How to book Midsummer House

Midsummer House sits in a Victorian villa on Midsummer Common in Cambridge, with its back to the River Cam and cattle grazing on the common in front². Daniel Clifford opened the restaurant in 1998, and after floods in 1999 and 2000 damaged the cellar and ground floor, the building was rebuilt and refurbished with a larger kitchen². It gained a first Michelin star in 2002 and a second in 2004, and it also lists five AA rosettes². Michelin's inspectors describe a kitchen "not afraid to push the boundaries"⁴.

The cooking is modern British and built on seasonal produce. There is no à la carte: guests eat a surprise set menu that changes regularly, and the staff bring out the dishes one by one and introduce each of them^1,2. Four set menus are offered, from the Trinity Menu at £135 to the Grand Siècle Solstice Menu at £285 per person, which starts with a glass of Laurent-Perrier Champagne^1,3. A vegetarian menu is available but a vegan one is not, and dietary needs have to be given when booking³. Each course can be matched with wine or with a non-alcoholic pairing, and there is a full wine list as well².

Meals are served in a conservatory dining room with a window onto the kitchen, so diners can watch Clifford's team at work; a private dining room is upstairs². Time Out's 2025 review describes guests being walked past the glass-walled kitchen into the conservatory⁵. The restaurant opens Wednesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, with extra Sunday openings in December, and its reservation calendar opens three months ahead, on the 1st of each month at 09:00¹.