If you are reading this then you are probably looking for the best places to eat down Cambridge’s famous Mill Road.
You are in luck, as you are utterly spoiled for choice down this diverse street. Mill Road is filled with dozens of small independent restaurants, all serving cuisine from around the world…and I have made it my mission to review them all.
Here is a quick summary of each restaurant, with a link to an in-depth review below.
* This list is still ongoing and will be continuously updated. Please let me know if I have missed any by clicking here
Limoncello – 212, Mill Road
Limoncello isn’t just a restaurant but a lifestyle, that truly embraces the Italian way of life. Stepping in is like walking into a cafe in the heart of Italy. Pick up some pasta, take home some n’duja from their very own deli, and partake in a freshly made pizza while you are there. Italian wine is also available. This isn’t just a restaurant but your local Italian market where quality is guaranteed.
Type: Italian/deli 🇮🇹
Make sure you try: Their anti pasti board
Read our review
Bibimbap House – 60, Mill Road
Bibimbap has been on the scene since (at least) 2012 and it is easy to see why it has lasted so long on such a competitive street. This small independent offers some of the most authentic Korean in town and is well known for its Bibimbap dishes. The restaurant isn’t going to blow you away with style but this is a place of practicality and great food.
Type: Korean 🇰🇷
Make sure you try: Their pork Bibimbap
Read our review
Black Cat Cafe – 2 Broadway
Black Cat Cafe has a real cult following in Cambridge, with people going crazy for their cooked breakfasts. This artisan cafe claims to have “brought the flat white to Cambridge” but also offers freshly squeezed orange juice and other classic cafe dishes, all for a competitive price.
Type: Cafe
Make sure you try: Their cooked breakfast while sat outside watching the world go by.
Read our review
Buren – 13-14 Broadway, Mill Road 🇳🇱
From the team behind the widely respected Steak & Honour, Buren offers the classic dishes we all know and love but are executed with absolute perfection in a classy yet slightly quirky restaurant. With quality sourcing from local businesses, to a selection of popular Dutch dishes and craft beer, Buren will make you fall back in love with the dishes you thought you had grown tired of.
Type: Classic, traditional, Dutch, craft beer
Make sure you try: The Buren Burger with their added streaky bacon chop
Tu Casa – 2 Mill Road
Another small independent that offers a variety of tapas options at the tail end of Mill Road. Quality Spanish wines and beers are also available. There aren’t many restaurants that serve Spanish cuisine in Cambridge but naturally Mill Road has one!
Type: Spanish 🇪🇸
Make sure you try: Their slow cooked ox tail or paella
Read our review
Prana – 97, Mill Road
This multi-award winning Indian restaurant offers your classic curry dishes but is done to an exceptional standard. Style, warmth, and quality ingredients are to be expected, with a large seating area out the back that can handle any number of people.
Type: Indian/Bangladeshi 🇮🇳🇧🇩
Make sure you try: Their breakfast and brunch menu, served Friday-Sunday 10-3pm
Read our review
Scott’s All Day
Home to “the best pizza in Cambridge”, Scott’s is famed for its Detroit style deep-pan pizza, boozy brunches, and locally sourced ingredients. In fact, you can see where they source their meat from across the road at the Mill Road butcher. Their craft beer is also a mere 2 two-minute walk at Calverey Brewery – This is as local as it gets!
Type: Pizza, brunch, craft beer
Make sure you try: Their Detroit style deep-pan pizza (not available anywhere else in the city)
Read our review
Kan Zaman – 22, Mill Road
Kan Zaman is one of those hidden Mill Road gems you can walk past a hundred times and not notice but if you make the effort to visit you will be rewarded with incredible Lebanese food; including fresh salads, kebabs, baklava, and a lavish shisha bar out the back. There is so much to love about this place!
Type: Lebanese 🇱🇧
Make sure you try: The shared platter! (Warning: This is a monster!)
Read our review
Tzatziki @ The Royal Standard – 292, Mill Road
Tzatziki is my favourite Greek restaurant in Cambridge and better still, it resides within a pub with an excellent selection of imported beer. Their gyros wraps are absolutely out of this world but you will struggle to find anything on their menu you won’t love.
Type: Greek/Street Food 🇬🇷
Make sure you try: Their gyros or mozzarella sticks
Read our review
Liutaio Chinese Music Cafe – 224, Mill Road
Liutaio is the true definition of a hidden gem. Hiding in plain sight on the bustling Mill Road, this quirky and soulful spot offers a multi-faceted experience that feels less like a restaurant and more like an invitation into a private, vintage living room. Tastefully decorated with Chinese antiques and featuring a player piano that fills the space with live music, the atmosphere is truly unique. The kitchen serves a traditional Chinese menu – all freshly made and delivered with the level of love and care that only a small Mill Road independent truly could.
Type: Chinese
Read our review
Curry Queen – 106, Mill Road
The Curry Queen is home to the first ever tandoori oven in Cambridge, which gives you an idea of how long this Indian restaurant has been open. This cheap and cheerful restaurant has lasted the test of time by offering that perfect Saturday night spicy curry for a fair price. I’ve been coming here for decades.
Type: Indian/Bangladeshi 🇧🇩🇮🇳
Make sure you try: Be brave and have the vindaloo!
Read our review
Chaiiology – 102, Mill Road
Chaiiology is a popular franchise that offers a wide range of Indian street food and other classic dishes from around the world. Examples include, Pani Puri, brioche French toast, smash burgers, and samosa chaat bowls to go. There is something for everyone at this stylish cafe esc restaurant, with great lunch options.
Type: Indian street food, Fusion 🇮🇳
Make sure you try: Their tandoori buffalo milk chai – the best in town!
Read our review
Bedouin – 98-100, Mill Road
A restaurant decorated in the style of an African Bedouin tent. It really sets the tone for an atmosphere unlike anything else in Cambridge. Their North African food will intrigue as well as send your taste buds wild, as you dine surrounded in wall rugs while eating from low tables. This is a great place for special occasions or romantic evenings (in fact, my wife and I had our first ever date here).
Type: North African
Make sure you try: The hot pot
Read our review
Tradizioni – 18, The Broadway
This modern restaurant gives the authentic Italian experience in stylish surroundings. Order one of their half and half pizzas with some of the softest pizza bases around. Fish, tomahawk steaks, pasta, also available – you can’t go wrong!
Type: Italian 🇮🇹
Make sure you try: Trusting Andrea, he’ll see you right!
Read the review
Hungrill – 88, Mill Road
This takeaway is new to the scene but is already incredibly popular with the Cambridge Foodies for its offering of authentic Greek gyros. Limited seating is available but if you are in it for the food then this is a great place to visit.
Type: Greek/takeaway 🇬🇷
Make sure you try: Their deconstructed gyros platters
Read our review
BLD’s – 210A, Mill Road
The last of the old school greasy spoons still stands proud on Mill Road. Decent food, great portions, and all the classic dishes you would expect, all for a competitive price. They don’t make em like this anymore!
Type: Cafe
Make sure you try: The fry up…Obviously!
Read our review
The Brook – 25, Brookfield’s
Cambridge’s very own “desi pub” is half English pub and half Indian bistro, with some of the most authentic biryani in town. There is so much more to The Brook than just biryani however, with a wide selection of dishes on their ever changing menu that are worth the journey alone.
Type: Indian Desi pub 🇮🇳
Make sure you try: Their dum biryani or chicken lollipops
Read our review
Bravo Patesserie – 164, Mill Road
Try one of their incredible Mediterranean breakfasts while sipping on a Turkish coffee, or simply come for their wide selection of home made cakes and desserts. I have lost count at the number of cakes we have brought from here for special occasions.
Bravo Patesserie is our regular 👍
Type: Breakfast, desserts 🍰
Make sure you try: Their Mediterranean breakfast and finish off with a red velvet cake
Read our review
Grill Peri Peri – 52, Mill Road
This is a versatile restaurant that offers a bit of everything, from burgers to pizza, with some surprisingly good dishes for a competitive price. Their smash burger even managed to make it onto our “best burgers in Cambridge” ranking.
Type: Fast Food, burgers, pizza
Make sure you try: Their smash burger
Read our review
Samaan – 74, Mill Road
Samaan really surprised me during my visit, with its beautifully presented Middle Eastern cuisine and gorgeous traditional interior but most importantly the great value menu. I really felt like I was getting away with something when I left, as the quality of the food felt way beyond what I paid. This is a restaurant that has it all!
Type: Middle Eastern/Mediterranean
Make sure you try: Their mixed platter or Turkish coffee
Read our review
Noshe – 18, Mill Road
The newest restaurant on Mill Road, Noshe provides cuisine straight from Afghanistan, served in true authentic fashion, with carpets, low tables, and a warm atmosphere. Lamb plays a key role here but Noshe also doubles up as a coffee house, making it a perfect place to pop in for a cuppa.
Type: Afghanistan 🇦🇫
Make sure you try: Manti
Read our review
Fancetts – 94a, Mill Road
A small independent French-inspired restaurant. Recommended by both the Michelin Guide AND The Good Food Guide 2024.
I’ll leave it at that, shall I?
Type: French 🇫🇷
Make sure you try: Booking well in advance!
Read our review
Mr Taco – 68A, Mill Road
Tacos, quesadillas, tortas, nachos, burritos – you name it! Mr Taco offers true soft shell tacos with a warm smile in a relaxed atmosphere – Perfect for casual or formal dining.
Type: Mexican 🇲🇽
Make sure you try: The super large burrito 😱
Read our review (food van)
Fin Boys – 2, Mill Road
This popular seafood restaurant and fish butchery offers an immersive dining experience with British fish caught in day boats. They will also do special hosting events and wine nights for dinner parties.
Type: Sea food 🐟
Make sure you try:
Review pending…
Al Casbah – 62, Mill Road
Passed down from father to son since 1997, Al Casbah has been a staple of Mill Road for decades. It is one of the most exciting restaurants on Mill Road, with the charcoal grill going full pelt serving North African skewers and their front window opened up onto the street with stalls lined up outside. It is a lively place with a real atmosphere that is hard to match.
Type: North African grill
Make sure you try: The lamb from their grill
Mill Mediterranean Coffee Spot – 32, Mill Road 🇬🇷
This charming Greek cafe offers a wide selection of pastries with a friendly service to boot.
Type: Greek cafe
Make sure you try: Their selection of Greek pastries
Noodle Plus+ – 24A, Mill Road
Chinese style noodles at the heart of Mill Road. This is one of the most popular restaurants in Cambridge and no reservations are taken, so expect to queue outside. You will be rewarded for your patience however, with some of the most authentic Shanghai noodles and dim sum in Cambridge.
Type: Noodles
Make sure you try: Bringing a newspaper for the inevitable queue 🤣
Botany Foodie – 172, Mill Road
A colourful Turkish cafe in the heart of Mill Road offering cakes, bakery, and one of the best breakfasts in Cambridge. This may be one of the warmest and friendliest welcomes you will ever get!
Type: Turkish cafe
Make sure you try: The Turkish Breakfast Special
Gourmet Burger & Fries
Gourmet Burger & Fries is predominantly a takeaway but also has indoor seating. It offers one of the largest selections of burgers in Cambridge ranging from Korean style to Tex Mex. Their meat is locally sourced with butcher quality meat, setting them a cut above many other takeaways in the area.
Type: Burgers
Make sure you try: Take a pick from their huge selection of burgers and milkshakes
Spring Restaurant – 66 Mill Road
This small independently-run Chinese restaurant offers authentic cuisine for a great price with a no-thrills experience. It is ideal for day to day dining and the food is as consistent as the service.
Type: Chinese
Make sure you try: Beef Noodle Soup
Urban Larder – 9, The Broadway
A quirky cheese toastie cafe offering a variety of experimental toasties, including their signature Big Cheesy. Coffee and salads are also available.
Make sure you try: ‘(sitting on) The Dock of Bombay’
Vanderlyle – 38, Mill Road
An ingredient-focussed restaurant that works with farmers and growers to produce sustainably sourced and seasonal dishes.
Type: Vegetarian
Make sure you try:
Review pending…
Thanks for reading
This list is still ongoing and will be continuously updated. Please let me know if I have missed any by clicking here
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