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Located under the Hyatt Centric Hotel in the new village of Eddington, The Astronomer is the latest restaurant from the Cambscuisine family. You may already be familiar with some of their other restaurants, such as The Chop House in Cambridge, the award-winning The Cock in Hemingford Grey, and Millworks in Newnham.

The Astronomer, named in honour of Sir Arthur Eddington, the renowned astronomer, mathematician, and physicist, looks to offer more of the same of what you would expect from Cambscuisine; high quality, seasonal, and bold cuisine with a large emphasis on friendly customer service, style, and accessibility.

Transport:

The village of Eddington proudly boasts about its sustainability with a large emphasis on cycling and walking. There are numerous high quality cycle lanes and buses throughout the village that go through (or past) Eddington, including a Park & Ride on Madingley Road.

Unfortunately, for those of us who aren’t lucky enough to live within cycling distance of Cambridge, it is not easy to get to. Eddington is a hostile place for motorists with limited parking and horrendous speed bumps. I recommend parking for free at the Park & Ride and walking 5-10 minutes to the restaurant, though if you are coming off the A14 you will be forced to drive through Eddington itself before parking. Fortunately, there is disabled parking available close by.

The restaurant:

Upon entering, I was immediately struck by the style of the restaurant. It is modern, spacious, and comfortable, with dim lighting adding a cosy atmosphere. This unfortunately made photos a little challenging for this review, so I apologise in advance for some of the quality of my snaps.

Disabled access is great here, with doors that automatically open at the entrance and a flat floor making it easy for wheelchair users to access the building. Disabled toilets are also available in the lobby with the other toilets in the entrance to the hotel.

There is a rather fetching bar that runs along the main entrance of the restaurant with a good selection of local beers, including one of my favourite breweries, Brewboard (click here to read about my trip to their brewery).

I decided to pick a pint of Brewboard’s interpretation of Czech pilsner, called ‘Czechm8’. For anyone who reads our beer blog will know, I am a big fan of not only Brewboard but Czech beer. What a perfect combination!

Their menu is seasonal with an emphasis on using ingredients at their freshest. It is a rather standard size menu but you can tell everything has been carefully picked to make sure that there is a healthy balance for everyone, including a vegetarian and gluten free options. I could have quite happily ordered half of the menu myself and been very pleased with what is on my plate. Prices were midrange but reasonable, considering the quality of the food.

Starters:

For starters, I ordered the ‘crispy poached egg’. This comes with celeriac remoulade, apple, prosciutto. Quite simply, it was absolutely fantastic. The egg was cooked to perfection and burst all over the celeriac, giving a flavorful, fresh, and crunchy bite.

I was joined by Cambridge Foodies moderator, Kate, who ordered the ‘Niçoise salad’ for her starters. This is the plain option but also comes with a choice of halloumi, tuna, or smoked chicken for mains options.

The salad contained a boiled hen’s egg, green beans, sun dried tomatoes, olives, and baby gem lettuce. I was invited to try some and it was incredibly crispy and had the perfect balance of dressing. Kate also said that the dish was a good size for a starter. It is dishes like salad that really show you the strength of seasonal menus and everything was so vibrant and fresh.

Mains:

For our mains, Kate went for the ‘slow roasted pork belly’. This came with carrots, beetroot, kohlrabi, hash brown, and apple gel, along with stuffing in the middle.

The pork belly was beautifully presented with bold autumn colours. It also had a swirl in the middle from where it had been wrapped together and cooked. I wasn’t lucky enough to try this myself but Kate said the pork belly was amazing & the herb stuffing was gorgeous.

I loved the accompanying roasted root vegetables (parsnip, carrot & beetroot) which were all sweet & perfect. Beetroot especially is so undervalued as a vegetable! The hash browns were so good I didn’t let Simon taste them as I wanted them all to myself 🤣

Kate

I remember having a marvellous steak several years ago at the Cambscuisine’s very own ‘Cambridge Chop House’. I wished to relive that quality, as not only was it delicious but I also thought that a steak would be a great way of being able to tell the quality of the restaurant.

This was a simple yet well executed dish that lets the ingredients do the talking, starting with a beautifully tender and flavorful cut of ribeye steak. The steak was accompanied with chunky chips that were nice and crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside. The flat mushroom, salad, and tomato were all well done and incredibly fresh with bold flavour.

The steak did a great job of honouring the memory of my previous visit to The Chop House, which can be a tricky thing to do with romanticised memories of previous dining experiences, so well done!

Dessert:

For dessert, we were presented with a lemon curd, a versatile and popular dish that is enjoyable for almost everyone. Historically, this is a dish I have never gotten too excited about but it became apparent that this is because I have never had proper lemon curd before. This was one of the highlights of the evening for me as it was absolutely sublime!

It came with an oatmeal pastry that reminded me of flapjacks, accompanied with shards of sugar glass that gave it a satisfying crunch and a delicate minty pop. The sourcing of the blueberries is top notch, as they were big and juicy and simply burst with flavour. The lemon curd itself was unashamedly confident with a sweet flavour and a bold tartness. It was marvellous.

Kate ordered the ‘Chocolate Sphere’, a delicious and rather novel bit of after dinner theatre. The intention is to smash it open with a spoon leaving you with cracked chocolate shards covering an assortment of sweet treats inside. I felt that this satisfying practice is better demonstrated as a gif rather than an image but was very fun none the less.

Both Kate and I were in agreement that the chocolate sphere was one of the richest things we have ever eaten. We struggled to finish it between the both of us and it is clearly one for people with a sweet tooth (or to share). The dollops of calamansi around the sphere were a nice touch that added a vibrant colour and zesty flavour.

Finally, we had a cheese board. The cheese from a local business who also supplies the other 7 Cambscuisine restaurants in the area. It’s great to see local businesses working together and supporting each other. The cheese board came accompanied with a selection of incredibly succulent grapes (seriously, they were incredible!), celery sticks, and some rather smart crackers.

The cheese types weren’t listed but they looked like cheddar, red leicester, and brie. The cheddar and red Leicester were quite dry without any butter or chutneys, which really spoiled it for me. They were also quite hard, which made them difficult to cut and lacked any noticeable flavour.

I managed to save it a little bit by using the brie as a lovely smooth and tangy layer to lubricate the texture of the other cheeses somewhat. Make no mistake, the brie is excellent but overall, it wasn’t enough to save the entire board. This might be one of the weakest cheese boards I have had in a while.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say that the customer service here is first rate. I know Cambscuisine are proud of the way they treat their staff with development and clear career paths and it clearly shows in the staff team. They were not only attentive and professional but warm and friendly. One guy even offered me a free beer if I could best him at chess 🤣. Communication was good too. Food isn’t rushed here at The Astronomer and for me that is always reassuring but I know it can frustrate others. The staff were always speaking with us and updating me on the food.

Conclusion:

The Astronomer provided us with a relaxed atmospheric evening with great food and a marvellous service. Expect many of the classic dishes on the menu but done to a high quality standard. This makes it accessible for everyone but also suitable for casual dining all the way to special occasions. If you are within cycling distance or on a bus route then this is an absolutely no brainer. If you are coming from the north of the city by car then I recommend one of their other 7 restaurants within a several mile radius.

Thanks for reading!