This week’s visit, in between James signing autographs as we walked to the market, of eating at every food stall at Norwich Market was to Bodega, which was the ‘winner’ of when we did this in 2023. We’re struggling to fit lunch in now at all with James needing to stop to talk to all these middle-class people we pass, it’s gotten so bad I’ve had to start wearing a shirt with a collar to blend in with this whole world of wealth that I hadn’t known about. Anyway, I digress. This seems to be one of the most talked about food stalls on the market and the standards have remained high for years, so we were looking forwards to this visit.
The menu and there are many tempting options. I’m aware that I should have tried something different, but pastrami and pickles are one of my favourite things, so I went for the same again and was pleased that James showed a little more culinary bravery. As a price comparison, the Bring Back the Katz is now £9 and was £7.50 a couple of years ago, so it’s not an enormous price increase. The service was polite, efficient and welcoming, so this continued to feel like an inviting place to visit. I also liked that they had stickers, it suits my inner child and that’s going on the laptop later alongside the selection of craft beer stickers. They accept card and cash and there’s a small seating area located opposite the stall.
This looks, and indeed was, delicious. There was a large quantity of the ingredients, the pastrami was tender, the pickles added texture, the sauce was light with a slight punchiness and the bread was soft and fresh. To be honest, half a sandwich was plenty, although being greedy I wasn’t displeased to have to eat another half. All very nice and although it’s a little expensive for a sandwich, there’s a lot going on here for the money.
James went for the Coq Joke and was suitably impressed by the quality of the chicken and the size of the portion, although I think he found it just a little sickly with the sweet sauce. But, there’s still value for money there, with the ingredients being decent. James also took a Good Girls sticker, I’m not sure where he’s planning to stick it.
Once again, I couldn’t really fault this visit. The service was friendly, the ordering process was well managed, the quality was high and the portion size was generous. This is definitely one of the market’s consistently excellent stalls and long may it continue…. Only a handful of visits left now and we’ve started to discuss who the winner will be, my two loyal blog readers must be beyond themselves with excitement.