Clown's

Y (£) **** Clowns’ (King Street) remains the most character-filled café in Cambridge. Its staff (in fact, one extended Italian family) is renowned and well-loved by many, and it’s generally full most afternoons with a lively, interesting crowd. The café’s clients are fairly evenly divided between university students and people from the town, which makes for a pleasant and less pretentious atmosphere than in some of the other establishments in the centre of the city. It serves hearty if uninspired Italian food, and, importantly, beer and wine until midnight most nights. Coming for a late dinner is an experience, when many of Cambridge’s more colourful local characters converge here to eat and gossip.