Kingston Arms

Probably the best pub I have tried in Cambridge so far. Nice comfortable pub with plenty of character. Twelve pulls on serving a good range of real ale and cider. Sampling revealed it was of good quality and not the usual stupid prices often found in the south and east of the country, though not as good as Midlands and all points north. Obviously a very popular place.

I ordered off their ‘recession menu’ which seemed like a good idea to save money…
The fish n chips arrived in an unconventional manner, with the fish not breaded and not fried. Okay — I have no problem with this — it’s healthier for the fish to be broiled anyhow.
Turns out the recession was so deep that they cannot afford to broil either, as the middle of my piece of fish was icy cold and nearly frozen.
So now having been served uncooked fish and chips I had to wonder what intestinal parasites I might have picked up. Luckily, it seems I have escaped with no harm.
The staff was friendly and replaced the meal completely with a properly cooked fish and chips, which was fine. So I’ll give them a star back for that. And maybe my experience was a fluke, so I’ll give them another chance in the future.

I grew up in Milwaukee, an American city with a history defined by the neighborhood bar, and one that — like many pubs in England — have also struggled to to redefine themselves for the 21^st century. The threats aren’t exactly the same, though the results certainly are: on one side of the ocean, our bars are being brightened and electrified into colorful sports bars, with a menagerie of televisions surrounding every possible vantage point and friendly waiters in colorful uniforms selling us cheap microwaved food. On the other side, pubs are being bought and consolidated into mega-​chains, all offering roughly the same food and strategically-​placed memorabilia to make you forget that all of the beer on tap is produced by the same brewery. Obviously, this isn’t very good, but neither are those dark and dank pubs of my youth — I want to drink in a modern bar that offers a variety of local taps and maybe get some good food while I’m at it. Since Heston Blumenthal popularized the gastropub, the idea of a bar with an eye for good food and quality beverages has been embraced by many bars simply looking to eschew corporate ownership. Success varies, depending on the establishment, but when they manage to strike the balance between beer, food, and atmosphere, the result is quite nice indeed. Kingston Arms is one of those places.
As someone who’s not from this country, I appreciate the abundant and free wifi. As someone who drinks, I appreciate the wide variety of real ale casks on tap. As someone who likes food that tastes good, Kingston Arms is more or less in my camp, too. A charcuterie appetizer didn’t impress me too well — there were some obligatory peaces of prosciutto and salami, along with some cumbersomely whole artichoke hearts, sun-​dried tomatoes, a too-​thick rendition of hummus, and with only two halves of a pita with which we were to scoop everything up, it ended up being a lot of finger food.
Things improved with the main courses. The rotating trio of sausages on special seemed a little too on the nose for a traveller like me, but the queen scallops (also on special) were nicely and simply prepared over an appreciable black pudding. Served with some roasted baby potatoes, it was a very nice lunch.
I obviously don’t come to England very often, but as someone who likes to make my meals count, I’ve seen what pitfalls can befall the traveler who decides to just walk down the street and pick the first thing that catches their attention. This very nearly happened to me, in fact, thanks to a taxi driver who assumed that I, like all other Americans, would have been content to just head to The Eagle and call it a day. Do a little more research and walk down a few unassuming streets and you might find something with a bit more character, a bit more concern for your food and drink needs, and a better pub in which you can spend an afternoon.

If you can push through the crowd, the bar and it’s food are definitely worth it. The bartenders are awesome, knowledgeable, and friendly, and the food is far better than the average pub fare. Truly mouth-​watering and excellent! I also love the games available and the great choices of quality lagers and ales. I honestly don’t think «best pub in Cambridge» would be a stretch at all.

Good pub with real ales on tap and occasional live music. Food is solid pub fare, with a bit more care taken into the quality of ingredients. Good value options on the menu.

Best pub and gr8 food. i shud say one of the best pub in cambridge

I can’t think of a more deserving place to get my first 5 star review. I visited recently and it hasn’t changed since I used to live in Cambridge a few years ago. In fact they’ve knocked through a corridor to make toilet access easier. It used to be my favorite pub and I’m happy to say it’s still the benchmark I compare all others against.
The amazing: 13 taps, all cask, not mass market. I’m sure plenty of readers are visiting from abroad. If that’s you, then this place is the ideal way to taste a variety of Britain’s finest beers.
The good: The food. Try the medley of sausages and mash. It’s not just pub grub here either. In fact I’d say Cambridge is a terrible town to be a foodie in, and I’d rate it one of the best restaurants if it weren’t a pub. The atmosphere is very cozy and the crowd is vastly more pleasant than you’ll find in the pubs directly on Mill Road. In summer, the beer garden is a good way to spend a warm evening. Free WiFi (password on a notice).
The bad: Victim of its own success — most of the tables have ‘reserved’ signs on them, even at lunch time. However, you can use them until their start time (some are late reservations)… or just get a reservation yourself! Slightly cramped in there too. The location is a fair distance from town center, and access via Mill Road isn’t the nicest/​safest of places at times.
So it’s not without its flaws, but whenever anyone asks me which is my favorite pub in the world (and my god I’ve been to a few), this one is always first to mind. Well done!

This is one of several great pubs scattered over the small streets either side of Mill Road. While the selection of ales here is good, it’s not quite as good as either the Cambridge Blue or Live and Let Live, so it’s the food that’d bring you here.
This is rooted in the style of pub food — not overly fancy dishes served in hearty portions to eat with a few beers. But there’s a wider range of dishes here and a care of preparation that takes it closer to gastropub territory than your average local.
A permanent fixture of the menu are a range of different types of sausages sourced from the nearby butcher. These are proper sausages, with high quality meat blended with just the right amount of herb, giving them a much more distinctive flavour than the vaguely papery-​ness of most supermarket bought sausages. They’re served with a proper homemade gravy on top of a big helping of soft mash with nice deeply flavoured red cabbage beneath it. [Sadly the last time I went my whole dish suffered from being slightly luke-​warm, but I’m willing to forgive that for now as a one off lapse]
The grilled seabass wasn’t trying to be anything extravagant or smothered in one of those sauces that can so often go wrong. Instead it was just a nice plump fresh fish, cooked to perfection so the skin was charred and the flesh soft and springy. In contrast the chicken demonstrated a little more the chef’s talents, livening up the chicken’s soft and often considered bland taste with the stronger flavours of oyster mushrooms and herbs.
It’s dishes like this one that really add to The Kingston Arm’s menu and probably are what helped it win an Observer food award a few years back. I’ve also had really great venison pie here in the past and have hear that the pan-​fried ostrich steak is interesting. With such diverse options on offer, it seems a bit boring to get a standard roast dinner here, but they do also offer these most Sundays and they are fairly close to home cooking.
The prices are around the same as other ‘gastropubs’ I’ve visited, with mains around £10. Not the cheapest in town, but not terrible either. Plus, they now have a cheaper ‘recession menu’ to try to soften the blow a little — with dishes for as little as a fiver.
There’s a nice little beer garden out the back for when it’s sunny, newspapers available for you to read, a couple of computers to surf the internet and free wi-​fi. This is definitely a pub where it would be easy to spend the whole afternoon.

Like, Duh!
Observer Food Monthly voted the Kingston Arms (i) best pub (ii) best food, and (iii) tied best real ales for the whole of East Anglia. That’s 3 of the the best awards for about ¹⁄₅^th of this country. And they tied the real ale award with the pub on the street behind.
How can I argue with the Observer’s foodie crowd? After sipping one of the finest pints of a summer ale in my life (after the barman threw away two substandard pours) and eating by far the greatest bangers and mash in my life (beef & hoisin sausages?), I sat back and listened to the local banjo band in the corner and marvelled at how good the Kingston is. It truly is a magnificently good local free house. Beer garden, BBQs, free Wifi, computer terminals for the bored, the best food and ales and visits from local farmers selling their cider and cheeses.
Oh and Neal ‘too expensive’ M… they now have a «recession menu» with meals for 4 quid and pints for under 2. You have no quibbles left now.
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Best pub ever? In Cambridge that’s a hard battle to win… but maybe… yes maybe… the KA has the stuff to make it favourite for the title. Stay tuned for the other 5 starrers.

Great menu, full of variety and ingenuity. Lovely staff, polite and prompt. Can be a cheap outing, it really depends on how much you intend to drink! They have outdoor heaters and allow animals (for a limited amount of time though.) The best part… FREE WIFI! i had to search for an available outlet for several minutes, but i finally found one. However, as far as I can tell it is the only one so be aware. My dining experience consisted of a glass of house rose wine (not that good), a Lamb Magrib Sausage and sauteed onion sandwich on Granary bread… delicious! i have yet to try dessert… but soon, soon… and be very careful if you’re toting around your laptop, mill road is not the safest street in cambridge anymore…