Real Eating Company in Cambridge

What a lovely coffee shop, I had a toasted tuna sandwich and a coffee, service was great staff were friendly and it was priced very reasonable and to top it off the sandwich had lots of filling. Buzzing little place in the middle of Cambridge. Recommended to anyone

Friendly, helpful employees. Delicious hot strong coffee and delicacy. Nice and cozy place too!. Please only use the toilet as far as your hygiene is concerned. Just super disgusting! There is dirt and urine everywhere, it smells really bad. Remove the lock on the door (a person was stuck in the toilet and the door handle is half loose + not exactly customer friendly).

Really poor quality of food and drinks. Coffee okay but hot chocolate was disgusting.

17.11.2024 I went there with my family to have coffee, hot chocolate, and cake. Cakes were stale, which was why they warmed my cinnamon bun. My daughter's hot chocolate tasted horrible; she couldn't drink it. So, really bad quality and definitely not worth the money. Frustrating, so I will never go there again.

Very slow, and the veggie breakfast dismal and expensive for what it is. And it looks like it’s short staffed to serve the customers.

Not interested in going back to a place that doesn't care about the environment and after a certain time (I went at 3.30 of a Saturday afternoon) uses disposable cups because they can't be bothered with the washing up. The tables also were pretty dirty with cups and crumbs left around.

I was so surprised, went for a walk with my dogs and saw the great atmosphere in this place. The staff were so friendly to me and my dogs (they are dog friendly) and also serve really good toasties. Would definitely recommend.

A cracking cuppa and fantastic service.

Popped in for a breakfast and and iced coffee this weekend! Food was amazing, lovely and fresh ingredients. Coffee was also great. Nice cozy atmosphere and the staff were super friendly!! Highly recommend

Location is the only thing this cafe has to offer. Very basic and limited food option. And only 2 guys were serving and making coffees. Never had to wait for like 15 mins just to get a cup of latte and a cup of Americano. I mean that's now how a cafe works. Croissants were cold and seemed not fresh. Of course it's in the middle of the market and it was crowded. And all had to wait for food. Annoying.

Encontré este lugar en el día en cambridge. chocolate caliente blanco y pastel de café encantador pero mesas llenas de platos y tazas sucios que tuvimos que limpiar antes de sentarnos. parecía corto de personal y el servicio lento. sentí pena por el personal

Delicious Mac and cheese! Autumn drinks and very cosy atmosphere!

Rude serving staff . Waiting ages for a toaster - no apology- would never come back .

I do like this place it's clean and comfortable, and coffee is A1. The carmal short cake was yummy

Necesitábamos un lugar para descansar debido a que mi marido tiene discapacidades pedimos un café y un té descafeinado, con un queso y jamón croissant. Nos preguntaron si nos gustaría que se calentara, lo que hicimos. El servicio de la chica en la caja fue muy bueno, ya que estoy profundamente sordo. Ella no me hizo sentir estúpido cuando no la entendí. Luego nos sentamos afuera, un señor trajo nuestras bebidas y comida y nos preguntó si queríamos azúcar, leche o limón, que era tan agradable tener una opción. El croissant estaba delicioso y me pareció muy buena relación calidad-precio. La tetera fue increíble gracias a todos. Volveremos de nuevo seguro

Coffee - ok, and counter service decent at the till however the food was absolutely terrible and took forever to arrive even though it wasn’t busy. Would genuinely rate it the worst breakfast I’ve ever had. It also wasn’t cheap coming in at £40 for two of us with drinks. Eggs on both breakfasts were hard and over cooked, on the veggie breakfast only got one slice of toast which had a thin spread of avocado on only half of it?! Beans were cold and tomatoes and spinach completely tasteless. The plate looked empty when it came out, would not return.

The team here are amazing, Axelle and Natasha always have friendly and welcome smiles Their full english breakfast is to die for!

There was eggshell on eggs. No indoor ac, I was sweating while sitting there.

Best English breakfast I’ve had and amazing coffee! Would definitely recommend if looking for a tasty breakfast in Cambridge… staff very friendly too

A cafe with potential Cosy environment. Service was okay so far. I know that the food was not well rated, but it deserves a chance. Look at the menu. I think the one who designed the menu it is a person who is trying to promote healthy lifestyle to the customers. Its veggie English breakfast does not provide vegan bacon and vegan sausages. No vegan croissant or pastries either. It is a very rare menu in the UK these days. It's not a commercial business for sure. Personally I am not sure margarine, vegan sausages or vegan bacon are healthy choice. It's because they are highly processed with a lot of trans fat and sodium. To conduct a proper vegan lifestyle, having highly processed food is not a way out. People should have enough knowledge about health and nutrition before conducting vegan lifestyle is the point. There's options to choose a darker hot chocolate in this cafe. While the hot chocolate available in most of the cafe are far too sweet. One more thing I am impressed is you can ask the stuff to heat the croissants and buns. Again, most of the cafe do not have this service. The truth is not everyone is used to have room temperature bread or scones. Therefore I have kinda forgiven up ordering any bread or pastries in cafe, as most of them would refuse to heat the food for customers. Seems like heating bread or pastries is a very unusual request for them. Too bad there's no scones in this cafe. It would be nice to have a hot scone with a hot drink. Some like it hot. I think the business has a lot of potential. Good luck.

Terrible customer service. Won’t come here again. No alternative options for those who have lactose intolerance. Also finding out they don’t server hot food go to staffing issues while ordering. This could have been communicated with a sign/note. Toasties at £6.95 and no side salad or crisps. No value to customers.

Visited this restaurant with a friend for lunch what a disappointment. The restaurant was filthy and the staff were so unfriendly. The food was average and way to expensive for what you get. Wouldn’t even recommended the coffee. Would not recommend to anybody

Popped in for the tradition full English breakfast. Not disappointed. Very well cooked quality ingredients.

Tourist trap. Bad coffee, expensive 4£ cookie (just sugar nothing fancy), noisy, poor service.

Currently having a toasted sandwich, lovely cuppa Tea and a warmed up Apple pie! The icing on the cake.. thank-you very much

Chain cafe located at Sidney Street of Cambridge. Served warm cinnamon bun, good combination with iced latte. Perfect for my studying.

Great location but poor service, average snacks (toasties), only one gluten free cake option, coffee fine but nothing special. Very expensive (I know its Cambridge) £27 for 3 coffees, 2 toasties & a cake.

It hurts me to write this negative review but I feel it's the only way to get the management attention. This is a really lovely venue and it can really be made into something great. However when I went here a couple weeks ago the place is absolutely infested with fruit flies. I cannot exaggerate this but there were probably a hundred flies in there only from what I saw, they were all over the walls and the ceiling and it made my skin crawl and I had to leave. I feel so sorry for the staff that have to work in this condition, and additionally there was only one staff member doing everything (it was a Sunday but I would think this is the busier time). I know fruit flies are really pesky and hard to get rid of but I would urge the management to focus on this issue and invest in some quality pest control. If it was not for this really major issue I would probably make this my regular coffee place. Maybe it has been resolved since but it really stuck with me and I have not been in there after that. Please maybe look into hiring more staff on weekends also as being understaffed is not a good look

Dropped in for a drink only. Ordered 2 hot chocolates and cream. Rather expensive but it’s Cambridge and is expected. However. Drink was extremely watery hardly any taste of chocolate. I drank it as I was thirsty but was totally unimpressed. 2 young waitresses run off their feet more interested. Serving take outs than seated customers.

Every morning I come here and it is a lovely place. The staff is very friendly and they serve you very well, the breakfast is very delicious and the coffee is great. I definitely recommend it!

OK sandwiches. Main issue - your cafe was FULL of flies when we were eating. Put us off our food unfortunately. Flies were flying round and all on the walls near us too.

This coffee shop is amazing, super good quality coffee & cute vibes. Great service too !

Expensive toasted sandwiches and coffee (£20). We sat at the back and were pestered by fruit flies. Other customers were remarking on them as well. There were about a hundred flies waiting in the walls and ceiling and halfway through our meal they started descending on us. To say that we were put off our lunch would be an understatement.

Lovely place and the staff are exceptionally kind and accommodating!

Started off badly when I was standing at the counter waiting for 10 minutes. No one was in front of me which made it even worse. There was one lady behind the counter and another showed up after the queue increased to 5. Coffee was alright but I've had better around Cambridge. Toasted ham and cheese sandwich was pretty average and cost £6.25 which seemed pretty extortionate.

Popped in for a coffee and a breakfast bap. Lovely friendly people, decent prices and great sausage and bacon! Well done!

Coffee was cold. There were lots of flies around on cakes & wall etc so went for wrapped toastie instead which was very nice

Painfully slow service (at 12.30 on a Wednesday) - only 1 member of staff for the whole place and they seemed very slow. Lots of flies on the ceiling and around the food on the counter - they need some kind of fly trap. Was so put off by the wait and the flies that I gave up and didn't get anything, so can't comment on the food, but I would recommend a toastie (as they are wrapped and in the fridge) and nothing left out on the counter.

Nice cafe. Very nice dark hot chocolate and the location is very central. I had a nice time there and the service was nice. I'd recommend to keep the tables a bit more tidy, but maybe I went at the wrong time. Thank you!!

Horrible experience. We went in, took a table that was full of leftover plates and cups that we had to clean up ourselves. Service was non existent. Atmosphere was the opposite of cozy. The worst part was going over to check the available cakes. The cake displays were full of flies. Needless to say we got up and left …

I recently visited the Real Eating Company - Coffee and Kitchen. The coffee was average, nothing particularly special, but it did the job. The cakes, however, are worth noting – they were fresh, moist, and hit the sweet spot perfectly. On the other hand, the breakfast items didn't quite meet the mark. The smashed avocado was a letdown as it was more akin to a spread than the hearty, chunky avocado I had anticipated. This was a bit of a disappointment, especially given the quality of their other offerings. In summary, for a quick coffee and a cake, this place is a reasonable choice. But for those seeking a fulfilling breakfast, particularly if you're fond of avocado, it might be best to manage your expectations.

Very cozy and tasty for little money.

Good Cappuccinos, a pain au raisin was very good if a little small. A cheese and ham croissant was also good. The prices are at the top end of acceptable. I guess you have to remember where you are.

The tea was great! The veggie breakfast was a bit underwhelming but still of quality (still a bit pricy for what I got). Would recommend going here for getting a cup of tea with a cake!

Had a beautiful visit in this coffee shop, service was good, breakfast was great and arrived just on time. Definitely going to come back!

Nice products and service , but sadly terrible toilets which let the experience down.

This should be called "fake eating company" defo not real

Nice cosy cafe, love the atmosphere. Service was good.

Weirdest sausages I've ever eaten Was like chewing on a farmers boot. Cold beans. Not good. Egg shell in eggs.

Just popped in for a takeaway coffee and croissant. Staff was delightful and coffee was just what I needed. I'll definitely go again when in Cambridge!

friendly staff, great breakfast and great coffee

Such a nice cafe - the staff are lovely and the coffee and food is great, especially the new pancakes!

Nice Latte and the design of the coffee cup is so cute!

Great service, as a customer with cerebral palsy I have a number of additional needs

Had an amazing hot chocolate and brownie. The girl on the till was brilliant and very vibrant! Would definitely be returning here!

I have coeliac disease and therefore can only eat gluten free food. I tried to have lunch today and was very disappointed that there were absolutely no GF options. I feel this is discriminatory and it needs to be addressed.

Sadly the lemon drizzle cake was very dry, and the cappuccino was mostly foam.... however the staff were lovely and the coffee beneath the foam was great

Great food and coffee, but poor customer service

I am a huge fan of this place. No-frills, and coffee is consistently good (nice and strong). Sandwiches too are excellent value, and tasty.

Très bon service, attentionné. La limonade était vraiment très bonne ! C'est un beau café. Les cookies y sont très bon !

Nice coffee and superb cinnamon roll, top3 here at Cambridge.

Tables facing the bar ought to be spaced out a bit, not ideal to be touching knees with strangers while you eat 🥴

Flat white tiny for the price and somewhat cold. Tasted ok. No reason to come here again.

Lovely place and lovely food! I had the english breakfast today with my daugther and it was delightful! Definitely coming back!Also very friendly staff, young and respectful!

I wish I can give 0 stars for the food. I make a mistake to bring my kids here to eat but they refuse to finish anything. We went next door to Sainsburys to buy sandwiches and sat outside Kings College to eat. I wish I did in the first place since it was a much better food quality and more comfortable to sit.

I wanted to love this cafe, I already loved the coziness and ambiance, but wow, the food is so bad. I love pesto, however, their chicken and pesto was diabolical. Immediately, the sandwich was a no. I had to see if cake would turn my visit around, it wasn’t bad but it was definitely giving store bought madeira. I wouldn’t hurry back to do any “real eating” there anytime soon. But not bad for drinks

OK for a cup of tea here but not to get anything to eat be better of at pret.

Lovely cake and coffee today! Great and helpful staff as well 👍👍

My Wife and I wanted a Full English Breakfast and came across Real Eating Company which looked beautiful and inviting, but that's where the nice experience stopped. We ordered 2 Full English breakfasts and 2 hot drinks, for £32 I said to my Wife this has got to be good!!!. We where given a table number and we found a place to sit. Our drinks came to us in a good time by a young girl, but I then noticed our table number went missing. I informed staff at the counter but they knew we where we were sitting. Our breakfast followed shortly after. My Wife had no butter for her toast, my toast was burnt. Informed staff regarding the butter and was told they would bring some..never turned up. The plates where cold and so were my beans. I took my breakfast back where my Wife was then eating on her own. When my breakfast was ready they took it to the wrong table. Beans were nice and hot, but the rest of my breakfast was then cold. Being in need of food as I am a Diabetic, I didn't want to wait any longer.

Good service (was early morning & quiet), nice atmosphere. But the coffee just wasn't nice. On the cold side, and didn't taste smooth, more like a McDonald's cup. Maybe consider using different beans?

Really nice cafe, good sandwiches and generously sized coffee cups, which is nice. The coffee bean machines are really loud though, which is unavoidable I guess. Great location. Nice staff, professional, a bit disinterested though. I come from the country where people are warmer than in cities.

Disgusting!!!! Untrained staff! Can't make hot choclate or tea! Manager's attitude - could'nt careless!! Filthy toilets! Stay out!!!

Absolutely disgraceful!! Did not know how to make a hot chocolate. Disgusting tea. Dirty filthy toilets Worse still a couldn’t careless attitude. EHO needs to inspect!

I went in there for some coffee and little bite to eat with my wife there was 2 young people on bar a girl with glasses (alex) and lad with tattoos (brandon) they both were very polite and friendly the young girl was helpful and welcoming the young lad was full of energy seemed to know about coffee making and we overheard their happy laughing conversation. Cofee was lovely and place was lovely too we will be back to this cafe thank you for a lovely visit.

Afternoon tea from the pot, great cinnamon bun (warm) & lemon polenta cake. Recommended.

Not great. Sunday lunch with my brother. Cafe not particularly busy, paid for sandwiches and told drinks would be delivered. After 10 minutes, no drinks despite people who arrived after us receiving their drinks. Brother went to counter and 5 minutes later, drinks arrived. Coffee was excellent and sandwich very tasty but shoddy service lets this place down. Tables were not cleared either and no napkins visible. Sorry, won’t return.

Place was ok for the first couple of months after it opened. Went down the hill really fast. Service is abysmal.

Ordered a chai coffee. Coffee shop was quiet. 2 people working behind the counter. Waited 10 mins - no coffee. Went to the counter and turns out the girl behind the counter FORGOT about it. Seriously. If I were a mystery shopper... FAIL and disciplinary!! Won't go back.

Coffee and chocolate cake delicious. Clean environment.

Underwhelmed. Thinnest slice of slightly dry cake I’ve bought for £4. No fork supplied. I won’t be back.

화이트초콜릿 맛있어요. 직원들이 친절합니다. 내부 화장실 있습니다. 가게 구석에 콘센트 있습니다. 카드만 받는다고 써있었던 걸로 기억합니다

I originally visited the Pety Cury branch and had a nice coffee and cake. Then visited the Sydney At branch and service wasn't great, but they were busy. So I gave them the benefit of the doubt a second time. Not so busy on a Sunday morning. Stood watching the two members of staffs' backs for 5 minutes - no acknowledgement or "I'll be with you in a minute". Then I just got looked at, which I assume means "good, morning, sorry for the delay, what can I get you?" So I order our 2 coffees and cakes. 17 minutes later our coffee arrived. A perfunctionary, "here are your coffees", no aplogogies for the wait or anything else. Of course we had finished our cakes by this time, nibbling a bit at a time expecting the drinks to arrive. For some reason our coffee was in takeaway cups and tasted fine, nothing special. 2 coffees and cakes were £15. Overall, really disappointing and I won't be back.

Poor service. The coffe was ok though.

It was good and it had vegan options!

Food and drinks good value, nice atmosphere. Down side was one toilet for the whole place, had to queue for over 5 mins...

peng coffee, service is good and quick even during peak hours. I have been in a few times of the past few weeks and have never been disappointed. Not the cheapest, but coffee never will be. I will be continuing regular visits:)

Thank you for my favorite latte and the most delicious snail with raisins!

Awful service. On asking why a simple black Americano was taking so long (second visit to the counter) I was told 'If you speak to me with some respect, you'll get your coffee!' Twice! I don't need to defend myself against such rudeness but all I'd asked was why take away customers were being served before eat in. This member of staff should not be allowed anywhere near customers. Even as I sat down afterwards she was shooting me dirty looks. Absolutely appalling, visiting this place tarnished a pleasant visit to Cambridge with my family. We saw a few people leave the queue, wish we had.

It was very pleasant. My flat white was good and almond croissant was great. Prices fair and it was clean comfortable and relaxed.

Not impressed with the service. My wife's breakfast was given to her and I was told mine would be a further 10 minutes, wife had eaten hers prior to mine coming out. Would be better to have been given both at the same time. Full English wasn't worth the money, with two sausages, one bacon, one mushroom, a few beans and scrambled egg on a slice of soggy toast.

The service was so poor and it doesn’t get any better. This was the second time to come here and the same poor service again. Ordered the toasted sandwich and a coffee. 5 mins later my sandwich arrived. The man asked me if I was also waiting for any drink. I said cafe latte. He went away and never came back. I saw him to keep making coffee for the customers who arrived later than me. I nearly finished my sandwich and coffee didn’t arrive. So I went to ask if he has forgotten my coffee. He angrily said no. He came with the cold coffee 2 mins later and left the coffee on my table and didn’t say a word. What a terrible and rude person he was! I will never come here again. My suggestion for you is that just get a take-away coffee from here because once you sit down they ignore you and serve the other customers on the go first. It is a place that is badly run and managed. Don’t really know why and how it always went wrong. Other customers were unhappy and waiting impatiently too. So I guess it is not me.

Ordered a cheese and pesto toastie, there was hardly any filling in the sandwich, the coffee was good but overall very expensive and not good value 😑

Called in for a late lunch, tempted by the fresh soup. Stood for three minutes at the counter before one of the three employees came over and took my order. No soup - ok, we’ll have one of the few expensive toasted sandwiches left. Tables are close together and not very clean. Our drinks arrived - I had a mug of tea with nowhere to put the teabag apart from the dirty table. When I asked for something to put it on the waitress picked up a dirty plate from the next table and told me to put it on there. When our toasted sandwiches arrived (not much filling, not great bread) no napkins. Maybe I should have picked them up from the counter? No, none on the counter. I asked a member of staff who said that they had run out, and offered me a kitchen roll. Took two pieces. Then I went to the single loo against my better judgment. It was filthy! No list on the wall of when it was checked and cleaned (unsurprisingly), empty cardboard loo roll holders strewn around, broken loo roll dispenser, bits of wet loo paper on the floor. The sink was dusty, so hadn’t been cleaned for a while. One of the many framed photos was off the wall and propped in a corner. Maybe we came on an off day, but it was spectacularly poor. I mentioned the state of the toilet to a member of staff as we left, who said they would report it to their manager. I also notice that two of the three other reviews for this place (both five stars) come from a) someone whose only other five star review is for another branch of this chain and b) one other coffee shop and … the other branch of this chain.

Very low quality coffee, They topped up my coffee with hot water just to fill the cup. Price on menu board does NOT match the price charged. The place used to be good, gone down hill fast now. The Cambridge Sidney street shop

Service very slow. Hot chocolate cold!

Polite service but the weirdest ‘breakfast tea’ I’ve ever had. Seemed to have been made with foaming milk… I left the teabag in for a good five minutes and still it tasted of pretty much nothing.

A great place to stop for a coffee/tea/chocolate and cake. Although it's a chain it retains the spirit of independence. The cinnamon bun was particularly tasty. I also loved the choice of hot chocolate, I guess that's a trend these days and long may it continue!

Friendly service. Showed the English way of drinking tea and explained about the order you put the cream/jam on the scones.

Welcoming decour but far from good. TABLES DIRTY. They keep sandwiches in the fridge for two days, my bread felt hard. Flat white was good but the cup tiny.

lovely little place and lovely staff, my new favourite coffee shop in cambs :)❣️