Tatties - Cambridge

Tatties is what would happen if you combined a café and a ‘greasy spoon’, it is elegant but rough around the edges. The café is one big, wide open space, surrounded by almost ceiling to floor windows, giving the whole place a light and bright feel. The walls are covered in fantastic works of art and old-style tin tea adverts and the wrap-around counter shines, illuminating row after row of delicious looking cakes and tray bakes. Chalk boards are dotted around the counter offering “Your Choice, Hot Ciabattas!” or drinks “For Your THIRST”, from juice through to milkshakes to teas and hot chocolates each as tasty as the last. As usual I opted for a tea (what else?!) which came in a huge cup, bag still in, and a chocolate crispy cake which was a little soft but delicious all the same!

The array of customers is quite brilliant, while I have been here I have seen: a couple, a mother and daughter, a father and son, varying numbers of students and a man in a kilt (though being a girl in waistcoat, who am I to comment on his clothes?!) Tatties also has outdoor seating surrounded but an arch of nearby sheltering shops that make it look like it would be a lovely place to sit in the summer but which now, in winter is empty.

Some small things I noticed that I liked were the breakfast menu that starts “Good Morning Cambridge!”, a sign boasting “probably the best value food in Cambridge” (I was pretty happy with mine) and the front of the menu which has a victorian-style drawing of a reclining woman and man with speech bubbles added (you’ll have to visit to see what they are saying!)

Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Tatties
Address: 15 Trinity St, Cambridge, CB2 1TB

Fitzbillies - Cambridge

On my travels today I finally decided to try Fitzbillies, a café I have passed many times wandering the streets of beautiful Cambridge but only now finally visited. The café is attached to a beautiful cake shop, most recently displaying all sorts of red and pink heart shaped cookies and cakes for valentines day.

Inside, the cake shop gives way to a retro-looking café, decked out with pictures of Cambridge, pages from books and a giant clock (I will never ask the time in here!) the whole atmosphere, from the mis-matched pictures, the big red ‘Cambridge’ on the wall and the waitresses in chefs tunics is a little odd but efficient and comfortable.

Unfortunately the lunch menu is rather small but they were happy to tweak something for me and the sandwich they gave me (though on very thick bread,) was lovely. The tea is Tea Pigs, a brand a lot of places seem to be going with nowadays, not that I’m complaining, it’s lovely, bag in pot and tasted delicious. I was pleased with the dainty yet sizeable teacup I was given. My tea complaint is that the teapot, whilst holding glorious tea, didn’t hold very much of it, a largish cup and a half, possibly the smallest teapot I have been given on my travels.

A sweet touch I enjoyed was the sticker holding my napkin around my knife and fork, which proudly states “Fitzbillies Cambridge since 1922”. Cafés in Cambridge are always a pleasure and this odd shaped café-cake-shop combo is no exception.

Twitter: @fitzbillies
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Fitzbillies
Website: Fitzbillies.com
Address: 51-51 Trumpington St, Cambridge, CB2 1RG