“ad” – Why is this here?

After the closure of Slingers on Station Road, The Fat Lounge has finally opened, offering a wide variety of casual food alongside darts, live sports, gaming nights, and even karaoke. While the chain has numerous takeaway across the UK, this new spot marks their first ever pub concept, launched right here in Cambridge. Far from being a typical uninvested chain, the family behind it actually has deep roots in our city, having run Perfect Pizza on Mill Road twenty years ago.

Staying true to the venue’s history, they have tried to preserve that lively, entertainment-led atmosphere that made Slingers so popular. It is the ideal fun-time spot to gather with friends, watch the match, and tuck into an unbelievably massive menu. Just make sure you come hungry, because as the name suggests, this is definitely a place that puts any diet on hold!

The Pizzas

Pizza is the main event here, and they do things a little differently. Rather than using pre-prepared or frozen bases, they mix their own secret-recipe dough from scratch in-house. Their custom cheese blend combines mozzarella and cheddar, and they apparently use seven different suppliers for their toppings to avoid compromising on quality.

The thin-base dough is fired through a high-capacity conveyor oven (which makes complete sense when you see the size of these things). It has a distinct, almost earthy wholegrain note with a crisp outer edge and a soft centre – a unique profile compared to your standard Neapolitan or New York-style slices. Legend has it the founder has eaten a slice of this pizza every day for 30 years and is still fighting fit!

The Indian Twist

Where things get especially interesting is how the family embraces their Indian culinary heritage with their “Fat Desi” options. You will find clever ideas like masala bases replacing standard tomato sauce, spiced beef keema, tandoori chicken, paneer, and fresh coriander, which is exciting for a foodie like me who not only loves a bit of fusion but Indian food too.

Fat Desi Pizza & The Fat Keema Cow Pizza

The Fat Keema Cow pairs masala beef keema with signature pizza sauce, red onions, fresh chillies, coriander, and a cool yogurt and mint sauce. Being an Indian family, these are not just novelty pizzas; they are a tribute to their heritage and something they certainly aren’t going to phone in. They were unusual, surprisingly complex, and packed a great mix of textures and spices.

The Fat Desi Pizza comes loaded with a rich masala sauce base, red onion, tandoori chicken, chilli flakes, and jalapenos. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the tandoori chicken for a pizza joint, while the combination of jalapenos, chilli flakes and the masala base brought a very welcome hit of warmth and spicy flavour. Their custom mozzarella and cheddar mix gave it a slightly more complex profile than a single cheese would, though I was a little sad not to get a proper, stringy cheese pull while picking up my slice.

Hot Honey Pepperoni Pizza

This is a sweet and fiery twist on a classic pepperoni pizza, loaded with crispy pepperoni and finished with a drizzle of honey chilli sauce. Hot honey pepperoni has become a fairly common style of pizza but I found this version to be very well executed. The ingredients were all solid with the pepperoni in particular being delicious, even if I didn’t catch quite as much sweetness or heat from the honey as expected. All in all, it makes for a great all-rounder. If you order this during your visit, ask for extra hot honey to make sure you can really taste it.

The Beast!

The main attraction at The Fat Lounge is undeniably their colossal 24-inch monster pizza. Known as “The Beast” (or XXXL), it comes cut into 16 foot-long slices, covering a massive 452 square inches of pure, unadulterated pizza. Seriously, when I rolled up a single slice, it was nearly eight inches thick! Loaded with meatballs, tandoori chicken, sausage, spicy beef, and pepperoni, it comes in at a very reasonable £30. Splitting that between six hungry people while drinking beer and playing darts makes for a remarkably budget-friendly night out in the city centre. It is more than just a novelty, as the toppings were generous and of decent quality. I would definitely order this again.

Fat Finger

Fat Lounge offer an long strip of pizza for people on-the-go. These come served up in handy slide-out boxes that make them ideal for a quick lunch bite on Station Road. They even offer a Desi Veg version loaded with masala sauce, peppers, chillies, and a mint drizzle. This might be a good one for lunch.

Burgers

Beyond the pizza, the menu spans everything from smash burgers to loaded sides.

I tried their Pizza Burger, which I will admit I expected to be a bit of a gimmick. Surprisingly, it really worked. In a local market utterly saturated with paper-thin smash burgers, it was refreshing to get thick, juicy beef patties with a proper bite (despite it being advertised as a smash burger). Stacked with burger, cheese, pepperoni, crispy fried onions, lettuce, and garlic mayo inside a bun that tastes like it is made from that same rich pizza dough, it easily earned a respectable spot on my burger league table. Definitely worth a try!

Sides

The Korean Spicy Chicken delivered a sticky and sweet flavour with a rather mild kick of spice. They are served as small chicken bites rather than wings making them easier to eat, though I know many foodies will prefer whole chicken wings but they are practical, easy-going fun. Just don’t expect it to be anywhere near the same standard as an authentic Korean restaurant.  

The Cheesy Loaded Curly Fries and Parmesan Chicken did exactly what they said on the tin but aren’t going to blow a hardened foodie away but I’ll admit, they do a decent job adding extra colour and flavour to the table and will serve a group of friends playing darts and watching the footie well enough.

Drinks

To wash it all down, they offer a mix of custom shakes, smoothies, and beer. The Mango Passion Smoothie was thick, tropical, and cold, while the Biscoff Frappé provided a creamy, indulgent option.

On the beer side, while the line-up does not quite hit the craft heights of Slingers (missing local legends like BrewBoard) they still offer a solid selection. That includes their own house pale ale and a surprisingly good pear beer with a lovely, subtle sweetness that felt like a mix between a cider and a beer.

We wrapped up the food with the Pistachio Choco Crumble and the Dubai Chocolate Cookie Dough, folded with crunchy knafeh and pistachio sauce. Extremely sweet, extremely rich, and a proper treat to sign off the meal. I loved the crispness of the Dubai chocolate, which you could literally hear snapping as you put your spoon into it. That crunchy texture worked perfectly against the creamy ice cream served on the side.

Verdict

The Fat Lounge knows its target audience. It is a fun-times bar where the overall experience takes precedence over going to extreme lengths to source their ingredients from local farms or using imported ingredients. With that said, foodies will still find something genuinely exciting here with their Indian fusion pizzas, while everyone else gets an accessible, high-value spot to kick off a great night.

I can see this being the ideal starter venue before a big night out, where a group of friends can gather over a couple of beers, play a few frames of interactive darts, and fill up on that colossal 24-inch pizza without breaking the bank. It is unpretentious, casual, and built for big portions, sweet treats, and proper fun.

Thanks for reading!