The Pint Shop

If you like real ale and gutsy food with big flavours, The Pint Shop in Cambridge is the place for you! It serves an extensive and ever-changing selection of beers, helpfully listed on chalkboards displaying information on the strength and character. The friendly and knowledgeable staff are happy to provide samples.

We’ve visited three times and most recently opted for the set-lunch menu – excellent value at two courses for £10 and three for £13. It is available Monday to Friday 12pm to 6.30pm. We started with the potted trout with caperberries and toast, and the crispy aromatic duck. Hearty mains of fish stew and chicken & chips (an enormous portion of chicken!) followed. To finish we enjoyed quince crumble cake with double cream.

With our food we quaffed some excellent cask beers and enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere. The Pint Shop, inspired by old English Beer Houses, is rather like a pub crossed with a café. It brings to mind “Mrs Miggins’ Pie Shoppe” from Blackadder. And being in Cambridge, the ambience is imbued with a certain academic flavour. You can well imagine lecturers and students overdoing their lunch breaks here. “Late for afternoon lectures again, Smith?”

If Smith is indeed guilty of such an indiscretion, it could well be down to the 11% stout you’ll inevitably find on the beer list here.

If you don’t want to sit in the restaurant area then enjoy a pint in the bar where they serve some great bar snacks such as hot scotch eggs with runny yolks and mustard, hot sausage rolls, cured and potted meats, and cheese.

You’ll also see a great bit of pub history on The Pint Shop’s menu explaining the origins of the humble Beer House.

By Philip Seaman, Cambridgeshire editor, and Matt Wright, founder