Reviews Orchid Restaurant

There is limited parking outside the restaurant and beware of your sat nav taking you the wrong way - turn to Midsummer Common after coming up Elizabeth Way not towards left towards Cambridge United's ground. As well as tables in the main area there are also a number of semi-booths by the open kitchen and these are very comfortable and give you a great view of the cooking. We were using a Groupon voucher but we could have anything off the menu - apart from the seafood - if we paid the difference. We started with the traditional crispy duck and pancakes as its my daughter's favourite dish and the duck was beautifully crispy and tasty but we could have done with more sauce. I had the double cooked belly pork for main and although it had lots of chillis the heat was just right although there was an enormous amount of garlic! My daughter had the udin noodles with prawns and pork and this was really tasty and a very generous plateful. The delicious food was washed down with a reasonably priced Sardinian red at £17.95. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful and we will definitely return.

Delicious food and friendly staff, very nice ambiance and choice of music, good drink selection and many nice dishes on the menu - very authentic and has karaoke rooms at the back as well as hot pot upstairs

Food and service is excellent but expensive. The karaoke rooms were ok but technical problems kept interrupting our enjoyment, the staff were very good at sorting it out each time though. For the karaoke rooms unless there are at least 10 of you I wouldn't bother as you need at least 2 hours and it's not cheap.

Right, so it's just before Christmas and I've started my holiday by driving the family about 4 hours from Bristol to Bedford, there was an enormous traffic jam somewhere because the journey usually takes about 2 1/2 to 2 3/4 hours. On the way, wife's sister suggests we go to a new buffet place they found, sounds great! Of course, it's not in Bedford but in Cambridge! That's another hour's drive away😒. Luckily, we have an hour to rest before we have to get there for 6pm. Enough moaning, we get there, park up outside, sit down and get settled. First impressions.... nice decor, slightly pricey food but all you can eat buffet so not a problem. Then we get to the strange part. It IS all you can eat, but it's the type where you order from the staff in rounds of food for the whole table/party. So, everyone orders what they want, eats and then orders again. Repeat until everyone has had their fill. This might be confusing it you've not experienced it before, but is quite easy to understand once tried. You don't have to leave the table, or stand by big warming cabinets poking at gastronorms full of food you don't want, just order what you like from the menu each round and wait for it. The food itself was very nice, better than many buffet places except you have to wait for it to be freshly cooked to order, so the whole experience does take a bit longer than a typical buffet, but much less waste and most likely more hygienic. It encourages you to eat more responsibly, since you have wait between courses. I always thought if I visit Cambridge, it was to see where Sir Clive Sinclair (I'm of a generation that still thinks of him as Uncle Clive!) made it big, not eat some nice, if slightly pricey food!

This is probably my personal winner of the 'hidden gem' restaurant category in Cambridge - the dishes are original and creative (and delicious!), they have a good sake collection (which is my favourite drink with many asian types of food; they also serve other drinks though), and the presentation of the food is excellent, too. The restaurant certainly ranks highly on my 'visit again' list!

Delicious food, good service.

wonderful egg tarts for bringing back home to enjoy