Tag: Norwich

I walk by this pub most days of the week, but I can’t recall the last time that I actually went into it. It’s a Craft Union pub, meaning that it’s sports led and has cheap drinks prices. There’s one particular Craft Union pub in Norwich, which is the Garden House, where the customer service is impeccable and the real ale selection one of the widest in the city. The excellent management at that pub has certainly improved my general image of the Craft Union brand.

In terms of its history, this is one of the few city centre pubs and it’s had an array of names over recent years, including Imagine, Chandlers, Wig & Pistle, Three Tuns, Mustard and Westlegate. As more people start to move into the new residential developments in the city centre I can imagine that trade will look up for venues such as this, it’s got a prime position. The pub was built in around 1937 and there’s an excellent photo of it on George Plunkett’s web-site which was taken in 1938. Then there’s a photo taken in 1936, which is of the previous building.

The only real ale available was Doom Bar, which doesn’t excite and delight me, so I went for John Smith’s instead. The service was polite and efficient, with the pricing being so low that I felt the need to get some crisps to go with it. The pub had something of a vibrant feel, but there was international football on the televisions and it all felt sufficiently safe and well managed (the pub, I have no idea about the football). I’m pleased to note that the drink and food pairing of John Smith’s and prawn cocktail crisps met my expectations.

Some of the pub’s decor and it does have a warm atmosphere, with everything feeling clean and well presented. There was only staff member, but she pro-actively and seem to spend her entire time serving, collecting glasses or cleaning.

The chain promotes their venues to be community pubs and I think that’s evident here. Some on-line reviews say that it’s an intimidating venue and there’s an inevitability that low drinks prices can engender that at times, but I thought matters seemed entirely in hand. I’d come here again, it might not offer the most exciting choice of real ales or craft beers, but it feels genuine and authentic.

Given that this building was formerly an architect’s office, it was decided to rename the Birdcage as the Drawing Rooms in 2022. It’s not the first time the pub has been renamed, it’s been the Pottergate Tavern, Brown Derby and Morning Star.

There was one real ale available and just generic keg beers. I don’t think the pub is too much engaged with drawing in (excuse the pun) beer drinkers, although it’s Greene King and so that’s hardly a surprise. They are pushing cocktails and I think that’s their main emphasis.

Being entirely honest I thought that there was a general absence of welcome with regards to the service, which is all a little unfortunate, but there we go. The pub was shortlisted for the Greene King Night of Excellence Awards 2023 a few months ago, so perhaps things are normally different.

They don’t appear to do food as that section of their web-site has every food menu item described as “I’m a dish description. Click Edit Menu to open the Restaurant Menu editor and change my text.”, which seems an odd thing for the management to have published. Currently all their food is listed at £9.99 including the onion rings, so I assume that’s a work in progress.

The pub was clean and tidy, although it all feels rather formulaic and as if it’s been rolled out by a restaurant chain. One recent reviewer has said that “it now looks like a strip club” and I do feel that it’s lost the charm and atmosphere that it had when it was the Birdcage. They have made an effort to put power points in for customers to use, which is very positive. The music was also too loud for my liking, given that we the only customers in this part of the pub, it hardly added much to the atmosphere. However, I get that I’m not the target audience here and I’ve run a pub where I wasn’t the target audience on some nights, so that’s fair enough, it’s about ensuring the core customers feel welcome.

The sole real ale choice was Pave the Way from Greene King and Big Hug Brewing. It was well kept, but it was bland and lacking in any depth of taste or flavour. This was a disappointing element, I would have expected two real ales to be available and preferably at least one not linked to Greene King.

In terms of the reviews, they’re mixed, a variety of people finding the music too loud and the service either being rude or indifferent. However, some customers love the cocktails and they do seem to have found their niche there and the owners are experienced given that they’re currently also operating the Wild Man and the Ten Bells.

As is likely evident, this pub isn’t really for me, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be. They seem to be after the 18-25 year old market and I can imagine that might be reasonably profitable for them, although it might take another refurbishment in a couple of years to keep it current and up-to-date. In positive terms though, the pub was clean and they’ve got power points.

James, my cultural guru friend, seems to have visited every location in Norwich and he’s familiar with the Maddermarket Theatre which is all a bit decadent for me. My last theatre visit was to see the comedian Tom Rosenthal at Norwich Playhouse and I can’t recall ever going to the Maddermarket Theatre before. The theatre itself is just over 100 years old, founded in 1921 by Walter Nugent Monck. As an aside, it’s a shame that people feel the need to tag graffiti on historic buildings, it’s a tragic waste of resources to have to remove them.

We were the only customers in the bar area who weren’t seeing a performance, making it all quiet and peaceful. The performance had started just before I took this photo, it had been busier before then.

Some sort of design elements on the wall.

The bar has a range of books visible underneath the Plexiglass, or whatever it’s called.

I didn’t realise until after ordering that they had some Adnams keg beers on, I’m not sure how I missed those but it is an oddly designed Adnams beer font so that’s the excuse I’ll have to use. I went for the generic and average Camden Hells Lager, which at least wasn’t hugely over-priced which was a positive. I don’t like these fiddly little glasses which make spillages more likely, but that’s a comment on Camden Town Brewery rather than the Maddermarket.

All told, I’m not sure that the bar is worth going out of the way for, but at least they’ve made an effort with some keg beers. The surroundings are laid-back and comfortable, with no evident sign of the huge fallout there has been recently at the theatre with staff and trustees leaving. I’m not sure what evident sign I had might have expected, perhaps a little bit of theatrical fighting at the entrance or something. Anyway, it was an inviting place to sit for an hour or so, and perhaps I might go and actually see something at the Maddermarket at some point.

I’ve been to Fupburger when they were located at the Dog House, but they’ve since moved to the Ten Bells and it’s the first time I’ve tried their food there. Monday night is certainly the best evening to pick as they have buy one get one free on the burgers, which is most agreeable. The chunky menu is available on large clipboards although customers need to order food separately from drink at the bar as the bar and kitchen operations are separate.

There’s arguably a slight element here of trying too hard with the decor, I’m personally not in the need of being bathed in neon lights but it was all clean and comfortable so no complaints. The set-up seems to be a good partnership as the Ten Bells isn’t usually that busy outside of weekend evenings, meaning they might as well use the empty space.

Unlike Brewdog’s generous burger deal, the arrangement here is that the buy one get one free only applies to the burger itself and so the add-ons have to be paid for on each burger. That’s fair enough, but to be thrifty we just went for the burger on this occasion.

To get the deal it’s necessary to order the same burger, even though they’re all the same price. After a very quick debate between us, the option of the Thug Lyfe with blue cheese, black pudding, streaky pancetta bacon and double American cheese seemed to be the one to go for. The burger is served in a demi brioche bun, which I think is a brioche with a glossy and firmer edge to it, but I liked its taste and texture. I couldn’t taste the blue cheese element as the black pudding element seemed to overpower it, but that was no bad thing. The firmness of the pieces of black pudding added texture and gave it a rich depth of taste, complementing the burger itself well. This was a very agreeable burger and the bacon added a final bit of extra flavour, meaning it was all meaty and tasty.

For completeness, I ordered half a pint of the Jester Brew 4, a well-kept pale ale made in Winchcombe from New Zealand hops.

At £5.50 each for the burger I was suitably impressed. The dining environment was clean and comfortable, without being too harsh and it was possible to escape from the neon. It wasn’t that busy, but we were there early evening and there was a steady flow of customers looking for their burger fix. The venue is struggling a little with their on-line reviews at the moment, but they seem to have been a bit unlikely and some of the reviewers have been seemingly just angry. An example is the:

“Run by jumped up entitled millennials that can’t ever admit to being in the wrong, even when that extends to loyal customers. Avoid.”

And the response from Fupburger is on point as far as I’m concerned:

“Thank you Karen”.

All told, I enjoyed this and it’s one of the best burgers that I’ve had in terms of the richness and depth of taste. It’s not cheap, but the prices are also not unreasonable and given the quality of the food it’s hard to be too disappointed. I suspect that I’ll be visiting again soon and I might treat myself to a side to go with the burger. Incidentally, James was the star of the show when he spent like what seemed about thirty minutes positioning his food and drink for his photo on Untappd…..

James and I were spending Monday evening visiting locations that we hadn’t been to, or it mostly transpired that I hadn’t been to since James seems to have been to every single restaurant and bar in Norwich. Definitely a latter day Alan Whicker, but his knowledge of venues was quite useful if I’m being honest as I had never heard of The Wallow despite it being here for some years.

In fairness for this post, The Wallow is primarily a wine bar and since I’m not much interested in that, I’d better caveat this post by noting that I’m aware I didn’t much test its main strengths.

The helpful staff member was about to excitedly explain how the wine system worked as it’s self-service by pre-loading a card with money. It’s an interesting concept and she only looked slightly disappointed when we ordered two halves of Meantime Anytime IPA. It’s a clean and comfortable location, the meat and cheese boards going out to other tables all looked suitably delicious. It’s certainly not the cheapest of venues, but I’m not sure that it was ever trying to be.

The beer tasted as expected, it was at the appropriate temperature and it was served in a clean branded glass, so everything was technically perfect there. There were a choice of two other beers so there were options at least for those who didn’t want wine.

The on-line reviews are mostly very positive, although one angry customer posted last year:

“robbery as ask and paid 15£ for a glass o bollinger rosé and was served a false champagne with liquor impossible to drink and got headache just look at color it was orange without bubble! i guess they did not want to open new bottle, no shame people thinking we will not notice. my white wine glass was dirty.”

It seems that the customer didn’t tell the staff at the time, which I would have thought was useful, and I note the venue’s rather annoyed response:

“If you had only mentioned something to a staff member during your brief visit we may have been able to remedy your concerns. I can assure you that you were served Bollinger Rosé, it is a slanderous statement that you have made.”

I like a bit of drama.

Obviously, as I’ve hinted at, this isn’t my kind of venue and it’s not targeted at me as a mostly non wine drinker, but I liked the efforts they had made with beer. The staff engaged in a personable manner and it felt a clean and welcoming environment. For those who enjoy their wines and like trying a few, this seems a perfectly agreeable venue to visit.