Shack Life Quarterly

1&3a Market Hill
Cambridge
CB2 3NJ
01223 352607

This Italian restaurant had been shut down for renovations for much of my time in Cambridge but reopened sometime in the spring of 2007. When I rang to book a table I was told they take cash only.. no cards, no cheques! which I thought was a bit strange for an upscale restaurant, but at least we were warned to visit the cash point before dining. The restaurant is below ground and upon climbing down the stairs we were quite pleasantly surprised by the nice decor and ambience.

For starters I ordered the calamari, which was strips rather than the rings I was expecting, but was tasty. On the waiter’s recommendation Rob ordered the baked mushrooms in some sort of creamy sauce. He find them to be overly good, but admittedly it wasn’t the sort of dish he would normally order. For the main course, I had the spinach and marscapone lasagne which was very thin and exceedingly cheesy. I typically find lasagne portions are far too big, but this one was just right. My dessert was champagne sorbet and was amazing. Rob’s chocolate fudge cake however looked like it had seen better days. It was served toppled over and falling apart.

The whole experience left us with the feeling that they were trying but just didn’t quite get it. The service staff were a bit disorganized. I think we were waited on by 5 different people and they came to take our drink order twice. We never got the feeling that anyone was looking after us, more that we were served by whoever happened to be passing by.

The live jazz, by a female vocalist and pianist and a male guitarist, was great and definitely made the evening. At one point the musicians and the rest of the diners were summoned to sign Happy Birthday to someone, which in general I don’t have a problem with, but if you having an expensive meal at an upscale restaurant, this is not the kind of thing you are expecting or looking for. Although the atmosphere was good for a Saturday night and we were inspired to go out afterwards, I wouldn’t say we are in a rush to go back.