Footlights, Cambridge

Me and three other friends went out last night to Cambridge. The plan was to go for a few drinks in footlights and then go on to the Rat and Parrot. However due to a number of reasons we decided to stay at Footlights restaurant all night.

Footlights is situated in the centre of Cambridge in the South East of England, and is only a five-minute walk from the bus station. It is accessible through the Grafton Shopping centre or from the ...
...lot. Inside the Grafton centre there is a lift that takes you up to the restaurant and you walk to the front desk or you can go up the stairs from the road if you prefer and this takes you straight to the front desk.

When you go in if you want to just stay for a drink you can go over to the bar and there is quite a few tables where you can sit and drink or you can ask for a table and be seated if you prefer or if you want to have something ... more

Me and three other friends went out last night to Cambridge. The plan was to go for a few drinks in footlights and then go on to the Rat and Parrot. However due to a number of reasons we decided to stay at Footlights restaurant all night.

Footlights is situated in the centre of Cambridge in the South East of England, and is only a five-minute walk from the bus station. It is accessible through the Grafton Shopping centre or from the road and has parking available in the Grafton centre parking lot. Inside the Grafton centre there is a lift that takes you up to the restaurant and you walk to the front desk or you can go up the stairs from the road if you prefer and this takes you straight to the front desk.

When you go in if you want to just stay for a drink you can go over to the bar and there is quite a few tables where you can sit and drink or you can ask for a table and be seated if you prefer or if you want to have something to eat. When we walked in to Footlights we asked for a table so we could have some drinks at our table. Because it was a Saturday night the wait was quite a while and we were told half an hour.

The atmosphere is very nice and friendly and there is music playing quietly in the background. The music is audible but not so loud you can’t hear anything else. We went on a Saturday night and they were playing a lot of pop music, which was good because it got us in a good mood and made us ready to go out.

We went to the bar and ordered our drinks, which were very expensive. We ordered a Bacardi and Lemonade (£2.70), a vodka and coke (£2.65), a Smirnoff Ice (£2.95) and a Reef (£3.00). These were not the usual prices we pay in our local Weatherspoons pub so we were quite shocked to have to pay this much for our drinks. Especially Reef being £3.00 and in Weatherspoons it's 99p!! The barman was very friendly though!! If only I could say the same about the waiters/waitresses.

We were told our table would be ready at 9.00pm and at about 9.40pm were finally seated by a very unfriendly waitress. After being brought our menus and cutlery and having ordered more drinks we were moved by another waiter! He told us that this table had already been booked and we would have to wait for ours. Finally after another half and hour we were seated.

We hadn't planned on staying for food however by the time we sat down were all quite hungry so we ordered:

Jalapeno Poppers- Jalapenos are very spicy chillies and they were mixed with sour cream and then coated in breadcrumbs served with lettuce salad and Guacamole, which is an avocado sauce. This was a starter but I had it because I wasn't very hungry and had already eaten. They cost £3.40

Soup of the Day- I can't remember what the soup was but it was also a starter as my friend wasn't very hungry. It was a very large bowl of soup and came with a nice piece of crusty French bread and butter. This cost £2.95

Now we get onto the main meal!
Cheese and Bacon Burger- I've tried burgers in Footlights before and they are the nicest things ever! I've had a Mexican burger before which was mincemeat mixed up with jalapenos and tomatoes and then cooked. Also, I've had a "messy" burger, which is cheese bacon and five-island sauce. This was also delicious. My friend went for a plain cheese and bacon burger. It was huge. It should be for £7.35 I suppose! This burger was at least twice the size of Burger King burgers and was served with fat chips and salad. I tried some (for consumer purposes!) and it was delicious as well.

As you can probably tell Footlights is a Mexican restaurant but they also serve other food such as soup, pasta, fish, and salads. Food is served until 11.00pm, which is great if you want to make a night of it. Until 5.00pm everyday there is a lunch menu, which is not very Mexican and has things like fish and chips, and burgers but they are smaller and cheaper. There is a children’s menu for under 12’s, which serves fish and chips, sausages, chicken nuggets, and burgers. This is very good value as I saw the portions and for a child they are more than enough and worth the price, (around £3.00).

There are a lot of tables in smoking and non-smoking areas, as well as a bar with additional seating. The only problem with the seating is that some of the tables are very close together and it can be a bit of a squeeze. The restaurant is accessible with a wheelchair through the lift from the Grafton centre, however the bar is up a few stairs so this isn't very convenient for people with wheelchairs or pushchairs.

The toilets are very clean and hygienic. There are only three cubicles in the ladies and unfortunately I couldn't check out the men’s!

The reasons we ended up staying for instead of moving on are:
The food was delicious so we had to try it!
They took so long to seat us!
After buying our drinks and meals we had very little money left!

Altogether I would say that if you come prepared with enough money then you could really make a night of it at Footlights. The food is very nice and there is something to suit everyone, with a range of vegetarian meals. The food is quite expensive and I would say that with two alcoholic starter, and main meal it would cost a minimum of £17 per person. The service wasn't very friendly, although our food was brought reasonably quickly and hey weren't a hurry to move us on. I would recommend Footlights but you've been warned about the prices!

 

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