The EDP phoned me up today for some words of blogging food banter regarding all the bars, restaurants and cafes in Norwich City Centre – –
That’s got me thinking – there’s tons of em
When I first moved down here from London we missed the choice of eateries – in London me and my hubby had a Sunday food club, we were the only members with us trying a different restaurant every Sunday from a choice of Time Out recommendations. We explored Sri Lankan Egg hoppers in south London, Tall orders in Putney, a place where they served tapas style dishes in bamboo steamers stacked up making a tall order. We went to Michelin stared venues, turned up to Bibendums in Nicks work van (parked it around the corner), treated ourselves to Michael Caine’s (I only wanted to blow the bloody doors off) notoriously lavish Caine’s restaurant for some expensive delicious nosh – it wasn’t all expensive fodder we went back street Thai café, Japanese noodle bars in basements and even south Indian buffets down Drummond Street. We eat our way through London. London was out foodie oyster.
So when we moved to Norwich we struggled a bit to find choice, quality, great service and fulfilling eating places we wanted to go back too. We even found ourselves driving up to get an Okabasi in Stoke Newington (Turkish coal char-grilled kebabs & salads) and on several occasions we popped up to Brick Lane to get fresh Sunday morning bagels.
A wedding, two children, renovating houses, a holiday barn business and two cookery schools later we find ourselves in very tasty satisfying times, with a whole host of Norwich scrummy cafes, restaurants and bars. The service still hasn’t hit the heights of an Egon Rooney London joint but its greatly improved.
Variation is my foody joy so proper Mexican (Jive), street food vendors, south Indian Bel Poori’s (Namastie), vegan market stall (Bia), wood fired pizzas (Brick), basement wine bars (the Wallow), cocktails on sofas, seven flavours of chicken wings in backstreet madness (Gonzos), afternoon tea next to a stuffed fox (Biddys), scrabble with middle Eastern tapas (The Workshop), oak smoked brisket & collard greens (Dray-yard), falafel over looking man cuts (Moorish), five pound squid (Grosvenor fish bar), gelato made that day with a camomile tea (Café Gelato) – – – blimey I could go on and what’s more none of these independent foodie bite places existed when we first moved to Norwich.
Not to mention Cocktails – for over 20 years I’ve been passionate about cocktails, doing a course on them, teaching them in my teacher training exam, adding over 100 recipes to Cookery Club and indulging in them since a teen – – back in the day when the only other person consuming them was ‘Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses’ – I got laughed at. I’ve even asked barmen to mix me something delish from my cocktail mind, when everyone else drank Bacardi and Coke! But NOW – people can’t get enough of them – Norwich is East Anglia’s Cocktail central. Dozens of bars and restaurants are offering up fantastic blends of creamy, fruity, minty or blow your head off smooth mixes using quality ingredients.
My favourite cocktail places are Gonzo’s, The Rooftop Gardens and Lust and Liquor. But I still need to work my way around a few more – TAXI!
So Hello Norwich – – – will it carry on – – YES
Is Norwich a food destination – – definitely YES
Are we saturated with food at every turn – – No, people come from all over to shop here, it’s like locals, villages, towies and tourists are following the Easter Star to city hall and branching out to explore all the food we have on offer. Places are packed – tills are popping & people are rubbing their tummy’s in pure pleasure.
Cheers Norwich – – – EAT Norwich – – – Love Norwich Food – www.lovenorwichfood.co.uk
Gander at our directory for some independent food places