Food from Every Stall on Norwich Market (2025 Edition) – Week 9 and Jacket Spuds & More

This week’s attempt to eat at every food stall at Norwich Market is Jacket Spuds & More, which we visited last time we embarked on this same project in 2023. Incidentally, for anyone thinking that we’ve done three visits this week, we have as I’ve been away which has disrupted our dining schedule no end. Since we made our last visit, jacket potatoes have undergone something of a revolution in this country and that’s to a large part down to social media. Operating from his van in Tamworth, Spudman has become something of a viral sensation and he’s been able to build up a large regular trade on the back of that. Following this have been numerous other retailers trying similar things and even Subway got into the action when they started to sell jacket potatoes in a trial that was launched a couple of months ago. I’m not sure whether that trend has impacted this stall on Norwich market, but I’m impressed at how many toppings that they offer here.

The service from the two team members was friendly and I think that they thought I was nervous in ordering, when I was just faffing about deciding what to have. There is a wide variety of choices including jacket potatoes, sandwiches, toasties, breakfasts and omelettes. The reason for my delay is I was debating having something different to a jacket potato, but I decided in the end to stick with that as I’m sometimes not very adventurous. It was clear how to order (unlike last time when we got muddled up) and the whole service was efficient and helpful, with the team members checking if we wanted a drink or anything else with the food. The stall accepts card and cash, with the prices having gone up around £1 an item over the last two years.

I opted for the jacket potato with chicken curry and no butter, which was £6. That heap of black pepper on the top is me and not them, I’ve made that look worse presented than when it was handed to me. I’m not usually one to opt for a jacket potato when dining out (pizzas make quite an appearance though), but this whole arrangement did surprise and delight me. The jacket of the potato was crispy, the inside retained some firmness but was cooked through and the chicken curry was plentiful and actually had some reasonable sized pieces of chicken in it. There was sufficient curry sauce for the amount of potato, with the portion size in general feeling generous.

After standing about taking photos from odd angles, James started to eat the beef chilli jacket potato with extra cheese added that he’d ordered and he noted:

“During a recent midday peregrination through Norwich, serendipity led me to partake of a rather exemplary tubercule en chemise. This was no quotidian spud, but a specimen of discernible, superlative provenance, its preparation evincing considerable culinary adroitness: the integument crisped to perfection, the interior exquisitely fluffy, and the whole presented with commendable aesthetic fastidiousness at an eminently suitable thermal point. Crowning this farinaceous marvel was a generous impartation of piquant bovine concoction – a beef chilli of satisfying depth – further embellished by a liberal cascade of molten caseous adornment. The resultant gustatory experience, an agreeable amalgamation of textures and flavours, represented remarkably judicious expenditure considering the modest pecuniary outlay. One departed thoroughly gratified by this unexpectedly sophisticated rendition of humble fare, acknowledging the substantial contentment derived from its consumption.”

In short, he liked it, even though he managed to spill some on his trousers, nearly choke halfway through and have chats with about ten people he knew. Talk about a social butterfly.

All told, I thought that this was a really decent visit that was really most lovely. The service was polite, the potato and the topping had a depth of flavour, there were a range of textures and it felt like value for money.