Cambridge Lunch: Hôtel du Vin

The Hôtel du Vin on Cambridge’s Trumpington Street is a stone’s throw from the Fitzwilliam Museum and from the city’s many dizzingly magnificent college buildings. As you may know the Hôtel du Vin is a small boutique hotel chain with hotels in twelve other UK cities (Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Harrogate, Henley-on-Thames, Newcastle, Poole, Tunbridge Wells, Winchester and York)

Cambridge’s Hôtel du Vin (hereinafter, for simplicity’s sake, called HdV) was carved out of five townhouse which once belonged to the University of Cambridge. As the buildings were Grade II listed and of medieval origin it must have taken some architecturally ingenuity not to mention patience to transform them from their previous incarnation into a quirky but modern forty-one bedroom hotel.



I had lunch in the HdV on a recent trip to Cambridge. Given that my experience of summer thus far has been mainly of misty rain-sodden days the meteorological conditions in Cambridge, when I was there, seemed almost tropical. So, I felt it would be sinful to dine indoors in the Bistro; the only sane choice was to lunch outside on the hotel’s terrace.

Glittering sunlight bathed the flagstoned terrace and it was lovely to see a translucent blue sky plus there was lots of cheering colour to look at from a profusion of plants in: window-boxes, flower beds, hanging baskets and an assortment of jugs on the tables.

I ordered a omelette Arnold Bennett from a short menu that was on the table. It would, if I so desired, have been possible to order from the more extensive à la carte bistro menu. The omelette came with a green side salad and a generous portion of bread. I have to to confess *hangs head in culinary shame* that although I love omlettes that this was the first time I had ever eaten an omlettee Arnold Bennett. The fluffy conoction, named after the English writer Arnold Bennett, is made from: eggs, smoked haddock, béchamel sauce and hollandaise sauce.

Naturally, as it is a vinous hotel I had a glass of wine with my lunch. It was a crisp dry fruity white and I cannot quite believe I forgot to make a note of exactly what it was. However, I think that the HdV is the sort of place that you could safely stick a pin in the wine list and be guaranteed a decent glass of your preferred shade of wine.

I just had a one course for lunch, as I was fairly full having had a late breakfast when I arrived in Cambridge, so it is difficult to pass a full judgement on the food at the HdV other that to say I enjoyed my omelette even if I would have preferred just a tad more seasoning in it.

I have a vague memory that shortly after I started blogging I read about a blogger who was trying to visit and write about every Starbucks on the planet. Now, visiting and eating lunch in every branch of the HdV would be a great deal easier but I am not going to make myself a hostage to fortune by declaring I will do this. But, if I am in a city where there is a HdV and I have time to seek it out I most certainly will.