I had an absolutely fantastic evening at the Cambridge institution which is De Luca’s last night.

This has been a family favourite for years and I really don’t get here as much as I’d like. I honestly cant remember the last time I managed to visit but all I know is that its been too long.

They are currently working with a reduced menu so options were limited. I presume this was to do with the current supply issues around the world, so decided to give them a pass.

That said, they still had something for everyone, though was disappointed to see many red meats unavailable with the only option being a beef lasagne.

We decided to start with their house red which comes in an unlabelled bottle. These came at a fairly priced £20 and went down a treat. I’m no wine connoisseur but it was an incredibly smooth wine which was light enough to complement our food incredibly well – no matter what we planned to order.

In fact, it might have been a little too smooth as we ended up having two bottles!

We had the Antipasto Mistro sharing platter which came with an assortment of cured meats, olives, sun dried tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese.

Portions were decent and though I’m not a fan of mozzarella myself, I could tell it was done well.

The cured meats were incredible! Olives were also big and juicy, I could have eaten them all day without stopping!

Top marks!

It’s worth mentioning that the staff here were all excellent and attentive. You really get looked after well here and you never have to wait long for their attention. This made doubly important as they were also very busy.

I decided to go for the oven baked salmon with pistachio and honey crust with dauphinoise potatoes served on a bed of Mediterranean vegetables.

This was incredibly well done and as someone who absolutely loves pistachios couldn’t get enough. The salmon was succulent on the inside and nice and crunchy on the outside.

The dauphinoise potatoes were a very different way of having potatoes and certainly something I’ve never experienced before. It was like an oven baked multi layered dish with cream and garlic between each layer. If I was to compare it to something else I’d say that it was very similar to lasagne.

The cream really complimented the fish and gave the food on my fork a superb texture to the bite.

My mum had the wild mushroom risotto which I was lucky enough to try. It tasted great!

We went for dessert and had a tiramisu which was quite frankly, bloody excellent!

Really good portion and so well made. I get this from the supermarket from time to time and the depth of flavour, portion size, thickness was completely on another level. I don’t think I’ve ever had it this good before!

The bill came to about expected and we were treated to an after dinner drink on the house.

I noticed a good selection of spirits including some decent whiskies such as Lagavulin. I know De Luca’s have a bar upstairs so it is good to know that they know their spirits if you fancy retiring up stairs after a meal

Absolutely faultless evening and I look forward to returning. De Luca’s, even after all these years they are still proving they are one of the solid foundations of fine cuisine in Cambridge!