Café Clarkes

When it opened 18 months ago, Clarkes Restaurant raised the bar for fine dining in Peterborough. Now, they’re bringing that same passion to a new, bistro-style restaurant at the Key Theatre

Having established a formidable reputation as head chef at Cley Hall Hotel – building on experience working with the Roux brothers and Marco Pierre-White – Lee Clarke has long been recognised as a force to be reckoned with. When he opened Clarkes Restaurant in Peterborough in 2011, it was a game- changer for the city’s culinary landscape. Offering a sophisticated take on traditional British dishes using locally-sourced ingredients, it has attracted rave reviews, becoming Peterborough’s highest rated restaurant in the 2013 Michelin guide.

Now, Clarkes is branching out to reach a whole new audience.

About eight months ago, I heard there was an opportunity to open a restaurant at the Key Theatre, I jumped at the chance, and convinced Dinesh Odedra – the other owner of the business – to go for it

explains partner and head chef Lee.

Café Clarkes – essentially a less formal, bistro version of the flagship restaurant –opens in mid- May, after a six week shut-down and refurbishment. “It’s going to have a brand new style and be completely re-themed,” says Lee. “Very much a Danish kind of feel, with light oak, greys, neutral colours – something to really complement those big windows and natural light.”

Lee promises a friendly, warm atmosphere where people can simply go out and enjoy themselves and let their hair down – a little different from the more formal experience at Clarkes.

We wanted it to feel a bit more like the River Café – very relaxed, by the river, where the ingredients speak for themselves

The menu itself follows the same principles established at Clarkes – modern British food, with the finest local ingredients – but with a few new twists.

You’ll see triple-cooked chips on there – and we’ve never done chips at Clarkes main restaurant – with fish and chips, steaks and so on. But also it’ll be using the best of what we’ve got around us locally, so there’ll be Brancaster oysters, Cromer crabs, Colchester oysters. We’ll be getting all of our pork meat from Grasmere, and we’ve found a really good local beef supply. So, it’ll give it all a good local, seasonal flavour. The food will not be as technical or complicated as the food we put on the plate at Clarkes, which means we can also offer it at a lower price