Food from Every Stall on Norwich Market (2025 Edition) – Week 8 and Henry’s Hog Roast
Next on our project of visiting every food stall at Norwich Market for the second time was Henry’s Hog Roast. Last time I did this, it was Nathan and I who visited this stall back in 2023 and it did surprise and delight me at the time. I’m not the normal consumer here, I don’t like crackling, I don’t often eat pork and I had the expectations before of a fatty roll that wasn’t inspiring. On our 2023 visit, my fears weren’t realised and I rather enjoyed the food.
On this occasion, I wasn’t overly excited when we randomly drew out this stall, but James was much keener on the whole arrangement as he sometimes tries to overturn the random stall that we’ve selected (but I’m tough, I never cave in). This time, there was a short queue to be served but the team member was efficient and we didn’t have much of a wait. As an aside, I understand that when we visited before we were served by the then owner, Neil Bowman, and he was enthusiastic and keen. Since that visit, he has left the stall and it has been taken over by new operators.
The menu has expanded a little since we last visited in 2023, although when James tried to order the hog roasted tatties they didn’t have them. The price of the roll has gone up only 50p in over two years, with the addition of a new larger option.
The pork ready to be sliced. I went for a white roll which included apple sauce and stuffing with the pork. I refused the crackling and asked if James could have it, but they rejected that which feels a little sub-optimal, but there we go. Next time, I’ll do what I did before with Nathan and just accept it and take it off myself. The service was otherwise friendly and they accept cards and cash, although they state that they prefer the latter. The team member was efficient and they’ve got the service down to a fine art here.
OK, I’m not going to hide around this opinion, this didn’t really meet my expectations although I suppose every winning streak has to come to an end. The pork was fattier than I’d like it, but I set the bar hopelessly low there and so it would be unfair to be critical that there was some fattiness to the arrangement. But, more hard to hide was that the taste was bland and the stuffing was served as such a small portion that it wasn’t discernible. The apple sauce could have been more generous, but the pork desperately needed something more and stuffing would have likely done that. The team member did put pepper and salt on the food (although very little, I would have rather done this myself), but I was struggling to taste this as the pork over-powered it. That meant that the roll was a little dry and lacking in flavour for my liking, although credit is due and I’ll note that they didn’t skimp on the portion size of the pork.
James went for a tiger roll which he said wasn’t just as firm as you might expect, but that it was also a little stale. That made his roll more challenging as it had the same problems of being dry. I won’t give his comments in full (some lunch-related sorrows are private) as I might usually, but he was disappointed as he remembered the stall from years ago when the portions of stuffing and apple sauce were as he recalls rather more generous.
I don’t intend to be negative, but this blog is full of tens and tens of positive visits and so it’d be wrong to mention when I wasn’t surprised and delighted as the roll verged on being, well, a bit arid. On an unrelated note, the local pigeons seemed particularly enthusiastic about sharing our meal, but we were very brave in fending the bloody things off. Ending on a positive, there seemed to be a regular trade here, so they’ve obviously getting a lot right, I think I was just a little disappointed that this wasn’t as good as when I visited before.
