Sleepy Sundays at The Crown & Punchbowl – Horningsea, Cambridge (UK)

I’ve been to Cambscuisine’s The Crown & Punchbowl several times since it opened three years ago after an extensive refurbishment. I wrote all about their seasonal, modern British food here but had never stayed in their accommodation until now.

The Crown & Punchbowl Horningsea Cambridge

This country pub, restaurant and inn located in Horningsea, just 3 miles from the centre of Cambridge, offers the best of both worlds with a village setting but still close enough to the city. Our home is in the midst of renovations so we took advantage of the Sleepy Sundays deal for a little getaway, looking forward to good food and a comfy bed.

The Crown & Punchbowl Horningsea Cambridge pub restaurant rooms

Sleepy Sundays at The Crown & Punchbowl features a double, ensuite room on Sunday evenings for only £50 when you spend £75 on dinner in the restaurant, including food and drinks. However, you need to book the deal by contacting The Crown & Punchbowl directly (not through their website) and it excludes Bank Holiday weekends and breakfast (which is an extra £10 per person – more on that later).

The Crown & Punchbowl Horningsea Science Wing

There are five rooms (Erasmus, Coleridge, Forster, Woolf and Marlowe) in The Crown & Punchbowl’s traditional old part of the building, where the restaurant is just down the stairs. Our room, the Hawking, was on the upper floor of the adjacent Science Wing, their latest extension featuring a total of four rooms named after influential scientists with a connection to Cambridge (Stephen Hawking, Alan Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Jane Goodall).

The Crown & Punchbowl Horningsea Cambridge Hawking room keys

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Cambridge Eat Up! Pot Luck Lunch, a fringe event for Eat Cambridge – Cambridge (UK)

On 14 May 2016, Cambridge Eat Up! (exclamation mark intended) held its first ever Pot Luck Lunch, a fringe event for Eat Cambridge. The lovely and talented Karen Harvey had the foresight to create the Cambridge Eat Up! group on Facebook (you can read about its origins in her blog post here) and it has grown organically since then. It’s become a great virtual “meeting point” for food enthusiasts of all types (not just bloggers) to share good foodie news and plan get-togethers.

Sign

Photo by Karen Harvey

Photo by Karen Harvey

Photo by Lisa Durbin

Photo by Lisa Durbin

So when Eat Cambridge organiser Heidi White thought the group would be ideal for a fringe event, Karen and I jumped at the chance to create something. In the spirit of Cambridge Eat Up!, we wanted to hold an event that reflected foodies coming together, sharing and supporting each other. The result was a Pot Luck Lunch where everyone would bring a dish and we would gather around a table in an informal setting to enjoy each other’s company and good food/drink. We planned this back in December and the next thing we knew, the application was submitted, the entry fee paid (courtesy of Paulo at P A Safety Management Limited) and my home was confirmed as the location. Everyone jumped at the chance to be included and the places filled up very quickly, as soon as the Eat Cambridge programme was released. I even increased the numbers from 15 to 20 but there was still a long waiting list. However, this indicated that the pot luck format appealed to a great number of people, so the group is discussing hosting more of them.

Photo by Ozzy Beck

Photo by Ozzy Beck

Cambridge Eat Up group 1

Photo by Lisa Durbin

Photo by Lisa Durbin

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The Crown & Punchbowl – Horningsea, Cambridge (UK)

I was honoured to be invited by Cambscuisine to enjoy a meal at their latest venture, The Crown & Punchbowl in Horningsea, Cambridge. Having undergone an extensive refurbishment, it’s another great addition to Cambscuisine’s impressive list of restaurants. I admire how Cambscuisine always get it right in terms of food, service and ambience. I’ve written about some of their other establishments: The Cock in Hemingford Grey (here and here) and SmokeWorks (here).

Photo courtesy of The Crown & Punchbowl

Photo courtesy of The Crown & Punchbowl

I was impressed as soon as I saw this lovely country pub and restaurant. It’s an old 17th century coaching inn with traditional features such as brick fireplaces and original timber beams. It’s been extended over the years and sympathetically restored.

Crown & Punchbowl Collage

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