8 | January 31, 2015 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
Food Review D’Arry’s Crowne Plaza, 2-4 King Street, Cambridge, CB1 1LN
Email: info@darrys.co.uk Phone number: (01223) 505015 Restaurant opening hours: Monday – Friday: 10am till late (with a 3pm – 5.30pm kitchen break) Cost: A three course meal for four, including drinks, came to £126.80. Food: 刂刂刂刂 Service: 刂刂刂刂刂 Atmosphere: 刂刂刂刂 Value: 刂刂刂刂
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Fancy dining proves a rare treat for the girls Boyfriends and babies are left at home in favour of black pudding mash and brownies (not served on the same plate) as Ella Walker enjoys a candle-lit dinner with the girls at D’Arry’s.
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Y little sisters between them have three small (adorable) children, so nights out aren’t what you’d call frequent. A night out just us three and our mum? That almost never happens. Sigh. So, when we had a chance to escape babies and boyfriends, D’Arry’s seemed a fancy enough place for the occasion. Oh, and it was my sisters’ birthday (they’re twins, and now, unbelievably, 25). We marched over to the King Street restaurant on an absolutely freezing Tuesday night; the kind of freezing that means you keep almost dropping your phone because your fingers have stopped working, and can’t feel your feet for a good two hours even after going inside. Yeah, it was that cold. Luckily D’Arry’s is super cosy, dotted with candles poking out of wine bottles, and hints of orange and wood and brick nestling up together comfortably; the mood lighting flashing and reflecting off a whole wall hosting their very extensive wine collection. We settled down in a nook towards the back (if you haven’t peered in before, the restaurant is all long and winding, with windows at the front they open oh so cosmopolitany during the summer), so we could
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cackle together without getting frowns from other diners. I told you we don’t get out together much. A round of elderflower cordials and rosé later, three enormous starters arrived to share. First, a metal bucket of crispy, crumbly whitebait that were not too shiny-eyed thankfully, served alongside a basket of ruffled baby gem lettuce leaves and a peppery tartar sauce (£7.95); second, three plump, melt-in-the-mouth duck dumplings with a bright and sparky Asian noodle salad – so good I could have eaten five for my main course easily (£7.95) and finally, spicy Spanish chorizo sausage with spring and red onions cooked in cider and served with bread (£9.95) – which I found a bit mealy and too crimson, but the others quite liked it. As it was a Tuesday, it was steak night, so my sisters – Holly and Lilly – both opted for the sirloin with balsamic glazed cherry tomatoes (which earned a squeak
of “those taste weird”), chunky chips, salad and a peppercorn sauce (£10.95). They smelled fantastic, straight off the grill, although one required quite a lot of chewing . . . I was pretty pleased with my slow cooked pork belly (£15.95), even though it didn’t arrive piping hot. With a sticky, syrupy top and pale, easy to shred meat underneath, it was the celeriac puree (apparently with a hint of vanilla, though I couldn’t spot it), that I’d have eaten bowls of. The added pile of cabbage paired with a spring onion and buttery black pudding mash, drizzled with a cider sauce, was ridiculously moreish though. My mum’s blow-torched sea bass (£14.25) happily turned up without looking too scorched, and was accompanied by smoked cauliflower puree, spinach, crushed new potatoes and a crab mustard. It looked very elegant, and she finished first, so it definitely tasted good. We shared some steeply priced nutty chocolate brownies and treacle
tarts for dessert (£6.45 each), which were almost completely worth feeling utterly gluttonous and struggling to get out of our seats for. The pistachio ice cream wasn’t so much of a hit – it wasn’t remotely creamy and had an artificial tang to it – but the pastry on the tart was addictively short with a hint of lemon and the brownie was suitably gooey and warm (not as good as mum’s brownies though, obviously). On a slightly more sour note, annoyingly they charged us £3.95 for a bottle of still water when we thought we’d ordered tap water (be specific people, be specific), and also charged us for large plates of the starters when we’d ordered small. However, the staff were so friendly we forgot to kick up a fuss. Next time we definitely would. A coffee and a latte later (both excellent, although I just snaffled the odd sip because I couldn’t fit anything else in my body by this point), we tumbled back into the cold, feeling fatter, and older, in a good way.