality of the paintwork within the toilets, but rest assured that the facilities look clean and they only smell if someone before you's been in and done a big one. I don't blame them, as the Café is a much more pleasant place to attend to one's bowel movements than the Lion Yard toilets, or indeed any of the others in Cambridge.Café Carrington at a glance
All marks out of 10
| Service: | 8 | You sometimes have to wait with your tray for a while to get served. This is usually due to the large amounts of customers. You might also have trouble finding a table - don't go in here when you're absolutely dying for something because you might not get it in time, and there's not really room on the floor for unconscious people. |
| Food: | 9 | Almost as good as if a Dentrassi had cooked it. |
| Drink: | 9 | The freshly squeezed orange juice is simply divine. Now if only it didn't cost quite as much... |
| Atmosphere: | 8 | Good, but can feel cramped if you're tall or have lots of shopping with you. Ventilation appears to be good, so smoke should only be a problem in the smoking area. Tall people should mind the low support beams, because it is built in a cellar. |
| Overall: | 9 | Wonderful. Go there before you even consider Burger King. |
