The entire menu at Sauce is pretty good, but the tapas menu takes the cake and contains a bevy of appetizers perfect for sharing. (Geoff Ziezulewicz / S&S)
The entire menu at Sauce is pretty good, but the tapas menu takes the cake and contains a bevy of appetizers perfect for sharing. (Geoff Ziezulewicz / S&S)
Having trouble picturing where the Cambridge train station and the nearby Sauce restaurant are? Look for the soldier memorial. (Geoff Ziezulewicz / S&S)
Sauce, a hip eatery in Cambridge, is two minutes from the train station and a great place to kill a bit of time. (Geoff Ziezulewicz / S&S)
CAMBRIDGE — If you’re in East Anglia and traveling by rail to London or other cities from Ely, Bury St. Edmunds or elsewhere, your train might pull into the Cambridge train station en route to your final destination.
And right outside the station, just down Station Road, there’s a bevy of quality places where you can whet your whistle or grab a quick bite.
At the junction of Station and Hills roads is a sound option. You’ve probably seen the soldier monument at the roads’ crossing. Sitting right there is Sauce, a hip restaurant and pub serving a variety of cuisines.
The interior is hip but also comfortable. There’s a row of plush booths and a grand table that recently hosted a poker night. There are couches or tables and even bar seating, if it strikes you.
But while the decor screams posh, the prices are not. Three pounds will get you a pint, and most entrees are in the 7-to-8-pound range.
And while items such as a chicken and grilled chorizo Caesar salad might sound exotic and fancy, the meals have a home-cooked taste that could even be called comfort food.
But the real jewel of the kitchen is the tapas menu. A sultry dining companion on a recent visit said they beat out the tapas she had recently sampled in Barcelona, Spain.
Now that might be a stretch, but dishes like the dim sum sampler and duck breast pancakes were freshly prepared, tasty and the perfect snack to go with a few cocktails.
Ranging between 4 and 6 pounds, the tapas menu features everything from crispy salt-and-pepper squid to nachos and the standard chips.
If you haven’t exhausted your appetite for sausages while in England, Sauce also offers a mix-and-match bangers-and-mash menu, where you can pick different varieties of meat and potatoes.
The joint even has a downstairs bar that can be rented for special occasions.
Great pubs and restaurants often can be judged on their adaptability. Sauce is a great place to grab lunch and read the paper while also being well-suited to the after-work happy hour drink, or as a jump-off to a night of bigger and better things. Next time you’re on Station Road, check it out.
To see previous After Hours reviews, go tostripes.com/afterhours
Cambridge restaurant
What: A posh-looking but welcoming eatery two minutes from the Cambridge train station.
Where: 1 Station Road, Cambridge, CB1 2JB. Look for the soldier monument at the intersection of Hill and Station roads. If you walk out of the Cambridge station, it’s straight ahead on the right.
Details: 01223-902177.
