walk through the door at the Oak Bistro, you forget the noise outside and melt into the calm of a white-walled interior adorned with clean and soft wooden furnishings. Move deeper into the chic serenity that owner Phillip Newman has created and there's a more formal section with cotton-porcelain table clothes and dainty little flowers in jars. Over to the left and through a pair of French windows you emerge into an oasis-like walled garden, perfect for al fresco dining. Same location, multiple settings - very clever.

The menu is 'bistro' in its approach, just seven starters, seven main courses and five puddings but is 'modern British' in its execution. Old favourites like English asparagus with hollandaise and parmesan jostle for the inside lane with current fads - including the slow-roasted belly of pork with apple compote and mild mustard which we ate as a starter. Whilst presentation was lacking the flavour of the dish was all there - soft meltingly tender pork, off-set by a sweet compote and zingy mustard.

We then set about our main courses. And when we say 'set about' we mean it, because the dinosaur-sized portions we were faced with were a little intimidating. The Oak Bistro is clearly a place where you won't leave hungry. Again, the presentation appeared slapdash but we needed little encouragement to work our way through smoked haddock with bubble and squeak that was topped with a poached egg and a mustard hollandaise; as well as salted cod with chive mash and a parsley sauce. Their interiors opaque and perfectly cooked, the fish slipped down a treat, but the sheer quantity of starch on both dishes had us defeated. We were so full that neither of us could manage deserts, which is rather like a nun missing mass on a Sunday.

Whilst the restaurant has space for up to seventy-four (thirty of these in the garden) booking is certainly advisable, especially at weekends and without doubt if you want to reserve a place outside. If you don't fancy the evening a la carte menu, there is a cheaper set lunch option, and also a traditional roast dinner on a Sunday.

Cambridge needs a vibrant, local, independent eatery to challenge the high street. The Oak Bistro has the potential to become a firm favourite within the local food scene. Take a walk out of the city centre and visit it.