Where to get a top quality Sunday lunch at a price that won't see you having to forgo food for the rest of the week...

The Orchard
45-47 Mill Way, Grantchester
(01223) 845862
Rupert Brooke and Virginia Woolf hung out here once upon a time, and the orchard setting itself is gorgeous in summer months as a place to sip tea and nibble sandwiches whilst holding inquisitive staring matches with the pheasants. The entire scene is straight out of Alice in Wonderland, although the caterpillar thing with the hookah pipe is sadly missing.
Mon-Sun 10.30am-6.30pm
Recommended dish: Smoked salmon and crème fraiche baguette £5.50, House wine £8.50

Vaults
14a Trinity Street (01223) 506090
Claustrophobics be warned, Vaults lives up to its name. It’s hard to spend a night here without getting the feeling you’re in a nouveau bomb shelter – apparently that’s half the attraction. And at least you’re encased with enough good wine and food to see you through ‘til peacetime. The restaurant has tasty but tiny dishes, so it’s advisable to order lots to share. Definitely make-or-break date territory; if you can negotiate dinner here, marriage and kids will be a breeze.
Mon-Sat 12pm-11pm, Sun 12pm-10.30pm
Food served: 12pm-10.30pm
Happy Hour: 5pm-7pm
Recommended dish: Sea bass fillet £6.50, House wine £10.50

The Fort St. George
Midsummer Common (01223) 354327
As soon as it gets dark The Fort turns on an array of lights bright enough that back in the day it would bring the (now sadly deceased) herd of Midsummer Common cows lumbering towards it like big, stupid-eyed moths. Although the cows have gone, the herd mentality lives on in the masses of people who congregate here in the summer to drink Stella and gawp at the river. In fairness, they have table football to practise your wrist action, and a nice big St. George cross to provide a warm patriotic glow and a perfect drunken challenge for anyone who wants to get hurt trying to climb a flagpole.
Food served: Mon-Wed 12pm-3pm/6pm-9pm, Thu 6pm-10pm,
Fri-Sat 12pm-10pm, Sun 12pm-5pm/7pm-9pm

The Pickerel
30 Magdalene Street (01223) 355068
An unashamedly earthy student pub, a fact that becomes glaringly obvious in May, when suddenly it’s full of intellectuals drowning their sorrows and staring blankly at half-finished dissertations in a smoke-filled room. If that doesn’t sound like good clean fun there’s a courtyard outside, where if you’re very lucky there’ll be a duck trying to nest in the hedge. Why? Who knows, but it seems to happen a lot. The Pickerel: a refuge for students, professors and bewildered wildlife.
Food served: Daily 12pm-8pm

Midsummer House
Midsummer Common (01223) 369299
Right next to the river and the Fort St George, and doing a roaring, if slightly pricey, trade in Sunday lunch. Just try not to worry about where the beef comes from now that the Midsummer Common cows have mysteriously disappeared.
Tue-Sat 12pm-2pm, 6pm-10pm
Recommended dish: Free range guinea fowl (2 courses £15), House wine £13.95