Rainbow Vegetarian Bistro

While visiting Cambridge with my mum, we found this vegetarian place so I had to come! It’s really cute and we really enjoyed our food. The garlic bread with sun dried tomatoes was especially yummy! Quite overpriced but the food was excellent and the café is decorated very nicely.

Love this restaurant. There’s finally a place in Cambridge where I can be full and not feel disgustingly heavy. Will revisit soon!

Being a vegetarian I like to eat at veggie places when I am visiting somewhere new to support them. I like this café it’s almost hidden away down some steps. The staff are friendly and it has a cool, hippy, chilled out vibe (like a lot of vegetarian places really) there was a lot on the menu but since it was a bit expensive we settled for tea and cake. The chocolate brownie was gorgeous with ice cream, I didn’t rate the hot chocolate though but all in all a nice place. Shame it is so expensive but still worth a visit.

We were really hungry when we went there and ordered two main dishes and a salad. As the salad was more like a third main dish and didn’t have much green stuff on it, we had a hard time finishing it. The other two dishes were great (pepper pot and jamaican roti): the flavours were intense. Usually I’m not that keen on plantain and sweat potatoes but both were delicious. We’ll be back to try some of the other dishes; some descriptions sounded really interesting. A negative point is that they fitted in a lot of tables, so one sits very close to other people. With that many people sitting in a basement, there wasn’t much oxygen left.

I really like the Rainbow. The people are as great as the food. Cozy.

Great place for lunch. The atmosphere is good, loud and friendly — great to put you in a good mood on a dull day. The deserts are to die for with many vegan options. Worth going just for the deserts.

My friend Rat Tail couldn’t remember the name of his college from his time studying at Cambridge, but he remembered this restaurant with a clarity I usually reserve for exams and a fondness I usually reserve for loved ones.
Needless to say, I was pretty excited to try out a place that was ethical/​vegetarian as well as highly recommended by someone good-​natured enough to put up with being called «Rat Tail.» It was high lunchtime, and my first impression was one of fear – fear of knocking over an entrée or a server with my bag whilst maneuvering through the narrow space to our table, the only empty seats I could see. Despite being subterranean and cramped, the café did well to discourage claustrophobia with bright, cheery, «I eat vegan and I feel GOOD!» paint and décor.
Prices seemed to be typical of many vegetarian/​food-​with-​an-​agenda kitchens – marked at a pound or two higher per item than I would like to pay for morally sound cafeteria food. The prices would be perfect for really good morally sound cafeteria food; alas, my Algerian potato tagine may have been sourced by saints but was made by mortals. The blend of what tasted like soy sauce, boiled potato, and a candied citrus element was confusing for the first few bites, interesting for the next few, then monotonous for the remainder of the dish.
Cheapskate (aka starving grad student) that I am, I didn’t invest in a side dish to break up the dullness of the dish, but I also didn’t believe in paying more than ten pounds for a casual lunch. And I shouldn’t have to risk coming up short for the kitchen’s shortcomings. I really want to like this place – for Rat Tail’s sake and for the sake of my inner hippie, but it’s going to have to just taste better to ensure that the second time around is not my last.
The schtick of the restaurant – the ‘60s commune ethos, the «hidden gem» location, the inventive menu listings – is attractive enough, so I don’t ask for much to be appeased. I don’t expect to be overwhelmed, I just don’t want to be underwhelmed. I suppose, then, I am simply asking to be whelmed. So won’t you just whelm me, oh Rainbow, please?

Now that vegetarian food is more readily available and restaurants are being more imaginative, the appeal of the Rainbow café has dwindled a little for me. It isn’t cheap, but there is a good choice. However, it is pretty crowded and there is usually a long wait for a table at weekends.

I’m vegetarian and love visiting the Rainbow Café — not only because I can eat everything on the menu, but also because the staff are really friendly, the food is great (hearty and unpretentious), and the surroundings are really bright and cheery in terms of décor. I’ve taken numerous friends and family members, almost all of whom aren’t vegetarian, and they’ve always enjoyed it. I would particularly recommend the gado-​gado and the tagine, as well as the soya ice cream. The prices are quite reasonable for a non-​chain restaurant and you certainly get plenty of food on your plate!

I am not a vegetarian, so when me and some friends decided to eat there I did so with trepidation. However, I’m so glad I went. I imagined that I would feel hungry after my meal — but not so. My salad was absolutely huge, and so colourful, it was a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth. To drink, I had turkish apple tea — which to my untrained tastebuds did taste a little bit like warm apple juice, but very nice nonetheless!
It is located in a basement, but don’t let that put you off — it has a pleasant atmosphere but the tables are quite close together so you may be evesdropping on other people’s conversations!

I have to say, I often struggle to find a proper vegetarian restaurant. So imagine, I was over the moon when I spotted Rainbow. Quality service, quality food. Yes, it does cost more than an avarage, but it is our choice to have McDonalds or Andalusian Shepherds Cazuelito (smoked sweet paprika with other veg and herbs served with brown rice).Definately will go back.

This vegetarian café has won a number of awards but I must admit to always having found it a bit bland. The food is all fresh and very healthy but seemed to be lacking in flavour for me. It is licenced but the measures served were extremely small. Popular amongst the chattering classes of Cambridge. Place you’re most likely to hear, ‘Tarquin, do get your fingers out of the humous’ and ‘Jemima, do try and eat another mouthful of your organic chocolate brownie’. You have to walk down a little alley off King’s Parade to access the café and then go down some stairs. Family friendly.