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Norwich Market (2025 Edition) – The Results!!!!

32 weeks of eating and drinking at Norwich market are over for James and I…… The most obvious comment I can make here is that there is a remarkable choice of food and drink at the market all from small scale operators with nearly all of them having this as their only trading location.

There are some great value options here, lots of different cuisines and no shortage of wonderful food and welcoming service. It has been hugely problematic to find a winner to all of this as there were so many brilliant options available. Nonetheless, we’ve managed to select five (well, six for the observant) of our favourite choices of this year.

The full list of stalls is here and I’d recommend people try somewhere new as I have often been surprised and delighted this year.

So, in reverse order to build excitement. This is the list that absolutely no-one really cares about, but James and I aren’t worried about that, we’ve had a lovely time meandering around the market. We still can’t navigate our way around with any ease though, frequently having to hunt for where stalls are.

And finally, I don’t take anything very seriously and also not this, but I’ve decided to just write about our five favourite places (well, actually six). We have had long debates about who should win, it’s all very exciting. And remember that I don’t get out much.

I’d also note that I’ve tried to be hugely positive about every stall and that was easy in just about every case. A couple of times things weren’t quite right and I’ve made reference to that, but every single location at the market deserves a visit and we know that sometimes people have an off-day or something goes wrong. We do know that these businesses are hugely important to their owners and I hope it comes across that we’ve always respected that above all else.

5TH PLACE

DEBS – https://www.julianwhite.uk/food-from-every-stall-on-norwich-market-2025-edition-week-10-and-debs/

That is perfect bacon for me, crispy and cooked just as I requested. But, the service here was friendly and engaging, it felt welcoming. For James, he had a burger and had a side quest that he hadn’t intended of seeing which stall was the best in that regard. He decided that Deb’s was the best burger he had of the year. That’s huge praise.

4TH PLACE

LUCYS FISH AND CHIPS – https://www.julianwhite.uk/food-from-every-stall-on-norwich-market-2025-edition-week-12-and-lucys-fish-and-chips/

Just look at that, truly beautiful! Friendly service, reasonable prices and delicious. I miss the butchers sausages that they used to use, but the quality remains high and I love the free scraps. There’s an eat-in area here, it’s somewhere that James and I have visited for years and it’s a simply wonderful stall.

3RD PLACE

CRUNCH – https://www.julianwhite.uk/food-from-every-stall-on-norwich-market-2025-edition-week-20-and-crunch/

There are some challenges with this stall as it’s shut more than is ideal and we had to try multiple times to order here. However, the food of battered chicken was excellent, tender meat with a crispy exterior and all at low prices. It’s excellent value for money and I hope they start opening a little more regularly.

JOINT 2ND PLACE

CHURROS FOR THE PEOPLE – https://www.julianwhite.uk/food-from-every-stall-on-norwich-market-2025-edition-week-17-and-churros-for-the-people/

Joint second? Yes, we just couldn’t decide. This stall offers an authentic Spanish experience and a chance to sit in and experience beer and food which is of a high quality. It’s not the cheapest, but the quality is high, the service is friendly and it feels like it’s something different.

JOINT 2ND PLACE

BODEGA – https://www.julianwhite.uk/food-from-every-stall-on-norwich-market-2025-edition-week-25-and-bodega/

This was our winner when we did this in 2023 and it was up there once again. Hugely friendly service, great food, a wonderful atmosphere and free stickers. Just brilliant and look at that pastrami.

WINNER

PAPA MOMBASSA – https://www.julianwhite.uk/food-from-every-stall-on-norwich-market-2025-edition-week-22-and-papa-mombassa/

I was disappointed that Cocina had left the market, but this is one hell of a replacement in their place. Wonderfully engaging service, a fun environment and food which had a depth of taste and flavour. This, we thought, was the best of the year when taking everything into account such as service, price, quality and atmosphere. Really very lovely!

And, we’ll be doing all of this again in 2027…..

October 2, 2025
Norwich Market (2025 Edition) – Week 32 and Rabbits Salad Bar

There was a query why we hadn’t visited Rabbits Salad Bar at Norwich Market as part of our quest to eat at every food stall at the market. It has only just opened and so when checking on the status on another stall, we visited this today.

The interior was bright, clean and had a modern feel to it. The queueing system seemed logical and the signage was clear.

The menu board.

The counter. The service here was one of the best that we’ve had at the market, with the team member being engaging, personable and helpful.

This cost £5 as I didn’t add any protein to it, so the price feels reasonable. The salad felt freshly made and the ingredients tasted of a decent quality. I usually load food with black pepper, but there was a generous sprinkling on the salad and that’s visible in the photo. The dressing had a pleasant flavour and the jammy egg had some vibrancy to it.

Not that I should confess these things too often as it’ll destroy my reputation, but two of the things that I eat a lot when given the chance are Greek salad and Caesar salad. This was in line with what I expected, it wasn’t the taste sensation that I’ve had before (there’s more to be done with the sauce and croutons), but it was £5 and it’s not really fair to compare it to restaurants. I possibly should have had chicken to go with it, but the uplift of £5 for chicken thigh was just a little rich for me.

James forgot to take a photo of his kimchi which is sub-optimal, but he was impressed with that, although he’s not really one for the salad leaves that he found at the bottom of his bowl. But, that’s hardly the fault of a salad bar. And James is planning to draw his lunch later for me.

This is a really positive addition to the market, with the service being particularly friendly and engaging. There’s a lack of options like this at the market, so I’m sure that the stall will do well. And if I see that they’ve got a Greek salad available, then I’ll quite likely pop back and try that.

October 1, 2025
Norwich Market (2025 Edition) – Buka Street (Permanently Closed)

I had thought that our series of eating at Norwich Market food stalls had come to an end, but there are a couple of additions. I’ve been asked why Buka Street was missed off our visits. It wasn’t forgotten, but it was closed when we tried to visit it on multiple occasions.

As I was asked about it, we visited today just to check, but it’s still closed. They’ve also now deleted all of their Instagram posts and so I assume this stall is now permanently closed. I will though change this page if I see them open and I must admit to being disappointed not to have had a chance to try their food which did look rather lovely.

October 1, 2025
Vaduz – Consilium Sculpture

I thought that this sculpture in Vaduz looked interesting, it’s something rather different to looking at generals on horsebacks celebrating their military conquests. It sits rather quietly between the Parliament and Government buildings and it was designed to mark the 100th anniversary of Liechtenstein’s constitution in 2021.

I think that the aim is to show people listening to each other as part of the democratic process. It was designed by Heinz P. Nitzsche (1954-) and he has numerous works located around Liechtenstein. Speaking generally, he said:

“It is important to me to stimulate a critical examination of current social processes with my work, which ultimately leads to a positive impulse. I am deeply convinced that we as human beings can only overcome the challenges of today’s world together, and not in selfish isolation. Nevertheless, each individual plays a fundamental role within the group.”

Very uplifting.

October 1, 2025
Liechtenstein – Liechtensteiner Brauhaus

When Richard demands a brewery visit, he gets a brewery visit and that’s where we went on our expedition to Liechtenstein. This was my first drink in what was a new country to me, so I was rather excited to see what the set-up would be like.

The interior was bright, modern and on-trend and it was clear that a large investment has been made here. It felt like a welcoming environment and my first impressions were very positive.

The service was though bloody dreadful (not the lady in the photo). The server was male and angry, harrumphing about the tables spreading misery and unhappiness. He was so appalling that I thought it was moderately amusing and I made a determined effort to build up a rapport with him and I think he definitely softened by the end. I think that the server had wanted us to order food, but the venue was relatively quiet and not all tables were ordering food, so just having beers didn’t seem unreasonable.

Richard had been craving a delicious fresh orange juice and he wasn’t entirely surprised and delighted to see it being poured out of a carton. I didn’t have any issues with that as I was distracted with this marvellous looking tasting board. This is one of the best presentations that I’ve seen with the little cards detailing what each of the beers were.

I thought that the selection had some slightly average beers, some decent ones and some very good ones. Particular mention to the Club Bier 05 White IPA, which was slightly decadent, smooth with a taste of fruit and honey. A white IPA isn’t a beer style that I see a lot and it had a real depth of flavour. The Pils Spezialbier was also rather agreeable, it was a Pilsner and so not my usual beer style, but it was clean, well balanced and hoppy. I very much enjoyed trying all of the beers and ensuring that they were promptly listed on Untappd.

There’s an area of the brewery which has a little shop and Richard was disappointed to see that the beer he wanted was unavailable. It was all nicely set-up and arranged, it all felt quite American in terms of the layout and design, which in craft beer bar terms is praise as far as I’m concerned.

Overall, I really liked it here and would merrily return. I’m really not sure about the service, but I wasn’t going to let anyone spoil this visit which was far better than I had anticipated. I think it’s also fair to say that it must be one of the country’s best bars…..

October 1, 2025
Imst – Cafira

Yeah, that’ll do.

I don’t appear to have taken many photos of this lovely cafe, but there was a friendly welcome and the venue seemed spotlessly clean. Richard and I weren’t sure where to order, but they worked around our probably wrong decision to order at the counter. There was then table service and I was looking forwards to the cake that I hadn’t realised I needed until they upsold it.

The coffee was rich and pleasant in flavour and I’ve rather forgotten exactly what was in the cake as it’s taken me so long to write up. I do know that it was moist and seemed freshly made, with the strawberry on top showing just how healthy it was.

We didn’t really have time to visit Imst which is an Austrian town in the state of Tyrol. Imst is perhaps best known for being home to the Schemenlauf, one of Europe’s oldest and most elaborate carnival parades, dating back over 400 years. It only takes place every four years (the next one is in 2028), and features hundreds of masked participants performing traditional dances and rituals symbolising the struggle between winter and spring. It’s now listed by UNESCO on their Intangible Cultural Heritage List.

October 1, 2025
Memmingen – Site of Former Synagogue

This is the site of the former synagogue in Memmingen, with the footprint partly marked out on the ground.

This is what it looked like, the area marked out on the floor is the little section at the rear of the synagogue building (not the large building at the rear), jutting out to the right.

There’s a memorial here now with some information about the former synagogue. There was a Jewish population in the medieval period, but they were forced out and persecuted, with many being burned to death. The first Jew to receive citizenship in Memmingen was in 1862 and a small community developed which was around 100 people by the mid 1870s and then it reached 230 by the end of the nineteenth century. A synagogue was opened in 1909, although the Jewish population had already started to fall by them, it was 161 in 1933.

The Jewish community was badly hit by the anti-Semitic laws introduced by the Nazis and that caused real economic pain for what was a population largely involved in textile production in the city. The Nazis destroyed the synagogue in 1938 and looted the properties of numerous Jewish residents, but more on that later in this post.

The number of Jews had fallen to 100 by 1939, with the community being liquidated in 1942 and the residents sent to concentration camps in Germany and Poland. The post-war population of Jews was around 125 of nearly entirely those who returned from the concentrations camps, but this community nearly entirely all left with the Jewish population being a grand total of two in the late 1960s.

A plan of the synagogue. I mentioned that the synagogue was destroyed and that took place on Kristallnacht (the 8 to 9 October 1938) which was part of a wave of national hatred and violence towards Jews. The whole thing was made even worse by the involvement of local schoolchildren and their teachers in the destruction of the building and numerous residents had joyous photos taken in the ruins of the synagogue after its destruction. The demolition crew took a week to remove the demolition rubble after TNT was used to destroy what remained, with numerous of these workers wearing hats they had found inside the synagogue. 23 Jewish homes were also damaged in the night’s violence, there was almost no limit to the hate that was shown to the community.

Most of the site of the former synagogue is now built on, but at least a corner section is kept as a memorial to not just the building, but to the destruction of a community. At the time of the 1933 census the city’s Jewish population was just 1% of the 15,000 people who lived in Memmingen. The political leaders were able to ensure that so many people focused so much hate on this 1% that they were not just forced out, but were mostly murdered and treated in such a way that nearly none of them felt that their post-war home was in Germany.

October 1, 2025
Norwich – Norwich City Wall Damaged

This is a little sub-optimal, someone has driven into Norwich City Wall near to where Carrow Bridge joins King Street. It’s not entirely clear to me how a car has managed to miss the road which is quite clearly marked out, but there we go.

I’ve seen a few online comments suggesting that the wall is somehow wrecked forever in this spot after centuries of standing there. Not that knocking it down is ideal, but I think the reality is that at this spot near the road they’ve taken these stones out and put them back so many times over the centuries that it’s unlikely to make much difference. It’s an interesting chance to see the way that the wall is constructed, which mostly seems to consist of flint, rubble and hope.

I’ve noticed many Norwich various historic walls being taken down for professional repair which seems to involve taking most of the stones out and putting them back again in a different order. A little of the Ship of Theseus going on, or Trigger’s Broom which is perhaps a better example.

The city council is apparently arranging repairs, so it’ll likely look as good as new again soon enough. Then hopefully it won’t be knocked down again.

October 1, 2025
Flirsch – Parish Fair (Video 2)

And the second video filmed from my hotel balcony of the parish fair which was held in Richard’s honour. I was surprised that I didn’t see him being carried on the shoulders of the local residents, but he doesn’t like to be showy.

September 30, 2025
Flirsch – Parish Fair (Video 1)

This was nice, the locals were so excited by Richard’s arrival in their town that they held a parish fair in his honour.

September 30, 2025