As a family, that’s us in the picture, we’ve been pretty good at remembering and celebrating birthdays. Last year was my big 6 so this year was inevitably going to be less of an event. But number 1 daughter came down from Leeds and we all went out last night to Carluccio’s in Cambridge.
Carluccio’s ticks a lot of boxes. Firstly you can park in the Lion Yard car park, take the left hand entrance, and then the lift takes you down to just 20m from its front door. And secondly it’s got style: clean, open plan: a mix of delicatessen, cafe and restaurant. It’s just what Cambridge needs: a classy walk-in eatery with good Mediterranean food. And the food wasn’t bad, the menu is long enough to be interesting but not too long to confuse, there’s a decent wine list and 3 different Peroni beers (try the Gran Riserva at 6.7% alcohol!) and the service is friendly and competent.
It should get 10 out of 10 or pretty close to it but it didn’t. Why not? Surprisingly the service is not as effective as it could be. Last night there was a manager who walked around a lot and did little and despite what I would regard as a surfeit of waiters it all seemed a little slow. Italians take their time eating but generally like their service to be prompt. This was not the case at Carluccio’s last night. Nothing really wrong but just lacking a little urgency.
And the food wasn’t great. It was good, nothing to send back but it didn’t sparkle and didn’t seem to offer anything that Mrs J couldn’t emulate and better at home. We had a good mix: insalata calabrese, calamari, Sicilian rice cakes for starters and sea bass, lamb chops, ravioli and spaggheti volgole for mains. All pretty good. But ‘worthy’.
However: this is an Italian restaurant and it does have a real espresso machine. And it works. And the coffee was excellent. Worth a return visit just for that.
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